Pei Qian coughed lightly. “So do you have ideas in mind about how to make an intelligent voice assistant?”
Chang You was confused. “Uh… Boss Pei, what do you mean by ‘idea’?”
“Pineapple cell phones also have these intelligent voice assistants; Shenhua Corporation and the other companies must also be thinking of developing their own intelligent voice assistants, right?” Pei Qian explained.
“We definitely cannot be very much faster than other domestic companies even if we are a little faster. This is a technology from Xunke Technologies after all. Everyone can use it.
“So how can we ensure that our intelligent voice assistant can stand out from the rest?”
Chang You was stunned. “Uh…
“Boss Pei, I’m afraid that is very hard to achieve in a short time.
“The vast majority of companies should be directly using the ready-made technology of Xunke Technologies. We do not have any accumulation of experience in this aspect. Even if we optimize some details, it is impossible to start with other companies in a short time.
“Moreover, the current voice assistants might be called ‘artificial intelligence’, but the actualized workflow is ‘recognizing voices, judging what it means, and executing operations’—that was… judging the user’s intentions through some keywords but could not really understand the meaning of it.
“To make a voice assistant good to use would be physical work to a certain extent rather than technical work.
“Therefore, even if we worked hard on development, it is impossible to open a big gap with other companies practically.
“Or… Boss Pei, do you have a better idea?”
Pei Qian smiled. “If you don’t consider the technical aspects, there are many things that could be done to make it unique.
“For example, its character.”
Chang You was stunned for a moment. “Character? Boss Pei, as I just said, this voice assistant doesn’t really understand the meaning of our words.”
Pei Qian nodded. “I know, ‘character’ is just a type of packaging.
“If I’m not mistaken, the intelligent voice assistant produced by Xunke Technologies should be very sweet and polite and try to imitate a natural human voice?”
Chang You nodded. “Y-Yes. Can it be made into anything else?”
Pei Qian. “Of course.”
“Make AEEIS into a purely electronic mechanical sound without any emotion. Moreover, all answers should be extremely concise—no extra words.”
Chang You froze for a moment. “But, Boss Pei, that will make our voice assistant look particularly dumb.
“If AEEIS answers the users in a particularly concise way, the user may not be able to react, or he might not have heard it so he would ask it again. It would look very dumb if the same answer was given twice.
“It would seem even more stupid if it was said in a pure mechanical voice.
“The other voice assistants basically applied some ready-made, recorded sentence patterns, so that… on the one hand, it would give users time to respond, and on the other hand, it could appear more natural and intelligent.
“For example, when a user asks ‘what’s the temperature tomorrow’, the existing method is to automatically identify keywords and answer: ‘Hello, we have inquired about tomorrow’s weather conditions for you, tomorrow will be sunny, XX to XX degrees, wind speed is etc., etc.’
“The assistants would appear smarter with more information.
“To do what Boss Pei—you said, would be to directly answer: XX to XX degrees.
“If the user does not hear clearly, they will ask again, and AEEIS will directly answer XX degrees to XX degrees, which will make people feel very rigid and idiotic.”
Pei Qian thought for a while: “Well… this seems to be a problem.
“Well, let’s do it this way. If the user asks the same question twice, just answer it in another way.
“For example, if the user asks how the temperature will be tomorrow, the first time they answer is XX to XX degrees, and for the second time, they will answer: ‘XX to XX degrees. You just asked this question. Do you want directions to the nearest hospital to check if you have problems that may be affecting your hearing or memory?’ ”
Chang You was stunned. “Boss-Boss Pei, we cannot insult our users…”
Pei Qian smiled slightly: “How can this be an insult? This is clearly expressing concern for our users.
“AEEIS is an erudite and easy-going intelligent voice assistant. It can’t swear. It will only answer users’ questions very honestly and will express ‘concern’ for users from time to time.
“This highlights the character of AEEIS: it is a very smart intelligent voice system because it is too smart so it only answers the questions you ask—very direct and very simple.
“Moreover, it is also because it is so smart… that if you ask it the same question repeatedly, it will think you are stupid and propose ‘kindness and care’.
“Wouldn’t that make it unique from the other systems?”
Chang You’s mouth opened slightly, his expression confused and his body not reacting for some time.
He could feel something not very right—something was very, very wrong!
“Then… Boss Pei, should I use a male voice or a female voice for AEEIS? How about finding a good voice actor to dub it?”
Pei Qian just wanted to say ‘a horrible male voice’, but after another thought, he felt wrong.
The lesson learned from Game Designer!
At that time, Lu Mingliang dubbed it, but something went wrong. Until now, many players still regard that cheap male voice as a classic.
Then, a female voice?
No, with this kind of erudite and easy-going personality, it may attract countless fans and become a virtual idol debut on the spot.
Pei Qian thought about it for a while. “An electronic voice that is indistinguishable.”
There should be no problem with a gender-neutral voice, right?
Chang You was very lost. He quickly noted down everything in his little notebook, but he did not feel it was reliable at all.
However, they should still do it since Boss Pei already said it.
They could still change it if the effect wasn’t desirable.
Pei Qian continued, “By the way, you are thinking of making a smart speaker for it?
“In other words, in addition to the OTTO cell phone, is this smart speaker also to be installed on it?”
Chang You nodded. “Yes, Boss Pei.
“As far as I know, there are some other companies that are also doing similar projects.
“There must be a speaker since it is an intelligent voice.
“Since there is a speaker, a Bluetooth speaker will be the most practical. This is a normal business idea.”
Pei Qian shook his head. “This idea is too common!
“We make speakers because the others are making them so we can only compare the parameters and appearance of the speakers, which is meaningless.”
“I think we should give it a soul and become an art.”
Chang You’s ears prickled. “Soul? Art? Boss Pei, can you explain more?”
Pei Qian coughed lightly: “Infuse this smart speaker and the Fully-Automated Bickering Machine together to make an AEEIS-artificial-intelligence Fully-Automated Bickering Machine!”
Chang You: “Huh?”
He thought he heard it wrongly.
The Fully-Automated Bickering Machine… wasn’t that the art design by Boss Pei previously?
That square black box that would automatically bounce when someone pressed the metal stick?
Infuse the smart speaker with this?
That definitely did not go well together!
Chang You was really shocked this time. This requirement was too crazy even if one regarded the previous requirements as reasonable!
“Boss Pei, please rethink it!” Chang You blurted out.
“I also bought one Fully-Automated Bickering Machine. It is indeed very thought-provoking and has profound philosophical meaning, but the space inside has basically been taken up, right?
“It is impossible to stuff a smart speaker in it!
“If you want to make these two things together, it means that the Fully-Automated Bickering Machine has to be redesigned and reproduced.
“But a lot of the original Fully-Automated Bickering Machine had been sold. All that wanted to buy it would have bought it. The new version would definitely not be easy to sell!
“The fully-automated bickering machine sells for 488 yuan. This smart speaker has to be sold at… at least 300 yuan. That would add up to 800 yuan—which is too expensive.
“Who would be willing to buy the Fully-Automated Bickering Machine again?
“The most important thing is that these two things have nothing to do with each other.”
Pei Qian was silent for a while. “There is… a connection.
“The essence of the Fully-Automated Bickering Machine is contrarian. However, a contrarian that cannot speak is not complete.
“As the saying goes, the contrarians are not afraid of holding up the world.
“What about the smart speakers? It does not have any personality, characteristics, or artistry to it.
“If it is combined with an art like the Fully-Automated Bickering Machine, then our smart speaker will have its uniqueness and artistic connotations.
“It, therefore, evolved into the AEEIS artificial intelligence lifting machine!
“At that time, AEEIS will talk to them cordially when the users are playing with the Fully-Automated Bickering Machine such as ‘humans are always wasting their time on meaningless things’.
“Wouldn’t that be a perfect fit?”
“Furthermore, the speaker and stereo must be of high-quality. Those that cost 200 yuan really pull down its quality.
“Most companies should be able to achieve a price of around 200 yuan. The competition would be too fierce. We will still implement the previous principle of displaced competition.
“No one will be able to compete with us if we use prices around 2000 yuan and above.
“Spend money to make it about 2,000 yuan, adding on the cost of the Fully-Automated Bickering Machine. Make it to 2588 yuan!
“This product will be one of a kind. There will not be any similar products like ours for a year or two!”
Chang You was dumbfounded.
He blinked, thinking that something was wrong, but he did not know where to refute.
There would be no similar products for a year or two? Boss Pei, you are too conservative. Similar products probably would not appear in my lifetime!
Combine the Fully-Automated Bickering Machine with the smart speaker as one and become an artificial intelligence fully-automated bickering machine?
How did he even think of it?!
Chang You wanted to say something, but he swallowed everything, silently thinking of Boss Pei’s previous strategies and clever calculations.
He wrote down everything Boss Pei said in his little notebook.
“Alright, Boss Pei, we’ll do according to what you said.
“The AEEIS artificial intelligence bickering machine is our first attempt into the field of artificial intelligence home furnishing.”
Pei Qian nodded with a smile. “Yes, I believe it will be a great start!”