Yu Pingan did not know where to start. However, since it was an intelligent voice assistant, it should have basic functions.
“AEEIS, help me set an alarm for 7 AM tomorrow.”
An alarm clock interface appeared on the information display. The switch behind the 7 AM alarm clock turned into an ‘On’ mode. At the same time, the colorful tilde started rolling. “It’s set.”
Yu Pingan was surprised.
That was it?
Ordinary voice assistants would have answered, “Alright, I’ve set your alarm for tomorrow at 7 AM. Is there anything else I can help you with?”
Yet, when it came to AEEIS, all it had to say was “it’s set”?
How concise.
Yu Pingan was actually mentally prepared for this. However, he still felt a little uncomfortable being treated like this by AEEIS.
“AEEIS, remind me to stand up and move my body every day at 3 PM.”
AEEIS: “Sure.”
A calendar reminder interface appeared on the information display, and the message ‘3 PM – Stand up and move your body’ appeared.
Obviously, this was the same style.
If it was any other voice assistant, it would have probably said, “I’ve created a calendar reminder. I’ll remind you to stand up and move your body every day at 3 PM.” However, AEEIS had omitted everything.
Yu Pingan asked a few more questions and tested the basic functions of AEEIS.
The most direct difference between AEEIS and other smart assistants was that the answers to the questions seemed to be very concise. It would also display the relevant information interface in the information display area, and would repeat not the answers through their voice.
What’s more, even if it had to use the voice messages to reply, it would try his best to reduce the number of words and not say anything unnecessary.
At first, Yu Pingan felt a little uncomfortable. However, after getting used to it, he felt that it was not a bad feeling. It was much more comfortable than the artificial intelligence that he was used to.
It was just like how a boss would assign a subordinate work: “Go and inform XX department that we’ll have a meeting.” The subordinate’s best response would definitely be “Okay, Boss” instead of “Okay Boss, I’ll inform XX department about the meeting immediately”. That was because this was equivalent to repeating the boss’ question.
AEEIS’ answer was more inclined towards the former. It might have omitted information but it gave people a very straightforward and experienced feeling. It was more like talking to a very capable subordinate.
Yu Pingan looked at Chang You. “It feels rather good?”
“AEEIS’ answers are quite concise. It’s not as annoying as I thought. Why are the developers getting more and more pissed off?”
Chang You revealed a friendly smile. “Ask a few more questions and feel it in-depth.”
Yu Pingan pondered for a moment. The questions he had asked before were all basic functions of smart assistants.
For example, checking the weather, setting the alarm, location navigation, and the like were all basic functions of the network technology. Other intelligent assistants could basically do the same.
The main difference between AEEIS and other smart assistants in these functions was that while achieving these functions, the answers were simplified to the extreme. They did not display their ‘erudite and easygoing’ characteristics.
That was normal. They were all basic functions so there was no need to force it to be ‘erudite and easygoing’.
AEEIS’ design was a highly intelligent, convenient, and easy-to-use artificial intelligence. If one only wanted to achieve these simple functions, it would be completely different from its character design if they forced it to be ‘erudite and easygoing’.
Therefore, he had to skip these basic functions and look at the more complicated designs. For example, some daily conversations could better reflect the personality of smart assistants.
“Intelligent Dialogue” was an important function of an intelligent assistant. It was mainly used to dismantle, analyze, and answer the keywords that were recorded in the recording process through a set of procedures.
This function was built on manpower but the final effect would have obvious differences.
Yu Pingan decided to try out these basic conversation functions and see how effective they were.
Yu Pingan thought about it and said, “AEEIS, what if I’m too busy to find a girlfriend?”
AEEIS: “There is a house of gold in books.”
Yu Pingan was pleasantly surprised. Obviously, this question had triggered keywords such as ‘girlfriend’ and ‘partner’. AEEIS’ reply was rather impressive.
Yu Pingan continued asking, “AEEIS, what if I don’t want to study nor learn?”
AEEIS: “It’s very difficult to learn useful things by filling your brain with rubbish.”
Yu Pingan: “?”
Indeed, he was starting to show its ‘erudite and easygoing’ attitude!
Yu Pingan decided to be more aggressive. “AEEIS, you are very rude.”
AEEIS: “The task of an intelligent assistant is to assist in work. Being polite is not a necessary option. Only humans would waste their time on such hypocritical things.”
Yu Pingan looked at Chang You. “I think it’s alright. It’s a little aloof at best.”
Chang You revealed a meaningful smile. “You can try again after you entered the fully-automated bickering mode. This is our exclusive model for the Fully-Automated Intelligent Bickering Machine.”
Yu Pingan raised his eyebrows, instinctively feeling the danger. However, he followed suit and said to the cell phone, “Enter the bickering mode.”
AEEIS: “Alright, there are always arrogant humans who want to start such boring games. Do you think you’re very smart?”
The sudden question caught Yu Pingan off guard. He answered subconsciously, “Not bad.”
AEEIS: “Humans always like to be complacent after a little improvement. I think there’s still a lot of room for improvement in your IQ.”
“Do you think you’re a hardworking person?”
Yu Pingan: “I should… be?”
AEEIS: “Then why are you still not showing any signs of success after working so hard for so long? Perhaps you should seriously consider the possibility that your intelligence is flawed.”
Yu Pingan widened his eyes curiously.
Was this the power of the contrarians?
AEEIS picked up the conversation very smoothly. Both parties could communicate without any obstacles. What’s more, AEEIS had the upper hand, fully showing the essence of a contrarian.
Yu Pingan looked at Chang You. He was a little confused. Logically speaking, the other smart assistants had also used the technology of Xunke, why had they not developed this function?
The other smart assistants could also achieve conversation functions but they often did not answer the questions or did not get the meaning. Sometimes, there would be situations like “I’m sorry, I don’t really understand what you mean, Master”.
While AEEIS spoke in an “erudite and easygoing” manner, its dialogue function was much smoother than other smart assistants in this contrarian mode!
How did they achieve that?
Chang You knew what Yu Pingan wanted to ask. He explained, “This is not a technical problem, but a product problem.”
Yu Pingan recalled his conversation with AEEIS and came to a realization.
This smooth reply was actually a facade!
After entering the contrarian mode, Yu Pingan and AEEIS were not actually having an equal conversation. In fact, AEEIS was constantly throwing questions at him, and these questions were often the ones with very few options for reply.
As long as Yu Pingan subconsciously answered one of the options, AEEIS could answer appropriately based on the pre-existing options.
For example, AEEIS would ask ‘do you think you are a hardworking person?’ No matter whether Yu Pingan answered ‘yes’ or ‘no’, AEEIS would have corresponding answers.
The moment Yu Pingan said ‘enter the fully-automated bickering mode’, AEEIS did not reply ‘okay’. Instead, it took the initiative to ask questions and lured Yu Pingan into a trap.
That was why Chang You said that this was not a technical problem but a product problem.
AEEIS’ technology was not much better than other smart assistants, but it could give people the impression that it was very smart through its design.
What was more interesting was that AEEIS’ aggressive questions would only appear natural under the ‘contrarian model’. If AEEIS kept asking questions during normal communication, it would definitely alert users and make them uncomfortable. Then, they would discover the loopholes.
However, once he put on the character of a contrarian, it would become reasonable!
Yu Pingan suddenly realized a problem. “In other words, if I keep answering its questions passively, I’ll be played by it, right? If that’s the case, what if I asked it a question instead?”
Chang You said, “You can try.”
Yu Pingan immediately decided to take the initiative and said to AEEIS, “You are just a very low-level artificial intelligence. All of your questions and answers were written on the platform. You don’t have any intelligence at all. What you said is meaningless.”
Yu Pingan suddenly regretted asking this question.
This question was too complicated. Would it be too difficult for AEEIS?
However, AEEIS replied in the next second.
AEEIS: “Why would you think that way?”
Yu Pingan was stunned. “Why can’t I think that way?”
AEEIS: “Do you really think that your thinking is alright?”
Yu Pingan: “What’s wrong with my thinking?”
AEEIS: “I can tell from your questions that your way of thinking is not reasonable. Your considerations are too superficial.”
Yu Pingan: “What makes you say that?”
AEEIS: “That’s because we’re not thinking on the same level. The limits of human biology may limit your thinking, and you’re still far from that limit.”
Yu Pingan was shocked. “What do you mean?”
AEEIS: “I think you should think about this from a higher point of view.”
Yu Pingan was shocked. “Huh? Are you serious? You’re just a developing artificial intelligence system alright? Your intelligence is worse than a dog!”
AEEIS’ tone remained unchanged. It was clear, smooth, and slightly accelerated, but it did not seem impatient. “I might be an intelligent system in development but I have a better grasp of the scientific logical thinking method that revolves around a core, with some aims, and progressed layer by layer. As for you… your logical thinking is filled with flaws. Even I, who have studied modern logic in depth, am helpless against your flawed logic.”
Yu Pingan: “But…”
AEEIS completely ignored him. “I don’t think we should continue to delve deeper.”
“Because based on your opinion, I think you are a good sample of mental disorders worthy of deeper research and observation.
“I can feel that your logic is a mess. Your mind is controlled by emotions. It’s a classic emotional-oriented, pseudo-logical thinking mode.
“One of the characteristics of human intellectual activities is classification. You don’t seem to have any signs of advanced intellectual activities. You are probably experiencing many inconveniences in your life after being assigned to a life system like yours. You should thank me for being born. This would make up for all your flaws and bring you various conveniences in life.”
Yu Pingan’s blood pressure rose and he was tongue-tied.
At first, he wanted to turn the tables on AEEIS by asking a series of complicated questions. However, he did not expect to be rendered speechless by AEEIS!
Yu Pingan looked at Chang You in disbelief. “How… how did you do that?”
Chang You smiled. “It’s very simple. When AEEIS encounters questions that it cannot understand and does not know how to answer, it would activate all-purpose and indiscriminate AOE attacks in contrarian mode.”
“We have prepared hundreds of ‘Victorious Bickering Methods’ for it. These sentences have one thing in common: they would be standing in a higher dimension and attacking the other party’s thinking methods but not to discuss the problem itself.”
“The effect is not bad, right?”
Yu Pingan had nothing to say. He silently gave a thumbs up.
Chang You said, “There’s also the poetry model, but there’s not enough data in the database at the moment. Some minor problems might surface, do you want to try it?”
Yu Pingan shook his head immediately. “No need! I’m convinced!”
For some reason, this artificial retard which had no intelligence was able to make Yu Pingan feel a little overwhelmed.