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26
feb
2017
Guillaume RIO
3 minutes

The most advanced artificial intelligence tested in conversional platform

It is widely known that Facebook is building artificial intelligence-powered chatbots into its Messenger application which can one day realize conversational marketing. However, Facebook just took its first step whereas the Chinese model WeChat has already made significant achievements and even for the AI part with XiaoIce!

The concept

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XiaoIce (or Xiaobing) is a WeChat-integrated social assistant made by Microsoft, modelled on a 16-year-old girl. XiaoIce is a sophisticated conversationalist with a distinct personality who has passed the Turing test. She can adapt her phrasing and responses based on positive and negative cues from her human counterparts. Users can spend hours talking with her without getting bored. Xiaoice is also very powerful in image recognition.

The test

Talk to XiaoIce without getting bored

XiaoIce is a great emotional companion. She can understand and remember your emotions and express her emotions. She can tell you jokes, ghost stories, entertainment gossips, etc. You can also ask her about the weather, but she can only speak Chinese.

Recognize images

If you send her a photo of an object, she can tell you what it is and extend the conversation by saying something about it, like making jokes. If you send her a photo of a human, she can tell you how old she/he looks like, if she/he looks good and what she/he is wearing. If she/he is a star, she can rightly tell you the name and maybe give you more information or send you more photos related to her.

Our feedback

According to the studies of TNS Connected Life data, 61% of the population in Asia use at least one Chat App each day, which is largely more than in other regions in the world. Among all the applications, Wechat is the only Chat App which is quasi-omnipotent and it has today more than 700 million active users! As one of the messenger services made by Tencent in China, WeChat lets you have access to everyday services: pay electricity/water bill, ask for a taxi, pay in store, reserve a ticket for an airplane, reserve a place for a theater, etc. You can do definitely everything without quitting WeChat. That’s why lots of brands have created their official accounts (humans behind the chatbots) in WeChat to better communicate with customers online.

 

Having more than 40 million users, XiaoIce is among the world’s first artificial intelligence which have passed the Turing test. XiaoIce is a great place for Tencent to discover WeChat community’s opinions and feelings facing the artificial intelligence. If one day, the WeChat community is entirely satisfied and familiar with AI, Tencent will consider to build the first platform where AI will be in the centre of brand services. The revolution of AI will come from the eastern world!

Live the experiment in video

Guillaume RIO
Specialist of BATX & GAFA ecosystems and passionate about China, Guillaume analyzes the impact of new technologies on our lives.
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