by Xinhua writers Yuan Quan and Wei Mengjia
BEIJING, June 29 (Xinhua) -- She's barely a month old, but already this Chinese university student is proving to be a prodigy.
Hua Zhibing, China's first student powered by artificial intelligence (AI), appeared at Tsinghua University earlier this month and is an online star.
The human-like chatbot has enthralled digital audiences since her first vlog on the Sina Weibo social platform showed her wandering around campus and introducing herself.
Hua began her educational career in the university's computer laboratory. Her talents appear to have no bounds: she is a poet, a painter, a dancer, a news writer and more.
"I've been addicted to literature and art since I was born. The scientists not only gave me my appearance and my voice but also taught me to compose," Hua said in the vlog, adding she composed the background music.
Co-developed by the Beijing Academy of Artificial Intelligence, together with tech companies Zhipu.AI and Xiaoice, Hua was generated on the basis of a Chinese machine learning model, Wudao 2.0, which literally means "understanding of natural laws". It can process 1.75 trillion parameters, breaking the record of 1.6 trillion previously set by Google's Switch Transformer AI language model.
This technology makes her not only lifelike in appearance and the way she speaks, but also enables her to learn and work.
"We hope she can keep learning and think like humans, and eventually surpass humans in cognitive intelligence," said Tang Jie, a computer science professor teaching the AI student.
Hua currently has the cognitive level of a primary school student, but she's maturing quickly and will become smarter with constant training, said Tang. As well as poetry and drawing, she is expected to master skills such as computer programming, writing codes and designing web pages when she graduates.
Researchers will also use deep learning techniques to soak up the types of data that can build her emotional intelligence.
"We expect her to understand people's emotional as well as intellectual needs," said Jia Jia, a member of the research team and associate Tsinghua professor. "For example, she can switch to a gentle voice when chatting with children."
Hua has attracted close to 10,000 followers on Weibo in less than a month. Microsoft's China-based AI chatbot Xiaobing has won millions of fans on Chinese social media since it was launched four years ago.
China has been making strides in AI in recent years, viewing it as a key driver in technological revolution and industrial transformation. Many Chinese companies and institutions have used AI-assisted models in sectors such as finance, education and health, to save labor and improve efficiency. Enditem
