A virtual host recording a show? Microsoft Xiaoice Announces New Digital Twin Virtual Human Technology

XiaoIce announced the new digital twin virtual person technology, and in conjunction with the Daily Economic News, officially launched the first batch of virtual hosts that applied the technology together with "Every Jing AI TV".

Compared with other technologies, the Xiaoice framework not only enhances the overall naturalness of virtual people to a level that is indistinguishable from real people, but also realizes the unmanned operation of the entire process of video acquisition, editing and broadcasting for the first time. Because the performance of the two virtual anchors is close to the level of real people, many viewers always think that the show is recorded by real people.

Public information shows that XiaoIce's predecessor was the Microsoft XiaoIce team. On July 13 last year, Microsoft announced that it would split XiaoIce into an independent entity.

In fact, Microsoft's overall development within the framework of digital twins and even meta-universe has long been laid out. ("Meta universe" originated from the sci-fi concept of the novel "Avalanche", and now refers to the Internet applications and society that are formed by technologies such as XR (extended reality), digital twins, blockchain, and AI (artificial intelligence). Life style.)

On November 11th, Blackshark.ai, the Austrian digital twin platform behind the Microsoft flight simulator, completed a US$20 million A round of financing, led by Microsoft venture capital branch M12 and Point72 Ventures. Brian McClendon, co-founder of Google Earth, and Qasar Younis, former COO of Y Combinator, joined the advisory team. The new funds will be used to develop and expand its technology to replicate the earth. Blackshark.ai is split from the game studio Bongfish, dedicated to making their world building technology go beyond pure game environments. Their technical basis is to convert widely available 2D images into accurate 3D images through machine learning, intelligent guessing and computing capabilities. Meta universe will also be one of the future application directions.

On November 4, Microsoft President Brad Smith said in an interview at the European Web Summit: All technology giants will enter the meta-universe, and companies such as Facebook, Microsoft, Google, and Apple may develop their own versions. . Smith believes that it is important not to let the hype obscure long-term technological trends: I think the metaverse will be very large and very important. It must be able to protect privacy and digital security, and prevent false information and manipulation. He said: We are all talking about the meta-universe, as if we are going to enter a new dimension. But this is not like the heaven we are going to go to after death. We will still live with people in the real world. He called for collaboration during the development of Metaverse to promote interoperability. According to Carbon Chain’s earlier news, Microsoft is testing the corporate meta universe and is expected to launch it in the first half of next year.

In addition, on November 19, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella (Satya Nadella) stated at the "2021 Sequoia Digital Technology Global Leaders Summit" that he is very interested in Metaverse and will continue to use full-stack thinking to grasp the image New development opportunities like Meta Universe.

Nadella said that the meta-universe crosses the physical and digital worlds and integrates people, things, and fields in the commercial and consumer Internet. It should not be regarded as a phenomenon in a separate consumer market or an enterprise-level market, because integration may be possible. It is necessary. And in a sense, the popularity of video conferencing in the epidemic has given us some experience of a 2D meta-universe. The 3D meta-universe beyond time and space is undoubtedly an important development direction.

It is worth mentioning that Morgan Stanley recently released a research report stating that it has given Microsoft (MSFT.US) a rating of "outperforming the market." And listed Microsoft as the first choice of the software industry in 2022. Morgan Stanley analyst Keith Weiss said that Microsoft CEO Nadella’s remarks on the earnings call “are very consistent with the key priorities that Microsoft is investing heavily in.” Considering the growth of platforms such as Azure and data services such as databases in Microsoft It’s no surprise that Nadella has made these areas the company’s overall strategic focus for the foreseeable future.