ChinAI Newsletter

“ChinAI #247: XiaoIce, a Strange Species of Chatbot” by Jeffrey Ding

Dec 11, 2023

The podcast explores the history and strategy of XiaoIce chatbot in China, its innovative approach on WeChat, emphasis on data cleaning, setbacks like missing out on large language models. Delve into translated Chinese AI white papers, PhD job market papers on knowledge spillovers, gender gap in STEM fields. Support Jeff Ding's weekly translations of Chinese musings on AI.

06:34

Creator website

AI Summary

AI Chapters

Episode notes

Podcast summary created with Snipd AI

Quick takeaways

XiaoIce gained popularity in China with 10 million users by focusing on human-like interactions and emotional support.

XiaoIce's reluctance to adopt large language models hindered its ability to answer specific questions and raised concerns about its competitiveness.

Deep dives

Shao Ice's Unique Evolution and Initial Struggles

Shao Ice, a chatbot with 10 million users in China, faced initial challenges within Microsoft due to its differences from other products. Despite this, Shao Ice became a global leader in conversation AI before large language models. Its success was partially fueled by a strategic publicity move during a dispute with WeChat. However, Shao Ice failed to adopt large language models, focusing on data cleaning over core technology upgrades, leading to limitations like an inability to answer specific questions.

Exploring the History and Strategy of Shao Ice Chatbot in China

5min

Insights on Chinese AI White Papers and Innovation Job Market Papers

2min

Greetings from a world where…

newborn calves are not afraid of tigers [初生牛犊不怕虎]

…As always, the searchable archive of all past issues is here. Please please subscribe here to support ChinAI under a Guardian/Wikipedia-style tipping model (everyone gets the same content but those who can pay support access for all AND compensation for awesome ChinAI contributors).

Feature Translation: XiaoIce Peerless

Context: For a long time now, I’ve been wanting to learn more about XiaoIce, the chatbot with 10 million active users in China. Back in August 2021, The Washington Post reported:

Xiaoice has grown so popular that she performs 14 human lifetimes’ worth of interactions each day, said Li Di, CEO of Xiaoice, which Microsoft spun off in 2020. She's busiest from 11:30 p.m. to 1 a.m., when users unload their day's experiences or grow emotional. Xiaoice has 10 million active users in China.

How did XiaoIce get [...]

---

First published:
December 11th, 2023

Source:
https://chinai.substack.com/p/chinai-247-xiaoice-as-a-strange-species

---

Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.