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Produced by NetEase TechnologyAttitude AGI》Column

Author: Ding Guangsheng

The consensus has been reached. Don’t worry about the underlying big model. Applications represent the future.

Li YongHe is one of the entrepreneurs. He is the CEO of Yueran Innovation and was the first marketing director of Smartisan Technology. Later, he was responsible for the market and sales of Alibaba AI Labs. He is one of the founders of Tmall Genie and led the sales leap of Tmall Genie from 0 to 30 million units.

Before Tmall Genie came out, he had been thinking: What kind of AI hardware do we need in the era of artificial intelligence?

The answer to innovation is AIPlushToyWhy? Li Yong said that in China, it is best to combine large model application startups with hardware to give full play to the advantages of the domestic industrial chain. However, the capabilities of large models are not enough to become an artificial intelligence assistant to accompany adults at the moment. On the contrary, whether it is from the data of the previous generation of AI hardware, smart speakers, or Character.AI, Doubao and other data, it can be seen that children love large models. After selecting the track of AI hardware + children, Li Yong was thinking about what the giants don’t do and what can provide emotional value. In the end, he decisively went all in on AI plush toys.

"Unlike instrumental products like children's smart watches, instrumental products generally improve efficiency and save time, and often the things we want to solve efficiently are the things we want to get rid of. Plush toys provide emotional value, and we hope that the products will accompany children through a wonderful childhood." Li Yong said.

During the conversation, Li Yong gave a very interesting example. He said that the cartoon characters that children see in animations and movies can all speak, so why can't these plush toys in real life?

"A lot of interesting things can happen between toys and children. For example, we provide a child growth report service that parents can subscribe to. If you have recently enrolled your child in a dance class, but the child and his plush friend talk about badminton every day, parents can get a lot of information about the child's emotions, interests, etc."

He said that the market for plush toys that provide emotional value is huge, and the popular Jellycat is a good example. However, none of the top 10 plush toy brands in the world are Chinese brands.

Recently, they released their first product, BubblePal, which is shaped like a bubble. To talk, just press the bubble on the surface. It has an adjustable silicone lanyard and can fit almost any size of plush doll, making the toy "talk". This product is priced at 449 yuan and has been released in North America. It will be available in China in late July.

At present, Yueran Innovation has obtained Gao Bingqiang,Li ZexiangInvestments from well-known funds such as Professor, BlueRun, and Qifu Capital.

Talking about the trend of big models, Li Yong believes that it is right for everyone to roll out big model applications. There are already many products running well in North America. China has the advantage of the industrial chain. Whether it is mobile phones, watches, glasses or headphones, or embodied intelligence in the longer term, opportunities are brewing.

The following is the transcript of the conversation between NetEase Technology's "Attitude AGI" and Li Yong:

"Attitude AGI": Why choose to start a business in the field of AI plush toys?

Li Yong: In 2017, I worked on Tmall Genie at Alibaba. We led the last wave of AI hardware explosion. In three years, we increased our sales from 0 to 30 million units. But we still overestimated the three-year progress of AI technology, and this product and even the entire industry category were losing money. Later, Alibaba adjusted its strategy and I left Alibaba.

But from the background of Tmall Genie, I saw that children still love voice interaction. When I was still in Tmall Genie, I always wanted to do the track of AI hardware + children. Later, I started my own business and founded Yueran Innovation, an AI toy company. The reason why I chose this track is very clear: children like the company of AI Friends, technology giants will not do it, it can provide emotional value, and we see the potential of large models, so the positioning of AI plush toys is determined.

"Attitude AGI": How do you develop your large model technology?

Li Yong: We are a big model application company. We use open source model training, and the results are very good and in line with expectations. I understand big models in this way. On the one hand, they will definitely change the world in the future, and on the other hand, they can solve practical problems in specific scenarios now. The illusion of big models can adapt to children's wild imagination. Children have a very high tolerance for big model illusions.

"Attitude AGI": Is the large model you trained ideal?

Li Yong: Overall, it is still ideal. In particular, we have achieved multi-round dialogue and memory for multiple characters, and the effect is very good. One regret is that we do not have the music and nursery rhyme functions of traditional children's hardware. This regret is actually based on our consideration of "technological cleanliness". It is actually very simple to access a third-party music library, but we are unwilling to do so. We hope to make a truly AI Native product. This music or nursery rhyme is also generated by the Agent. It is generated for the child by the child's AI Friend based on their common memories and preferences. It is just like the experience of singing and playing music games with the child's friends in real life. This function is still under development. In essence, we hope that this AI plush toy can serve as an AI Friend to accompany children to grow up together.

"Attitude AGI": How do you use multiple rounds of conversations to differentiate or make your products better?

Li Yong: We want to give the big model a "soul". I draw a coordinate system. The horizontal axis is the expression method, from rational to emotional, and the vertical axis is the expression content, from subjective to objective. The responses of ChatGPT and many functional AI products are rational and objective. The big model we trained is just the opposite. Our responses are subjective and emotional.

For example, if you ask the big model "I was bullied at school, what should I do?", the objective big model will list 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 suggestions, which are very rational and more suitable for adults. In reality, friends' responses must be subjective, emotional, empathetic and encouraging.

"Attitude AGI": How to solve safety issues?

Li Yong: The alignment of large models is already very mature, and we have also built safety fences based on this, so there is no need to worry about that; in terms of privacy and security, we have passed the privacy bill certification of the United States, the United Kingdom and other countries; in terms of materials, we use food-grade silicone and have also obtained FDA and FCC certification.

"Attitude AGI": What is your user profile?

Li Yong: Mainly children aged 3-6, but we also saw some older children in the internal test group having a lot of fun.

"Attitude AGI": What is your goal this year?

Li Yong: The North American and Chinese markets were launched online at the same time, and North American users are relatively receptive. We focus on emotional value, and you will find that many excellent technology companies are doing a good job in providing emotional value.

"Attitude AGI": How big is this market? How big is the imagination?

Li Yong: The plush toy market is worth hundreds of billions of yuan. Jellycat, which has become very popular in China in the past two years, is a good example. However, among the top 10 plush toy manufacturers in the world, none of them are Chinese brands.

"Attitude AGI": How do you price your products?

Li Yong: The price is 499, and users of the first founding edition will have some benefits.

We also provide a subscription service that provides monthly child growth reports, where parents will find a lot of interesting things. For example, if you recently enrolled your child in a dance class, but the child and his toys talk about badminton every day, parents can get a lot of information about their child's emotions, interests, etc.

Not only that, parents can set different personality traits and interactive content for plush toys according to the different characteristics of each child. If your child is introverted, you can use the APP settings to let the character encourage the child more. If you want your child to talk about English or astronomy, you can also solve this problem through the character settings.

"Attitude AGI": Your hardware and APP are visually good-looking and visually friendly. How did you do that?

Li Yong: More than 70% of our team members are women. The product, design, and marketing leaders are all born in the 1990s. They are basically returnees from overseas and young parents. They have a deep understanding of users and scenarios. When designing products, we pay special attention to details because we provide emotional value and details must be fully considered.

"Attitude AGI": What do you think of the current trend of large-scale model application entrepreneurship?

Li Yong: Currently, some large foreign model companies no longer provide services to China. This is also an opportunity for domestic large model companies. Everyone is still fighting, and the Scaling Law is still in effect, although the curve of technological progress is not as steep.

Many teams in Silicon Valley are rolling up applications, and large-scale model applications are expected to explode this year both domestically and internationally.

If we start a business in China that applies large models, we must grasp China’s industrial chain advantages and think more about the direction of large model applications + AI hardware.

About Attitude AGI

NetEase Technology has launched a series of dialogue columns "Attitude AGI". In the past three years, AI has been changing rapidly, the global technological order is being restructured, and the road to AGI may be approaching quietly. This column is themed on AGI and will talk to 100 AI experts, entrepreneurs, and investors, trying to clear the fog and witness the arrival of the AGI era with everyone. The seventh episode is a dialogue with Li Yong, CEO of Yueran Innovation.

Previous reviews:

The first issue of "Attitude AGI":Dialogue with Kai-Fu Lee: Big Model Entrepreneurship Has Been Running Wild for One Year, and the Gap Between China and the United States Has Been Narrowed. I Have Not Cashed Out for Ten Years

The second issue of "Attitude AGI":Dialogue with Wang Xiaochuan: We will not follow the price war of large models

The third issue of "Attitude AGI":Dialogue with Dai Wenyuan: The price war of large models does not solve the core problem

"Attitude AGI" Issue 4:Wang Zhongyuan, President of Zhiyuan Research Institute: GPT4 is not the end of domestic large models

Attitude AGI Issue 5:Dialogue with Zhu Xiaohu: In 5 years, there will be no independent large-scale model companies because there is no business model

Attitude AGI Issue 6:Dialogue with Wu Shichun of Meihua Venture Capital: It is very difficult for the "Five Tigers of China's Large Models" to succeed