Brain-controlled racing, playing with robot dogs, and being intelligent agents... "AI kids" are having a blast in Beijing
2024-08-26
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On August 25, the 6th Tencent Youth Science Conference was held at the New Tsinghua Academy of Tsinghua University. Nearly 1,500 young people and parents from all over the country started an interesting AI journey.
It is reported that this year's Science Conference is themed "AI Players" and has invited five well-known AI scientists and explorers, including Li Peigan, Hong Bo, Sui Yanan, Wang Xingxing, and Chen Yan, to lead young people to broaden their horizons and imagine future life in the intelligent era from cutting-edge fields such as brain-computer interfaces, embodied intelligence, AI intelligent bodies, and robots.
"The changes triggered by AI will exceed any previous industrial revolution. How can we grow poetically in the intelligent era?" Li Peigen, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, served as the "future guide" and raised the opening question. He believes that AI is a "knowledge giant" that not only knows known knowledge but can also generate new knowledge. Young people should stand on the shoulders of AI giants, use AI to enhance their creativity, be good at observing, analyzing and imagining problems, and prevent their thinking from being constrained and controlled by AI.
Wearing brain-computer interface helmets, children experience brainwave racing on the stage; Xiaobai, a high-level paraplegic, comes to the scene and controls his wheelchair with his brain to turn left or right and flexibly avoid traffic cones... Behind this is the "wireless minimally invasive brain-computer interface" technology developed by Professor Hong Bo's team at the School of Medicine of Tsinghua University.
"This semi-implantable solution places electrodes outside the brain's dura mater, which is like putting your ear against the wall of a conference room to listen to people talking inside. The minimally invasive surgery can greatly reduce the patient's brain trauma." Hong Bo introduced that brain-computer interface technology can enable people with disabilities to gradually regain the ability to take care of themselves and bring them more hope.
Dancing, standing upside down, avoiding obstacles... the robot dog Go2 shook hands with the children, shook its head and tail and walked onto the stage, charming the audience. Also on stage was the robot H1, the world's first robot that learned to do a backflip on the spot. Wang Xingxing, founder and CEO of Yushu Technology, said, "The robot's AI capabilities enable it to sense, think and act like a human." Wang Xingxing encouraged the children to invent their own robots.
"Embodied intelligence" is the frontier of AI exploration. The "Human Self-Model for Embodied Intelligence" developed by the research group of Sui Yanan, associate professor of the School of Aeronautics and Astronautics at Tsinghua University, made its debut at the event, simulating the state of nerves, muscles, and bones during human movement, and realizing the study of complex human dynamics in virtual space.
"The machine model can learn how the human nervous-muscular-skeletal system interacts and understand the embodied characteristics of human behavior," Sui Yanan said. In the future, highly intelligent animals that understand human characteristics may appear in our living environment. They can act as playmates for children, care for the elderly, and assist people in their work.
This year's meeting also arranged for young people to visit Tsinghua University's Basic Industrial Training Center (iCenter), set up "AI Player" creative workshops, AI pop-up markets and other interactive experience sessions, so that children can experience and play with AI firsthand.
