2023 Zhongguancun Forum｜Generative AI leads the way, listen to Qian Xuesen's digital man talk about the metaverse

As early as the last century, the famous Chinese scientist Qian Xuesen paid attention to the field of VR (virtual reality), which he called the "spiritual realm". At the 2023 Zhongguancun Forum "Internet 3.0: Future Internet Industry Development Forum" held on May 27, Qian Xuesen appeared in the form of a digital human and expressed his views on VR. The "Beijing Internet 3.0 Innovation and Development White Paper (2023)" (hereinafter referred to as the "White Paper") released on the same day mentioned that digital people and virtual space are typical application carriers with Internet 3.0 characteristics. It has become a consensus that Internet 3.0 is an inevitable trend for the future development of the Internet industry. AI is one of the core technologies of Internet 3.0. Generative AI will accelerate the development of Internet 3.0.

The spiritual realm where virtuality and reality merge

"VR refers to the use of scientific and technological means to transmit visual, auditory, tactile and even olfactory information to the recipient, making the recipient feel as if they are personally present." In the 1990s, Qian Xuesen proposed the application of the spiritual realm system. In a letter to a friend, he said: "My interest in spiritual technology and multimedia lies in its ability to greatly expand the perception of the human brain, thus allowing people to enter an unprecedented new world. A new historical era is about to begin. We should be happy. ”

On May 27 this year, digital man Qian Xuesen once again stood in front of a row of bookshelves and shared his thoughts. In 1990, he translated virtual reality into "spiritual realm". I think the concept of "spiritual realm" has a broader and far-reaching meaning than the "metaverse", and is also more in line with Chinese characteristics, especially in the context of the rise of the concept of the metaverse today. ‘Spiritual Realm’ is a harmonious human-computer environment and a brand-new information space that will promote the development of thinking science and Dacheng wisdom, and will trigger a series of changes that will shock the world. ”

The "White Paper" believes that Internet 3.0 is the culmination of modern science and technology and is regarded as a new form of future Internet industry development. High degree of intelligence, virtual and real integrated development and a complete economic form are its main features. The connotation of Internet 3.0 includes the Metaverse and Web3, which reflects the trend of human society and economic development towards virtualization, and is also a manifestation of the integration of virtual and real.

The "White Paper" points out that Internet 3.0 can be divided into a stage of initial immersive experience, a stage of blurring virtual and real experiences, and a mature stage of complete integration of the virtual world and the real world based on the degree of virtual and real integration. The mature form of Internet 3.0 contains the following four core attributes: high integration of virtual and real, open creation, economic closed loop and sustainable development.

New commercialization possibilities

Experts, the market and the media have always shown strong interest in the metaverse that blends reality and reality. In January last year, the "14th Five-Year Plan" Digital Economy Development Plan clearly focused on the development of seven major digital economy industries, which are also the core industries of the Yuanverse, including cloud computing, big data, Internet of Things, industrial Internet, blockchain, artificial intelligence Intelligence, virtual reality and augmented reality.

Zhang Ping, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, understands that the essence of the metaverse is a virtual socio-economic department. Why is it said to be an economic system? “Because data has become a new production factor in digital economic society, and ICT (Information and Communication Technology) technology has become the engine driving the digital economy. Economic development will shift from economies of scale to economies of scope, and then to distributed economies. , ultimately demonstrating the integration of digital capital and the real economy.

Kevin Kelly, the founding editor-in-chief of Wired magazine, known as the spiritual father of Silicon Valley, also mentioned the new commercialization possibilities after the integration of virtual and real.

"Just as we digitized all information in the Internet era, now we have to digitize all things that were not digitized before and make them readable by machines. This is a big thing. Because digitization is the whole The world can be controlled and analyzed by algorithms, and we can use it to update and improve various new products and services. In fact, this is the same as creating a new earth, a complete, digitized, retrievable and usable The earth. As long as you enter some prompt words, AI will create a new world. Using the Internet of Things, we can make things that have never been priced before have commercial value. This makes me very excited." He did not hide his excitement. .

The Metaverse is Not Dead

From the perspective of industrial development, the "White Paper" believes that currently generative artificial intelligence, XR (extended reality) interactive terminals, content production tool platforms, etc. are the research hotspots of the Internet 3.0 industry. Apple, Meta, Microsoft, Google Domestic and foreign technology giants such as , NVIDIA, Baidu, ByteDance, and Tencent have launched layouts and led the development of the industry; emerging applications such as digital people and digital collections have developed rapidly, and innovative entities have begun exploring application implementations.

Subtle changes are taking place. Yuan Yu, chairman of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineering (IEEE) Standards Association, shared a network meme of ChatGPT, Metaverse, and NFT at this forum. He explained, “After March, many things happened in the industry, especially It is the rise of generative artificial intelligence represented by ChatGPT, so this meme shows that ChatGPT is now a much-loved child, the metaverse seems to have fallen out of favor, and NFT has sunk underwater."

Is generative AI stealing the limelight of the Metaverse or accelerating the development of the Metaverse?

Yuan Yu believes that we must first clarify what the metaverse is in the view of "the metaverse is dead". "If it is NFT, it is some 2D pictures and avatars sold by some people claiming to be the metaverse, then I agree that 'the metaverse is dead'. IEEE's definition of the metaverse is that it is a digital universe, which has three forms : The first is a purely digital and different universe, the second is the digital expansion of the current universe, and the third is a digital copy of the current universe, corresponding to three typical metaverse applications: VR, AR (augmented reality) and digital twins type," he said.

Based on this definition, Yuan Yu said that generative AI will accelerate the development of the metaverse. He explained from the supply side perspective, "Generative AI can generate a large amount of content in the metaverse. The AR-type metaverse is very important in understanding the surrounding environment." The biggest challenge is at the world level, which requires a fine-grained understanding of the surrounding environment. In addition, intelligent NPCs (non-player characters) must also be driven by deep artificial intelligence.

Beijing Business Daily reporter Wei Wei

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