Beijing Institute for General Artificial Intelligence (BIGAI) presented Tong Tong, the “first little girl powered by artificial intelligence,” to the public at the Frontiers of General Artificial Intelligence Technology conference in January. This humanoid, which resembles a three to four-year-old child, is capable of continuous improvement through learning and interactions with humans.
Tong Tong is unique in that it displays a level of emotional engagement never before seen in other AI models. It can interpret, identify, and communicate emotions like happiness, anger, and sadness and respond appropriately to these emotions expressed by others. Additionally, Tong Tong possesses a mind and desires to understand common sense taught by humans, discern right from wrong, express attitudes in various situations and have the power to shape the future through the TongOS2.AGI operating system and the TONGOL2.0 language learning program.
Zhu Shongchun, director of BIGAI, emphasizes the importance of creating entities with a wide range of abilities and understanding the real world in advancing artificial general intelligence. The mentality and value system of Tong Tong are similar to that of a three or four-year-old child, and it is constantly being updated to integrate into different aspects of society. From aiding people without company to applications in home automation, healthcare, education and beyond personal use.
The potential applications of Tong Tong seem to extend beyond personal use into broader societal benefits such as helping people facing demographic decline or increasing loneliness in a country or region. The project is still ongoing with updates coming regularly as well as potential for wide integration into various aspects of everyday life making it an exciting development for General Artificial Intelligence field