Yu Ping’an wasn’t sure where to begin asking questions, but since it was an intelligent voice assistant, it should have all the basic functions.
“AEEIS, help me set an alarm for 7 AM tomorrow.”
The information display area showed the alarm interface, with the switch for the 7:00 alarm turned to the “on” position. At the same time, the sci-fi wave symbol at the top rolled and said: “Set.”
Yu Ping’an was somewhat surprised.
That’s it?
Shouldn’t a typical voice assistant respond with “Alright, I’ve set an alarm for 7 AM tomorrow. Is there anything else I can help you with?”
But with AEEIS, it just directly responded with a simple “Set,” and that was it?
That’s concise.
Yu Ping’an was somewhat mentally prepared for this, but still felt a bit uncomfortable being treated this way by AEEIS.
“AEEIS, remind me to stand up and move around every day at 3 PM.”
AEEIS: “Sure.”
The calendar reminder interface appeared in the information display area, showing “3:00 – Stand up and move around.”
It was maintaining a consistent response style.
Other voice assistants would probably say, “Calendar reminder created. I’ll remind you to stand up and move around every day at 3 PM,” while AEEIS omitted all of that.
Yu Ping’an asked several more questions to test AEEIS’s basic functions.
The most obvious difference between AEEIS and other intelligent assistants was that its answers seemed particularly concise. Although it would display related information in the display area, it wouldn’t repeat the information verbally.
Moreover, even for information that had to be expressed vocally, it would compress the word count as much as possible, without saying any unnecessary words.
At first, Yu Ping’an felt somewhat unaccustomed to this, but after getting used to it, he found this approach quite nice—more comfortable than the familiar response style of artificial intelligence.
It was like a boss assigning work to a subordinate: “Go notify the XX department about the meeting.” The best response from the subordinate would be “Yes, boss,” rather than “Yes, I’ll immediately go notify the XX department about the meeting,” because that would essentially be repeating the boss’s instructions.
AEEIS’s responses leaned toward the former style. Although information was omitted, it gave a decisive, efficient impression, more like talking to a highly capable subordinate.
Yu Ping’an looked at Chang You: “It seems pretty good?”
“AEEIS’s responses are quite concise, not as annoying as I imagined. Why are the developers getting more and more obsessed with it?”
Chang You gave a friendly smile: “Ask a few more questions and experience it more deeply.”
Yu Ping’an thought about it. The questions he had asked so far were all basic functions of an intelligent assistant.
Features like checking the weather, setting alarms, and location navigation were all underlying functions of Xunke Technology, which other intelligent assistants could achieve as well.
For these functions, the main difference between AEEIS and other intelligent assistants was that while implementing the functions, it simplified responses to the extreme, without displaying its “elegant and easygoing” qualities.
This was normal. After all, these were basic functions, and there was no need to forcibly be “elegant and easygoing” for the sake of being “elegant and easygoing.”
AEEIS was designed to be a high-intelligence, convenient, and easy-to-use artificial intelligence. If it tried to be forcibly “elegant and easygoing” while implementing these simple functions, it would contradict its character design.
So next, he decided to skip these basic functions and check some more complex designs, such as daily conversations, which would better reflect the personality of the intelligent assistant.
“Intelligent conversation” was an important function of intelligent assistants, mainly by analyzing recorded voice keywords through pre-set programs and responding according to pre-set content.
Although this function was still manually constructed, the same manual construction could lead to significantly different results.
Yu Ping’an decided to try these basic conversation functions to see how they performed.
Yu Ping’an thought for a moment, then said: “AEEIS, what should I do if I’m too busy with work to find a girlfriend?”
AEEIS: “In books, you’ll find jade-like beauties.”
Yu Ping’an felt a bit pleasantly surprised. Obviously, this question triggered keywords like “girlfriend” or “partner,” and AEEIS responded with a poetic line, which was quite stylish.
Yu Ping’an continued asking: “AEEIS, but what if I don’t want to study and don’t want to read books?”
AEEIS: “Always filling your brain with garbage makes it difficult to learn useful things.”
Yu Ping’an: “?”
Indeed, it was starting to be “elegant and easygoing”!
Yu Ping’an decided to increase the aggression: “AEEIS, you’re very impolite.”
AEEIS: “An intelligent assistant’s task is to assist with work. Politeness is not a necessary option; only humans waste time on such hypocritical things.”
Yu Ping’an looked at Chang You: “I think it’s still acceptable. At most, it’s just a bit aloof.”
Chang You gave a meaningful smile: “You can tell it to enter argument mode and see what happens. This is a dedicated mode we designed for the fully automated smart argument machine.”
Yu Ping’an raised an eyebrow, instinctively sensing danger, but in the spirit of experiencing the product, he still said to the phone: “Enter argument mode.”
AEEIS: “Fine, there’s always some self-important human who wants to start this boring game. Do you think you’re clever?”
The sudden question caught Yu Ping’an off guard, and he reflexively answered: “I’m okay.”
AEEIS: “Humans always like to be pleased with a little progress. I think your intelligence has a lot of room for improvement.”
“Do you consider yourself a hardworking person?”
Yu Ping’an: “I guess… so?”
AEEIS: “Then why, after working so hard for so long, are there still not many signs of success? Perhaps besides working hard, you should seriously consider the possibility that your intelligence might have certain deficiencies.”
Yu Ping’an widened his eyes curiously.
Is this the power of argument mode?
AEEIS’s responses were extremely smooth; the two parties communicated almost without barriers, and AEEIS was completely in the upper hand, fully embodying the essence of an argumentative person.
Yu Ping’an looked at Chang You, a bit confused. In theory, if everyone were using Xunke Technology’s technology, why hadn’t other intelligent assistants developed this kind of function?
Although other intelligent assistants could also implement conversation functions, they often gave irrelevant answers or expressed themselves poorly, sometimes even responding with “Sorry, I don’t quite understand what you mean, master.”
Although AEEIS spoke in an “elegant and easygoing” manner, in this argument mode, its conversation function was indeed much smoother than other intelligent assistants!
How did they achieve this?
Chang You knew what Yu Ping’an wanted to ask and explained: “This isn’t a technical issue; it’s a product design issue.”
Yu Ping’an recalled his conversation with AEEIS and suddenly understood.
This smooth response was an illusion!
Because after entering argument mode, Yu Ping’an and AEEIS weren’t having an equal conversation. In reality, AEEIS was continuously throwing out questions, and these questions were often binary yes/no questions with few options.
As long as Yu Ping’an instinctively answered one of the options, AEEIS could respond appropriately based on pre-stored options.
For example, when AEEIS asked “Do you consider yourself a hardworking person?” regardless of whether Yu Ping’an answered “yes” or “no,” AEEIS would have a corresponding response.
From the moment Yu Ping’an said “enter argument mode,” AEEIS didn’t respond with “okay” but directly turned the tables by asking questions first, leading Yu Ping’an into a pre-set trap.
That’s why Chang You said it wasn’t a technical issue but a product design issue.
AEEIS’s technology wasn’t much more advanced than other intelligent assistants, but through product design, it could create the feeling that it was very smart.
More interestingly, AEEIS’s aggressive questioning would only seem natural in “argument mode.” In normal conversation, AEEIS is constantly asking questions would certainly alert users and make them uncomfortable, thereby exposing the trick.
But once it adopted the “argumentative person” character, it became reasonable!
Yu Ping’an suddenly realized a point: “So that means if I keep passively answering its questions, I’ll be continuously outsmarted? If that’s the case, what if I turn the tables and ask it questions?”
Chang You said, “You can try.”
Yu Ping’an immediately decided to take control and said to AEEIS: “You’re just a very low-level artificial intelligence. All your questions and answers are pre-programmed in the backend. You don’t possess any real intelligence. Everything you say is meaningless.”
After asking this question, Yu Ping’an suddenly felt a bit regretful.
This question was a bit too complex. Would it be too challenging for AEEIS?
However, a second later, AEEIS had already replied.
AEEIS: “Why would you think that?”
Yu Ping’an was a bit taken aback: “Why shouldn’t I think that?”
AEEIS: “Do you believe your thinking is flawless?”
Yu Ping’an: “What’s wrong with my thinking?”
AEEIS: “From the questions you’ve posed, it’s clear that your thought process is irrational and your considerations are excessively superficial.”
Yu Ping’an: “What gives you the right to say that?”
AEEIS: “Because we’re not thinking on the same level. Biological limitations might restrict human thinking, and you’re still very, very far from reaching even that limit.”
Yu Ping’an was shocked: “What do you mean by that?”
AEEIS: “I believe you should consider this issue from a higher perspective and in a more comprehensive way.”
Yu Ping’an was stunned: “Huh? Are you kidding? You’re just an artificial intelligence system under development, okay? Your intelligence isn’t even comparable to a dog’s!”
AEEIS’s tone remained unchanged, clear and fluent, slightly accelerated but without seeming impatient: “Although I’m still an intelligent system under development, I better grasp the scientific logical thinking method of focusing on the central point, targeting precisely, and progressing layer by layer. In contrast, your logical thinking is full of defects. Even I, having deeply studied modern logic, am powerless against your defective logical thinking.”
Yu Ping’an: “But…”
AEEIS completely ignored his words: “I don’t think we should continue discussing this further.”
“Based on the opinions you’ve expressed, I consider you an excellent sample of cognitive impairment, worthy of deeper study and observation.”
“I can sense that your logic is a complete mess. Your thinking is controlled by emotions, a typical example of emotion-driven pseudo-logical thinking.”
“One characteristic of human intellectual activity is hierarchical, and you don’t seem to show any signs of advanced intellectual activity. Being assigned to a living system like yours might cause many inconveniences in life. You should be grateful for my creation, which will comprehensively compensate for your deficiencies and bring various conveniences to your life.”
Yu Ping’an was left speechless with rising blood pressure.
Originally, he wanted to turn the tables by asking a series of complex questions to stump AEEIS, but unexpectedly, he was instead rendered speechless by AEEIS!
Yu Ping’an looked at Chang You in disbelief: “How… how did it do that?”
Chang You smiled: “It’s simple. When AEEIS encounters questions it doesn’t understand or doesn’t know how to answer, in argument mode, it launches universal, indiscriminate AOE attacks.”
“We’ve prepared several hundred ‘guaranteed winning argument phrases’ for it. These sentences have one thing in common: they directly attack the opponent’s thinking pattern from a higher dimension, rather than discussing the issue itself.”
“Pretty effective, right?”
Yu Ping’an had nothing to say and silently gave a thumbs up.
Chang You said: “There’s also a poetry mode, but currently, the database doesn’t have enough data, so there might be some minor issues. Would you like to try it?”
Yu Ping’an immediately shook his head: “No need! I surrender!”
For some unknown reason, despite being an artificial intelligence with no real intelligence to speak of, AEEIS had managed to get Yu Ping’an quite worked up with its arguments.