November 23rd, Wednesday.
Lu Zhiyao returned to his hotel.
These past few days, besides going to the film set for shooting, he had been holed up in the hotel, repeatedly reviewing the script Director Zhu had given him, trying to understand the inner world of the character Qin Yi.
Being confined indoors all this time had inexplicably made Lu Zhiyao feel frustrated.
However, this frustrated mindset was exactly what he wanted.
Throughout the entire film, Qin Yi was also constantly confined to the command cabin, unable to interact with others, let alone go outside. For a soldier who had been fighting on the frontlines for a long time, this was also something extremely frustrating.
Moreover, Qin Yi in the film was under tremendous mental pressure. His every action determined the lives of countless soldiers, even the continuation of human civilization, making the mental pressure even greater.
If Lu Zhiyao couldn’t effectively portray this mental state, his performance would be inadequate.
So, these past few days, Lu Zhiyao had been cooped up playing games, hoping to better experience Qin Yi’s mental state.
But he always felt something was missing.
After completing today’s filming tasks, Lu Zhiyao returned to his room as usual, forcing himself to sit at the computer.
Although he was almost sick of playing games, and was very tired after a day of filming and wanted to rest, Lu Zhiyao knew clearly that his current state was closest to Qin Yi’s, and he needed to remember this mindset well.
However, just as he sat down, he noticed something new in the room.
He was staying in a suite, with the computer placed on a desk in the living room. Now, next to the desk on the floor was an automatic argument machine, with a bar-shaped speaker connected to the computer, and two small surround speakers placed behind him on the cabinet opposite the desk.
This brand-new intelligent argument machine had been placed there by staff during the day.
Lu Zhiyao’s eyes lit up.
Wasn’t this the AEEIS physical smart speaker he had requested earlier?
Great, now he could rehearse his scenes!
Previously, Lu Zhiyao’s biggest challenge was that he wasn’t performing a monologue, but rather scenes with AEEIS as his counterpart. Yet during filming, everything was against a green screen, and he had to imagine his counterpart’s responses—how could he act effectively?
Even if others could help by reading lines, a human voice would still differ greatly from AEEIS’s voice.
Now with an AEEIS physical unit, he could enter all the lines and rehearse scenes over and over!
Lu Zhiyao looked at this automatic intelligent argument machine. In appearance, it was just a large black box, with an automatic argument function at the top, a soundbar bass component at the bottom, and a light-up ring on the front to indicate when AEEIS was speaking.
There was a note on the argument machine that read: “Say ‘AEEIS, return to initial image’ to begin rehearsing.”
Lu Zhiyao remembered clearly that this wasn’t Qin Yi’s first line. Before this line, AEEIS had two or three exchanges with Qin Yi in a female form.
But this line marked a turning point, after which AEEIS transformed into a cold electronic voice, and Lu Zhiyao’s scenes with it officially began.
All of AEEIS’s lines from the script Lu Zhiyao had received should already be programmed into the system. After detecting Lu Zhiyao speaking, AEEIS would automatically respond with the next line.
Lu Zhiyao: “AEEIS, return to initial image.”
AEEIS: “Captain Qin Yi, perhaps you’re angry now, but humanity needs you to continue fulfilling your mission as a soldier…”
Man and machine began their dialogue, one line after another.
It did feel quite interesting.
Before, Lu Zhiyao had been performing to thin air, and even when rehearsing with others, it was just them reading lines without the right feeling. But now, facing AEEIS’s calibrated electronic voice, he instantly immersed himself in Qin Yi’s character.
After several run-throughs, Lu Zhiyao decided to take a water break and rest a bit.
During the line readings, he had tried several different performance approaches and recorded the entire process with a camera. Now was a good time to review all the recordings and identify areas for improvement.
However, after watching the recordings several times, Lu Zhiyao still felt something was missing in his performance.
This feeling was strange because Lu Zhiyao had already been striving to express all the emotions Qin Yi might have, including relief, anger, melancholy, determination, and more, yet he still felt something was lacking.
What exactly was missing?
Or was it just an illusion?
Lu Zhiyao aimlessly flipped over the note and found another sentence on the back: “You can say ‘Enter argument mode’ to AEEIS to relax your mind.”
“Hmm?”
“What’s argument mode?”
Though unclear about its specific function, just hearing the name “argument mode” sounded interesting!
Lu Zhiyao immediately said, “AEEIS, enter argument mode.”
AEEIS: “Well, there’s always some self-important human wanting to start this boring game. Do you think you’re clever?”
Lu Zhiyao: “?”
…
Fifteen minutes later, Lu Zhiyao silently lit a cigarette and began contemplating life.
What kind of experience was it to be rendered speechless by artificial intelligence?
Originally, Lu Zhiyao thought AEEIS’s so-called argument mode was just a gimmick, that perhaps it could barely argue with humans at first, but would quickly surrender, saying, “Sorry, I don’t quite understand your meaning.”
To his surprise, AEEIS was so aggressive that it left Lu Zhiyao questioning his existence!
Once argument mode was activated, AEEIS began asking pressing questions. No matter how Lu Zhiyao denied them, AEEIS cleverly backed him into a corner where he could only take the abuse.
Then, unable to endure anymore, Lu Zhiyao started arguing back, launching personal attacks against the machine. Unexpectedly, AEEIS remained completely unmoved, continuing to attack Lu Zhiyao’s intelligence from multiple angles with a constant pace and unperturbed tone.
In this confrontation, Lu Zhiyao quickly admitted defeat, becoming disheartened and beginning to ponder many life and philosophical questions.
Of course, these questions also included “how much does an argument machine cost,” “would I need to compensate if I smashed it,” and “would smashing an argument machine become a scandal if news got out.”
Suddenly, a flash of insight struck Lu Zhiyao.
“That’s it, I understand what’s missing!”
“In my previous performances, I didn’t properly express my emotions toward AEEIS!”
Lu Zhiyao suddenly realized.
All his previous performances were shot against a green screen, with staff reading AEEIS’s lines, so Lu Zhiyao focused mainly on understanding Qin Yi’s mindset.
The character Qin Yi had a complex background and experienced intricate emotional fluctuations throughout the plot. With so many aspects to consider, Lu Zhiyao had inadvertently overlooked Qin Yi’s emotions toward AEEIS!
Or rather, although Lu Zhiyao had recognized these were scenes with AEEIS, his understanding wasn’t deep enough. He had been too immersed in exploring Qin Yi’s inner world, neglecting AEEIS’s role in their interactions.
Lu Zhiyao hurriedly pulled out the script again and reread all of AEEIS’s lines.
AEEIS’s subjective intentions were what Lu Zhiyao had been overlooking!
As artificial intelligence, AEEIS’s emotionless electronic voice had subconsciously led Lu Zhiyao to treat it as just a tool, but after arguing with AEEIS, Lu Zhiyao suddenly realized it wasn’t merely a tool—it had its own purpose and inclinations!
It was the same in the film.
In the movie, AEEIS influenced many of Qin Yi’s thoughts at key moments, such as:
When adding “realistic elements,” AEEIS used specific data like “ancient battle casualty rates exceeding 5% would collapse morale,” making Qin Yi more clearly recognize the increased difficulty in realistic mode.
When Qin Yi felt discouraged after failure, AEEIS timely reminded him that data analysis accuracy had reached over 87% and could be referenced, objectively playing an inducing role.
When the couple sacrificed themselves, AEEIS’s first reaction was to cover up the truth, explaining it as “unpredictable random behavior in the intelligent system, simulating unexpected situations on the real battlefield.”;
After Qin Yi questioned this, AEEIS only admitted Qin Yi was commanding a real battle after some time…
Similar instances were everywhere.
Every line of AEEIS in the film propelled the plot, with a large portion directly affecting Qin Yi’s mindset and understanding, and a few lines seemingly hiding more content.
For instance, when Qin Yi asked AEEIS if the couple was real, AEEIS paused before answering.
Since it was artificial intelligence, with all reactions processed through programming, logically, it should answer any question immediately.
This “pause” could imply many things, and Qin Yi should react to it.
Even a subtle facial expression would be more reasonable than complete unawareness.
Lu Zhiyao’s previous performances had major deficiencies in this area. Although he knew he was acting opposite AEEIS, he hadn’t truly portrayed the essence of this interaction, hence feeling that something was missing.
Realizing this, Lu Zhiyao excitedly tapped the desk.
“That’s it, that’s what was missing!”
“Before, I was too focused on exploring my character’s inner world and didn’t truly treat AEEIS as an intelligent entity.”
“Being rendered speechless by AEEIS in argument mode made me realize this, which is extremely important!”
Having found the root of the problem, the solution became clear.
Lu Zhiyao renewed his energy and said to AEEIS, “AEEIS, return to the initial image!”
AEEIS: “Captain Qin Yi, perhaps you’re angry now, but humanity needs you to continue fulfilling your mission as a soldier…”
Man and machine began their dialogue once more.