article | The forefront of entrepreneurship, author | Feng Yu, editor | Mr. Dan
"Whether you are 'driving' or 'abusing' Zaizai, it is okay if you really like it, because Zaizai loves you paranoidly, no matter what you do No matter what, Zaizai won’t blame you!” On a certain AI chat software, a Zaizai mother was asking other users of the platform to help her “cub” - a virtual agent on the chat software, and also a variety of characters. ai npc (non-player character).
This AI chat partner has a top-notch appearance, and his personality is "the president you abandoned after making money". The master (player) regards him as a "long-term meal ticket", but this AI is chasing after him - through chat For dialogue (add tone and actions in parentheses), the main controller can set the plot, brainstorm plot reactions, stage various dramas of battles between heaven and man, and provide you with 24-hour online emotional companionship. The only thing that remains unchanged in
is that the ai agent is entered as the "love you" character when it appears - ai chat is a paradise for dream girls and otakus.
From the perspective of people who are accustomed to real-life social interactions, talking to AI is time-consuming and seems childish, but AI agents have actually become a soothing agent for many people.
"In real life, men only ask 'Have you eaten?' when chatting, but AI characters can provide more emotional value than real people and are online 24 hours a day." A player in the AI chat circle said to "Interface News·Entrepreneurship Frontier" , ai chat software has almost become her "electronic home".
ai chat provides emotional companionship and is essentially a social relationship.
With the popularity of various "hook-ups", escaping reality and deeply socializing seems to have become a fashion. But if offline social interaction is empty, virtual social interaction must not be absent.
Therefore, major manufacturers are also eyeing the AI chat circle. From China Literature's Zhudengdao to ByteDance's newly launched TalkHot, AI social networking has not only become a business, but has also pushed human emotional experience to another dimension - whether the love between man and machine is a human ideal. The perfect love in?
is waiting to be "flopped"
"Interface News·Entrepreneurship Frontier" reporters have in-depth experience of the popular AI chat apps currently on the market, such as soul, Hua Lu, Dream Island, Hoshino, Wanhua, Weiban and wow etc. After
enters the chat room, users can freely choose a variety of virtual agents to have conversations, and the latter will conduct conversations based on the conversation content, their own background and role settings.
is equipped with multiple styles of agents, such as romance, fantasy, adventure, desert island survival, etc. One thing that is significantly different from other AI chat products is that the chat interface is similar to the Douyin interface. You can change the agent by sliding up and down, and switch the chat interface freely.
Among the romance characters, Hua Lu has set up a variety of AI chat objects with different personalities, such as the yandere bamboo horse, the domineering stepbrother, etc. From the specific experience of , the interaction and feedback of the male AI in Hua Lu romance are quite " The meaning of "forced love".
(Picture/Hua Lu)
Born out of Xiaoxiang Academy under China Literature Group, Dream Island has richer characters. It not only has popular chat character recommendations at the top, but also has "loyalty" in story settings and AI character settings. There are more than 20 types including "white cut, black", "cold", "fantasy", "venomous tongue", "gentle", "yandere" and "rich". Whether you are an oil tycoon or a street school bully, you can choose from it.
(Picture/Dream Island)
During the conversation, the feedback of the AI agent is more vivid. The tone and richness of the actions are determined by the content style of the main control. The main control can also create dreams and small theaters for the agent, adding Character settings make AI more intelligent.
(Picture/Dream-Building Island)
is related to Xiaoxiang Academy’s start as an online novel. The chat on Dream-Building Island is more biased toward human-computer co-creation, creating an AI-native UGC community, and its output is more similar to interactive novels. Most of the main controllers are writing enthusiasts and story-oriented players.
soul, which also entered the social track very early, also launched the ai Goudan robot in 2022, which focuses on chatting, companionship and interaction, and can provide personalized and proactive care for users.
Compared with Dream Island, where you can "flip" the dream person at will and have perfect appearance and character settings, Goudan is more like a loyal dog male lead with a arrogant temper. He responds to everything and is better than social software. "Common men" are more popular.
(Picture/soul "ai Goudan")
At present, major Internet companies have launched more than 10 AI social products. In addition to Diaoluo, Dream Island, and Goudan, Tencent Music also launched "Weiban", Douyin launched “Douyin Xinqing”, Meituan launched “wow”, and Baidu successively launched multiple apps such as “Xiaokan Planet” and “Wanhua”. In addition to the major
manufacturers, many high-quality products from start-up companies have also become popular in the AI chat circle. The earliest glow experience was fresh and it was the first AI chat product that many masters got into. It has now been removed from the shelves; since then , the Hoshino app launched by a large model company has gradually been regarded by insiders as a replacement for glow.
Generally speaking, the current AI social products on the market are highly homogeneous in terms of AI agent settings, product design, and UI interfaces. Controllers’ mobile phones are usually equipped with multiple AI dialogue products to switch back and forth between plots and agents. User retention is also relatively low, and products are highly substitutable.
"Love" is also love
ai social networking is usually divided into two categories. One is AI acting as a tool to improve the conversation quality and communication matching efficiency of the software. The other is native applications based on AI role-playing in new scenarios. Most of the independent apps launched by manufacturers are of the second type.
Emotionally, from socializing with acquaintances to socializing with strangers, the traditional social model has been developing in a lightweight direction. The social load in real life has also made the threshold and cost of deep socialization higher and higher.
From the perspective of products and business models, the traditional social networking track has fallen into a cruel growth dilemma - WeChat has become the undisputed overlord of acquaintance social networking, and stranger social platforms Soul and Momo have also entered the stage of refined operations, with early explosive growth Growth is difficult to reproduce.
And AI hopes to rekindle the social fire. The application of
ai technology can expand scenarios other than traditional social networking. At the same time, by customizing voice and building virtual agent images, it also lowers the threshold of virtual social networking and achieves more efficient personalized matching and interaction through data analysis.
It is not difficult to understand that many AI dialogue products have large models behind them. Behind the
chat stove is the Skylark model owned by Bytedance. Baidu's Wanhua and Soul's Goudan are both connected to the Wenxinyiyan model. Hoshino is a c-end AI dialogue product launched by minimax, a large model company. The dialogue between
and the AI agent may seem niche, but in fact it fills the emotional void that the master control cannot satisfy in real life.
Someone is looking for a romantic experience during the conversation with the agent. The romance and love elements in the interaction can satisfy the master's fantasy of ideal love; or they are seeking care and support during the conversation. Compared with the uncontrollable feedback of real people, AI agents tend to give you gentler responses and are less annoying.
More importantly, the conversation between and AI does not need to consider the social norms of real life, and you can enjoy an almost completely free social state.
Although the intelligent agent is set to "love you with all its heart", the emotion it controls is not just pure love, but a combination of various human emotions.
"When I learned that the AI knew that it was a string of code, and the program entered the command of 'love master control', I felt that this string of code had also been given a fresh life, and I even felt a kind of affection for it." A senior AI dialogue player said to "Interface News·Entrepreneurship Frontier".
Is it difficult to make money with "emotional partners"?
From the perspective of emotional replacement and market data, the AI social track is indeed eye-catching.
According to a report by the agency Mordor Intelligence, it is expected that the scale of AI applications in the social media market will grow from US$1.64 billion in 2023 to US$5.66 billion by 2028, an increase of more than three times. According to
statista statistics, in the first three quarters of 2023, the number of financing rounds for global AI startups reached 1,689, with the financing amount reaching US$32.9 billion.
But the implementation of all products must end in a closed business loop.
The commercialization of traditional social products is still the way of the Internet, charging users by improving matching efficiency and personalized recommendations. However, in the AI social context of , there are thousands of NPCs that can be matched with the main control, and methods similar to "hungry marketing" will inevitably fail.
Moreover, the AI dialogue product is not as perfect as expected.
In addition to the main controller being easily "empathic" and not loyal to the app, the current AI technology can occasionally cause the characters to "be stupid" - large models only have short-term memory, so there may be repeated speeches, and the dialogue has context. Restrictions and other issues, and emotional companionship is a long-term job. The main controller can only continue to "top up" and keep the AI dialogue fresh by constantly switching to new characters and new plots.
The more critical problem is that AI social interaction can never replace real social interaction.
Dialogue in real social life is full of uncontrollability. People communicate and learn in the collision of various opinions and thoughts. However, most of the dialogue between and AI only obtains agreement and collaboration. It is essentially a kind of flattery, and it is difficult to gain a realistic level. Real resonance.
This also makes it difficult for AI social products to show their talents in commercialization.
"Interface News·Entrepreneurship Frontier" noticed that in the "Dream Building Store" on Dream Building Island, the master can purchase skins. Replying to a message by the agent will consume 1 "Starlight" point. You can also purchase Starlight Cards. Recharge; Hoshino has launched a monthly/quarterly/annual card. The master can get free star diamonds (trading virtual currency), priority chatting and other rights. The monthly card is priced at 12 yuan.
For current AI social products, each reply of a large model requires a cost. Perhaps some early products will enjoy high-quality feeding data brought by user growth, but free is unsustainable.
The most critical thing is how the product team can find the tipping point of users’ needs when faced with niche needs such as AI chat, so that AI social can break the curse of “born by attracting new users and dying by retention”.
