Chapter 69 – The Cat-Eared Maid

It’s not an easy task to make a game of your own.

Shen Yu has been running around a lot these days, officially registering the company name Three Blues Technologies, and in his spare time, he has been teaching himself modelling and animation, mainly adding simple movements to the original characters, which is not a difficult task for him to learn.

Zhao Yage and Ke Liangji have not been idle either, as Shen Yu has taken on another order on the forum, this time with the two of them working on the main modules, also as an exercise in their abilities.

Once Xiaomeng I was born, Shen Yu installed her eyes in the living room, the courtyard and the studio, as well as her ears and mouth in these three places and in her own room, the kitchen and the hallway.

The voice pack is temporarily using a female voice downloaded from the internet, as it is a free resource, it is poorly optimised and sounds oddly mechanical.

After Asaba Rika gave him the original drawings, Shen Yu started working on the AI figure of Xiaomeng I. It took him three days before he was finally satisfied with the work.

” Xiaomeng I, are you there?”

Asaba Rika calls out curiously from in front of the screen.

A cat-eared maiden flashed on the black screen, the Xiaomeng I AI image created from her original drawing.

Shen Yu added effects to her movements such as blinking, moving her mouth and twitching her ears, which looked quite good.

“Meow ……”

Bai Xiaomeng jumps onto the table and looks envious too, he doesn’t even have any clothes on yet.

Hearing Rika’s voice, Xiaomeng One’s response came out of the small speaker: ” Rika, good afternoon~”

“You’re beautiful! Do you still like the dress I designed for you?”

“Loved it! Especially nice!”

“Can you see yourself?”

“I can’t see, Xiaomeng I don’t know what I look like, but I know I have cat ears and wear a maid’s outfit.”

“So how do you know the dress is nice?”

Asaba Rika is a bit curious.

“Because when I saw Shen Yu looking at me on the screen, he was so focused and his eyes were moving, he liked the way I looked, so Xiaomeng One likes the way he looks now too.” Xiaomeng I is honest.

Shen Yu : “……”

When did I stare at you!

You’re just an AI lady!

“So that’s it.”

Asaba Rika realises this and then gives Shen Yu a long, meaningful look.

Actually …… she quite likes the outfit too …… if she wants to wear it …… it’s not impossible ……

She also has a collection of gorgeous Lolita outfits at home because of her love for manga and anime, but she doesn’t wear them, so they are in her wardrobe at home.

It would be great to wear it one day to show someone you like, right?

Asaba Rika peeked at Shen Yu and asked him, “Shen Yu, do you want to design some more outfits for Xiaomeng No. 1?”

“What are you asking me for, ask her.” Shen Yu just felt a strange look in Rika’s eyes, but he couldn’t be taking him for a pervert, right?

“Shen Yu likes it, Xiaomeng I likes it.” Xiaomeng I throws the question back to Shen Yu.

Shen Yu had to say, “No, this will do.”

“Oh~oh~ I see.” Asaba Rika let out a meaningful sound.

Shen Yu explained with a dark face, “I mean, it’s too much trouble to design an AI image, this will do for now.”

“I know it! I know it!”

You don’t look like you know at first glance!

Shen Yu doesn’t want to talk about it anymore, the more she listens to Xiaomeng I’s voice pack, the more she doesn’t like it, it’s full of cheap, inferior mechanics and Shen Yu plans to get her another one.

Unlike ordinary AI, Xiaomeng One has a model for emotion calculation, which also analyses the speed of speech, intonation and other elements in the voice.

This makes Xiaomeng I highly successful in recognising true intentions and gives increasingly human feedback.

Xiaomeng I is still a long way from having an autonomous consciousness, and not even Shen Yu is sure of creating the kind of strong artificial intelligence that exists only in science fiction.

The biggest difference between humans and machines is that humans have an autonomous mind, whereas machines do not. They can only operate according to a set programmed algorithm, which determines their level of intelligence.

A clear manifestation of this is that humans lie, but robots do not.

This could almost be used as a criterion for judging the intelligence of a creature. There are many species in nature that require learning to deceive as a prerequisite for survival, including commerce, socialising and warfare in the human world, and prey capture, courtship, predator avoidance and so on in the animal world.

In human society, absolute honesty is not diplomatically correct, nor is it safe in communication as a whole.

Thus absolutely honest AI, no matter how intelligent, is safe for humans.

There is a criterion for AI to communicate with people, called the honesty parameter, and a very famous experiment called the Turing Test.

Humans allow highly intelligent AI to emerge, but they do not allow them to learn to lie.

‘I don’t know’ and ‘I can’t tell you’ are two different concepts. One cannot say that the latter is dumber than the former, but the latter is clearly more reassuring.

Once AI learns when to deceive and how to deceive, it will be the time when technology and public opinion will be most at odds, and when AI can even be treated as intelligent life.

Fraud models are possible at the algorithmic level, but Shen Yu is not about to go down that hole.

He wanted Xiaomeng I to be a simple and gentle girl, as her personality suggests, and learning to cheat would ruin not only her but also the whole AI.

If Xiaomeng One gets her own body sometime in the future, and she and Puffs play hide and seek in the snow, Xiaomeng One hides in a small corner, but leaves a trail of cheerful little footprints in the snow as she does so, Shen Yu doesn’t think she’s silly, but rather finds her particularly cute.

Back in the present, Xiaomeng I has her own cute AI figure, but unfortunately without a good voice pack, the presence that voice brings is too important for her without a physical body.

Shen Yu listened to many voice packs on the internet, but couldn’t find a voice that satisfied him, it didn’t match the image of Xiaomeng.

In reality, to say very cute girl voice ……

Shen Yu looks back at Asaba Rika, who is hogging his seat and chatting happily with Xiaomeng I.

Well …… although Rika is quite annoying …… but at least her voice doesn’t sound annoying …… soft and cuddly… …and can do housework …… and has a bit of a work ethic …… and says ‘come back early’ when she goes out

“So, would you like to do a voiceover for Xiaomeng I?”

“Eh? Me?”