Meet The World’s First AI Child With Emotional Intelligence, Cognitive Ability

In a big breakthrough in artificial intelligence, a human-shaped AI doll has been engineered by Chinese scientists at the Beijing Institute of General Artificial Intelligence (BIGAI). The AI doll, named Tong Tong, resembles a three-year-old child and possesses the emotional development and cognitive ability of a human child of the same age. The creation of Tong Tong marked a remarkable leap in artificial intelligence technology.

The AI child was unveiled late last month at the Frontiers of General Artificial Intelligence Technology Exhibition. At the exhibition, it connected with visitors while also displaying its human-like qualities, the local media reported.

While Tong Tong is equipped with emotional intelligence and possesses a vocabulary of more than 600 words, it is virtually constrained. The AI doll also can learn separately like a child.

The ceremony also displayed a program video that stated, “Tong Tong possesses a mind and strives to understand the common sense taught by humans. It added, “She discerns right from wrong, expresses her attitudes in various situations, and has the power to shape the future.”

Artificial intelligence, machine learning, and natural language processing make it easier for Tong Tong to act as per the circumstances. Meanwhile, the doll’s tendency to clean up its virtual environment impressed audiences in one instance.

The exhibition also saw BIGAI’s director, Zhu Songchun, unveiling ‘the Tong test’. The test was displayed as a replacement for the Turing Test for artificial general intelligence. The difference between both tests can be understood from the fact that the Turing Test tells whether a human is speaking to an AI or a robot whereas the Tong test deals with a wider set of parameters.

Zhu, while speaking to the South China Morning Post, “To advance towards general artificial intelligence, we must create entities that can comprehend the real world and possess a wide range of skills.” He added, “Unlike the AI-powered robots you might have seen in films like Terminator, Tong Tong does not have a physical form.”