Generative AI reaching its peak? Industry interpretation: Technology is surging forward in a wave like manner, and the heat of the metaverse is moving downwards
Two years ago, Chen Lifan, Deputy Director of the Science Fiction Literature Committee of the Chinese Writers Association, prepared to publish "AI Future Progressive Style" and invited illustrators to create based on the content of the article. It took two months before and after feedback and modification, and was finally completed.
"Recently, I opened an AI mapping software and in just ten minutes, I generated illustrations for the same story content." At the 2023 Bund Conference Insights Forum, Chen Lifan combined her own experience to tell the audience, "In the face of the rapidly advancing reality, imagination can expire at any time.".
The fantasies in science fiction novels are gradually becoming reality. "In the 1950s, humans were exploring and developing machines that were close to their own level of intelligence, but failed several times. It wasn't until the 1990s that the advancement of deep learning and neural network research made related applications come true."
Last year, the concept of the metaverse became popular, followed by a downward trend in popularity, with generative AI taking over and leading a new wave. Chen Lifan believes that the development of technology does not follow linear laws, but rather surges forward in a wave like manner. "The greatest value of science fiction lies not in predicting the future, but in opening up imagination for the future, which is also the key to dealing with the fluctuation cycle."
For the next generation of Internet, there are two directions in the industry: Web3 and Web3.0. The difference in a number represents different implementation paths.
Web3.0 was first proposed by the inventors of the World Wide Web as a semantic web technology, which allows the network to better understand information itself and serve users more intelligently by adding metadata and constructing a knowledge graph. Web3, which is currently widely discussed, is based on blockchain technology to make the Internet more decentralized and secure, so that users can master their digital identity and digital assets.
"The founder of Twitter also proposed the concept of Web5.0, which combines Web 2.0 and Web 3.0 to achieve a fusion of centralization and decentralization." Professor Chen Zhong from the School of Computer Science at Peking University believes that these development directions evolved from different concepts are all based on a consensus: users have the initiative to control data.
"Centralization has its advantages and benefits. Decentralization also naturally has its advantages. The general trend is not to fight to the death in a battlefield." According to the industry opinion, no matter what the future form of the Internet is, the core part is to create value for users and provide services. "Digging for applications that are more suitable for decentralized forms is what the Web3 era needs to focus on."
On the path from imagination to reality, each technology is not individual combat, but complementary. Web3 represents the future of distributed technology systems, and the metaverse brings new application scenarios and lifestyles, integrating a series of cutting-edge fields such as AIGC and blockchain.
"For example, AIGC, there are currently both 2D and 3D AIGC in the industry, which are the infrastructure of the future metaverse." Cheng Weizhong, founder of Zhongke Shenzhi, played a demonstration video on site and automatically generated animation clips through uploaded movie scripts.
He proposed that the performance of virtual characters, namely real-time AI generation of anthropomorphic actions and expressions, is the key to 3D AIGC. In China, many people consider 3D asset generation as the main content, but in reality, it only accounts for 30% of the total. The more important aspect is the generation of virtual human actions and expressions. "Currently, we are in the stage of virtual human solo performance, and we will continue to evolve towards two person interaction, multi person interaction, and interaction between people and objects in the scene."
In the keynote speech, Chen Lifan mentioned Neil Stephenson, the author of the science fiction novel "Avalanche". In this book released in the 1990s, Neil Stephenson envisioned the future of the digital world, and the "metaverse" that people talk about today comes from this. "My thoughts didn't change much at the time, but now the technology we have has changed. Metaverse, virtual reality, and so on are happening in ways I didn't expect," Neil Stephenson said.