Translator: _Min_ Editor: Caron_
With the housework robot hitting the market, the entire Internet was again excited by the name “Future.”
Code AI-00, nicknamed Xiao Lin, represented the first model of Future Heavy Industries’ combination of “artificial intelligence + service robot.” Future Heavy Industries ended up rejecting the initial crude and bold design of the robot and designed Xiao Lin’s appearance with a professional art team.
Its previous cylindrical head was replaced by a human head.
The uncanny effect made the art team tremble. The more the robot resembled a human, the more its physiological repulsiveness became apparent. Regardless of how much emotional data they ported to enrich the robot’s facial expressions, the hollowness inside its pupils and the stiffness in the details would give people a similar feeling to seeing the dead, but the problem couldn’t be solved by even Doctor Amos. It was solved by an undergraduate student with an art degree.
“If looking like a human makes people feel uncomfortable, just don’t make it look like a human!”
Who said human-like features were the only definition of beauty?
The fictional idol, Hatsune Miku, has been popular for years and has tons of followers on the Internet!
The problem was solved just like that.
The art team who suddenly had that realization got rid of the previous face and used 2.5D style as the foundation, bringing a character that only previously existed in fantasies to the real world.
It had six basic expressions and 36 expressions based on emotional data. The amount of emotion it could display far exceeded the complicated 142-expression design.
Xiao Lin’s official appearance was set as an 18-year-old girl with long, black, straight hair. She had a maid uniform as well as a blonde boy in servant clothes. Gender, hair color, pupil color, breast size, personality, and uniform could all be customized based on user preference. Of course, customization would require an additional fee.
Most people were willing to make their girlfriend look different from others.
What? You’re asking me if the word “girlfriend” is wrong?
But in actuality, a lot of people who took Xiao Lin home treated her as their girlfriend. Future Technology’s AI was known for its power and there were still people to this day who treated Little White as their pet, hence, a lot of people fell in love with the goddess who stepped out from their fantasies. The price of 10,000 USD was pricey, but to Doctor Amos’ surprise, it achieved a sales feat in the Asian market.
The sales of the adult version of Xiao Lin destroyed the sales of the family-friendly version. Although it was just an addition of a “special mold” as well as a unique “emotional sensor” to display R-18 positions and emotions, the price skyrocketed to 20,000 USD on the black market.
This certainly caught Jiang Chen off guard.
If you could pay 20,000 USD, why didn’t you go find a girlfriend?! Picking up a girl wouldn’t cost 20,000 USD, right?
It wasn’t until later that he discovered it wasn’t just single men without money to get married who bought this, but people with money with special needs were also buying this. Some requested the height to be as short as possible, some demanded that the breast size be G, and some even bought ten and created a harem.
Robots absolutely will not get jealous, unless it was set within the program that they will.
Time magazine once again displayed Jiang Chen on the cover page and used comical English to describe him as:
<The man who “solved” the sexual needs of 240,000 single men>
The header also made Jiang Chen furious.
If it wasn’t for the fact that the report was unbiased and offered insight, he would’ve sent out his Ghost Agents to do some work.
There were 200,000 Xiao Lins walking out of the plant on Ange Island every month with 50,000 units as the home model with the remaining ones being the adult model. Previously, production was scheduled for an equal split between both models, but the sales of the adult model were so great that Future Heavy Industries immediately reduced the production of the home model and distributed the production to the adult version.
Amos didn’t stop complaining to Jiang Chen about this.
Their era-defining masterpiece turned out to be a sex toy! It was humiliating to know.
He complained for less than a month before he stopped yapping and focused on the improved version of Xiao Lin. The 50 million USD in dividends almost scared him to death. Although he was reputable in the international robotic community, he had never been this rich.
But in comparison to Time, Capital Post maintained a cautious attitude towards the Xiao Lin introduced by Future Heavy Industries. They included a picture of the Terminator with heavy machines on the report for Xiao Lin. “Rainbow House should feel happy because it won’t take long before the soldiers serving abroad can return home.”
But the Capitol wasn’t happy.
The moment Xiao Lin entered the market, the Capitol analyzed the “highly intelligent” robot’s possibility of being used in warfare. While Xiao Lin couldn’t distinguish between guns for now and the software eliminated any possibility of harming humans, it didn’t mean that the robot couldn’t be improved to include those capabilities.
The results of the analysis were shocking.
If the robot was used in the battlefield, the UA force’s ground combat ability could increase by at least ten percent. Most importantly, these soldiers didn’t need to be paid. There was no need for pensions and funerals if they fell in the war.
Problematically, the control system of the robot was equipped with a similar protection mechanism as the Phantom. Forcefully dissembling it would trigger the protection mechanism and cause the high-energy capacitor to discharge instantly, frying all key components. The most pivotal AI program troubled all the scientists around the world who struggled with how to start reverse engineering it. The Capitol had to send an email to Future Group.
“Thor Corporation wants to cooperate with us in military robots and their proposal is 1 billion USD to purchase the technology related to Xin Lin. Hua also offered a similar proposal in hopes that they could win the partnership before Thor Corporation,” Xia Shiyu reported to Jiang Chen in his office.
Jiang Chen scanned the documents on the table without replying and only let out a sigh.
“Artificial intelligence, robots – why do people want to make every piece of technology I introduce into a weapon?”
Yesterday, Natasha came to speak with him expressing that the Kremlin shared the same thoughts, hoping to partner with Future Heavy Machinery. The girl even lowered her voice and tempted him with “nuclear.” Russia could send out nuclear experts to Xin to help construct a nuclear power plant…
“Reject them?” Xia Shiyu asked.
“Reject them. Express Future Group’s neutrality on global affairs again. Any attempt to acquire Future Group technology through illegal channels will be met with Future Group applying for patents in all other countries immediately.”
Xia Shiyu nodded.
“I will use your words as a diplomatic reply. Also, Saudi called about the robot too.”
“Saudi?” Jiang Chen looked at Xia Shiyu, confused. “They’re interested in our technology too?”
“Rather than saying they’re interested, it’s more appropriate to say…” After hesitating for a moment, Xia Shiyu looked away awkwardly. “Their royal has a special request.”
