Hongbin Zhuang and Emotech:
make the AI product more emotional
By: Evan Wu
Caption: Hongbin Zhuang is working Photo credit: Evan Wu
The rapid development of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has caused people beginning to treat it as an imaginary enemy. Some people are afraid that when robots become smarter and out of control, will it harm human beings even we are the creators? Although it is a controversial topic, AI entrepreneurs never stop working. Hongbin Zhuang, a Chinese entrepreneur in London, is not only optimistic about human-computer interaction but also bring a special AI product to life with his team.
Caption: Early models of Olly Photo credit: Evan Wu
Caption: Olly robot Photo credit: Evan Wu
“The bot takes the form of an animated eyeball that is housed in a lamp-shaped cup designed to roll around on your tabletop. So if the thought of a large blinking eyeball that swivels around to look at you when you speak — and talks back — makes you feel at all uneasy, well, this may not be the bot for you.” This is how TechCrunch described Olly when it first published in 2015.
Unlike Google’s Home and Amazon’s Alexa, Olly is “a robot with personality”. Zhuang pointed out that, the uniqueness of Olly lies in its ability to evolve through deep learning techniques continuously. Each Olly can also be "cultivated" into different personalities according to their owner, or to be humorous, or to be kind-hearted, or to be optimistic and confident.
This is also the most significant difference between Olly and other AI robots. "AI should not be cold and passive, but should be natural and emotional," said Zhuang.
Zhuang told the 21 Century Business Herald Newspaper: “We have spent nearly a decade to build up the largest Chinese social network and changed the relationship between people. I hope that in the coming decade, I can make progress in changing the relationship between people and technology. Things need to be more international instead of only in China.”
Zhuang worked as the product director of Renren.com (the first Chinese social media platform) for ten years. He witnessed Renren from its early days to become a listed company. “Why do users like Renren? we can find lost friends here, and we can even make friends.” Zhuang told the 21 Century Business Herald Newspaper, “We have spent nearly a decade to build up the largest Chinese social network and changed the relationship between people. I hope that in the coming decade, I can make progress in changing the relationship between people and technology. Things need to be more international instead of limited in China.” In 2014, he decided to come to the UK to study and do research in this field.
Zhuang chose the MSc Human-Computer Interaction at the University College London, which is regarded as one of the world leaders in brain neurology. In September 2014, Zhuang founded Emotech, which won second place in the UCL Student Entrepreneurship Competition. This is one of the largest student entrepreneurial competitions in Europe.
Zhuang said, the main reason for choosing the UK is that there is a lot of academic accumulation of AI here, and universities such as Cambridge University and Imperial College London have given birth to many AI-related talents. He thinks that the technology in the UK pays more attention to humanity and art. “When you want to change the interaction method, you should consider more from the philosophy, emotion and humanity aspect rather than only science and technology.”
Even if his team has won many awards in the entrepreneurial competition with their exciting concepts of innovation, but as a foreign student, the first thing he faced with is the visa.
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“I couldn’t bring my contacts and resources that I accumulated over the past ten years from China to the UK. This is really a new start for me. Not to talk about these, it is even a challenge for me to legally stay here. It sounds very detailed, but it really what we faced as overseas entrepreneurs," said Zhuang.
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Everything is difficult at the beginning. “First of all, you should find a thing that you are truly passionate about. Then to insist on doing it. Any entrepreneurship will have good and bad times. This is an objective law. It depends on whether you have enough beliefs to achieve your goal. It’s really hard.”
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In September 2016, the first version of Olly finally been wakened up two years after the start-up. This was an exciting time for the entire team.
Source from Emotech
He believes that another key factor for starting a business is people. "A lot of things can't be done alone. It is important that how you can unite a group of people and work together with you for your vision." The team started with only three, but now it has expanded into an international and professional one.
Because Olly is an attempt to integrate multiple disciplines, Emotech's team members all have different backgrounds and professions. "My team includes talented people from various fields like brain neuroscience, computer vision, mechanical engineering, animation design, hardware, voice etc." Zhuang spent more time in recruiting people than managing. “Setting up a higher standard in the recruitment stages will allow your team to do more with less.”
"Entrepreneurship lies in creativity," said Zhuang. After that, how to finance and sell another important part for Zhuang as a businessman.