Post-00s entrepreneurs are becoming the main force in the AI track.
AI-generated images, digital humans, virtual voices, ......
They're in every different direction,
Let your imagination run wild.
I chatted with 3 post-00s who started a business in the AI industry.
They have very similar characteristics:
Growing up under the infiltration of the Internet,
Not a "good student" in the conventional sense,
Because I love to play, I finally found the direction of my love.
What kind of education do they receive from an early age?
How to embark on the path of entrepreneurship?
And in which direction did the AI take them?
Statement: April, Qingtang, Ling Tiange
Editor: Jin Lu
Editor-in-charge: Ni Chujiao
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Green mandarin in popular science AIGC
Green Mandarin 00 Years Base Beijing, Shanghai
ShanghaiTech University, majoring in Computer Science
创业方向:AIGC(AI生成图像)
The path to entrepreneurship is actually very reasonable for me, and it seems that if I don't go to entrepreneurship, everyone will find it strange.
Since junior high school, I have often told my friends that I want to do something now, this is a big dream, and wherever we meet in the future, you all come to me to do it together, and I like to talk to people in this way.
I think what our team is doing at the moment is something imaginative and committed to pushing the boundaries of human imagination, and we want to make the most aesthetic AI-generated images. At the end of 2021, we were already working on it, and at that time there were no products and models like Midjourney and Stable Diffusion.
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Image generated by Tiamat artificial intelligence developed by the Qingkan team
You asked me how I got started as soon as I graduated from university. I use Steve Jobs's phrase to answer: "In the future, you can't connect all the nodes together, and you can only see how they fit together if you look back at the past." ”
Learning to do computers, or making games, was one of my childhood dreams.
I'm from Xi'an, and when I was a child, my parents weren't always at home, but they would provide me with some good equipment, such as computers. That's why I've been very fond of playing games since I was a child, from console games to online games, and I probably started playing Warcraft, and then League of Legends and Overwatch.
It sounds like an internet addict, but because I like it, I always want to explore something new. For example, Metroidvania-like games, like Hollow Knight and Death Cells, there are a lot of ways to play, and I like it very much. The connotations that the creators want to express are also very different in each game.
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Qingkan speaks at the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition
Since I was a child, I have had an obsession with expressing myself and influencing others, so when I encounter games that are not fun enough, I want to make some games that meet my psychological expectations, so I study what kind of skills I need to master to make games.
The game actually includes three elements, art, planning and programming, you can do concept art design when you learn art, you can do programming when you learn computer, and even I used to do screenwriting work in order to understand game planning.
I've been studying art since kindergarten, at first just as a hobby, and then I took the joint entrance examination in high school, and I went to the base of the joint art entrance examination training to take a look, and found that I might have been doing only pure art work, which was not exactly what I wanted, and I wanted to do more than just drawing.
In addition to studying art, I also studied math competitions, but eventually I felt more interested in math, so I chose a culture class.
I entered the School of Information Science and Technology of Shanghai University of Science and Technology through early admission. Our school is quite magical, it is quite different from traditional universities, and it may only admit about 400 students every year.
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Green mandarin in the school application studio
The studio area is about 300 square meters
In the sophomore year, we can apply for the space to make a studio by ourselves, and at any time you need help with entrepreneurship, you can knock on the professor's door at any time, and even the BP (Business Proposal) can find a professor to help you change. I majored in computer science and minored in entrepreneurship and management, so we were actually learning how to make a product in Xi right from freshman year.
My personality is not the kind of good student that everyone understands in the traditional sense, and if I go to a traditional college step by step, I will not be so adaptable, but I prefer innovative colleges.
I have also Xi in large factories and learned about it in the laboratory, but I don't like to be managed, and I still want to do things myself.
In fact, everyone has the desire to express and full imagination, but they may not have received systematic professional training, and AI-generated image technology is to help everyone realize their ideas.
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AI-generated images
The AI industry is basically a bit like packaging and selling computing power, just like a certain kind of coffee bean, our models package it into different types of coffee, whether it's latte or American, if you package it better, or the coffee tastes better, users can buy your coffee many times over, and what we earn is the money between the coffee beans and the coffee.
Most of the earliest people who used Tiamat may have been because of novelty, but now many of our users are self-media practitioners, or people in graphic design, UI design, art and other related industries, and they will use the generated images in their actual work scenes.
Our team is very young and very old, about 20 people, and there are open discussions about directions or new AI content almost every day. The friends on the side of the industry and research are very sensitive to the new technology of AI, and they often compete with each other to see who can send me the latest news first.
When I first started my business, I didn't think about it that much, I just wanted to do it. But being a company is very different from only doing one thing, doing one thing only needs to focus on the thing itself, doing a company requires paying attention to the company's structure, personnel team, and many trivial things, which will step on a lot of pits.
But starting a business is a lot like playing a game for me. It's difficult on its own, but just like a game, you'll always have to run into levels, and you'll always have to arrange your troops, mobilize resources, and keep changing things like in a card game.
Just treat the world as a huge game, and you'll feel like you can enjoy it in any way.
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April when she first started her business in college
April 00 Base Beijing, Hangzhou
Peking University, majoring in computer science
Entrepreneurial direction: metaverse virtual human
There are many people who think that you have to go to work first, accumulate some experience before starting a business, but I think if I come out again in the last two years, the opportunities in the metaverse AI industry have been occupied by others, and now it seems that this is indeed the case.
At the beginning of my university, I made a community app, and everyone's business card in the community was a flat graphic and text, but we thought that if we could have a three-dimensional digital image, it would be much more interactive and expressive.
In college, my research direction was new media vision and graphics, and when I graduated, we started working on virtual humans and 3D.
To put it simply, through cutting-edge technologies such as AI and 3D, we allow everyone to turn their ideas into concrete 3D models, and these generated models can be 3D printed and made into IP cultural and creative derivatives.
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左：April和许杨玉琢合影
Right: Xu Yang Yuzhuo's Q version of the figure
For example, recently we made a Q version of her figurines with Xu Yangyuzhuo of SNH48, and gave these figurines to fans at the buffet of their performance. I also went to the scene at the time, and a lot of fans were very emotional about this thing, and they would tell me that they especially wanted a certain style.
Nowadays, many animation, film and television, and cultural and creative industries will also need to make their IP images into 3D digital characters, and then expand the AR (augmented reality) interactive scenes of this digital character, or some physical derivatives.
In fact, the decision to start a business is very similar to the mentality of learning competition when I was a child.
I went to high school in Changsha and started participating in information competitions since my freshman year of high school. I think algorithm programming is a creative problem-solving process, and there can be many different solutions to the same problem, unlike the college entrance examination, which may have the right answer. I was fascinated by the creativity and the challenge of thinking in the process.
At that time, if I had to be in the classroom every day, I might have been distracted all the time, but if you let me do the competition on my own, I could learn 12 o'clock every day.
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April is on the shore of Weiming Lake in Peking University
She started her own business when she graduated from college
My parents were also more tolerant of me, because after choosing the competition, I didn't go to the cultural class of the college entrance examination very much, and it was definitely not good to do it normally, but at that time, my father went to tell the head teacher that he felt that I didn't have to go to it, and he would bear the consequences.
I wasn't very interested in regular Xi, and I wasn't the kind of person who was a good student since I was a child. I've always been fond of painting, design, and Internet content, and since junior high school, I've been messing around Weibo post bars, working as post bar hosts and KOL bloggers, and doing some art design and content operations at that time.
I have also Xi in large factories such as Alibaba, Byte, and Google before, and the difference between working in a large factory and starting a business is quite large. Because in a large factory, what is responsible for a relatively fixed technology or algorithm module is under a lot of rules and processes, but entrepreneurship is completely about creating something new.
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April made a metaverse virtual fashion for herself
What attracts me to entrepreneurship is its end-to-end and full-link, I have to face not only this technology, but also operations and markets, and how I want to implement the technology.
Whether it's clothing or trendy toys, we can now convert our creativity into a model and physical object in one day through AI. Traditional products must be designed first, and then research and development, proofing, molding, and mass production, which takes a lot of time and is mass production, but each of the works we make is unique.
We want everyone to have the ability to create IP, ordinary people can send a photo of themselves, you can generate a Q version of your own image, and fans upload their own creations, you can turn the hand-drawn picture into a 3D image, you can also turn it into a physical one, and you can buy a 3D printing product made by yourself at a low price.
With a digital human, there must be clothing and accessories, just as people need clothing. We've digitized the shape and material of the garment, so you can see the AR effect of it and your real person, even if it's not physically fit.
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April's team introduces the 3D model they made
Most people may not think I'm a tech savvy when they first see me, but because of that, sometimes when I talk to people about cooperation, they are generally not wary of me. Many seniors who are older than me really want to talk to young people, and they feel that after talking to me, they are also younger.
I'm a purely endogenous person, and I've always wanted to create something that combines technology and art and can interact directly with the user. Even if I wasn't doing it, I might be painting myself, or doing 3D model art. In the beginning, I just wanted to get things done first, and I didn't think about a lot of complicated path planning, risk analysis, etc.
People often mention the word "involution", but I think that the benefits of involution in an existing system are very limited, which is not very comparable to when you open up a new field.
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Ling Tiange (center) and his team in Shanghai
Ling Tiange 00 years Base Shanghai
Carnegie Mellon University
Major in Computer Science with a minor in Computer Finance
Entrepreneurial direction: virtual sound engine
During the call with you, I can turn my voice into a gentle female voice in real time, or Deng Ziqi, or even the character Paimon in Genshin Impact.
That's what our team is doing right now. It's called the Virtual Sound Engine, and while you speak, others hear the voice after the voice change, but it retains the original emotion, tone and tone of voice when you speak.
Entrepreneurship has always seemed like something I should do. Because I was influenced by some of the elders who started businesses around me since I was a child, I wanted to make my own products and companies very early, but I wasn't sure when to start.
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Ling Tiange was writing code
Growing up, I have always had a lot of family, classmates, and friends around me to support me.
When I was a kid, I was probably the most supportive of all my classmates in the family. For example, when I was in high school, my classmates would organize five-row or 5v5 competitions, and my family would host such activities, and my friends would flock to my house to play games.
Usually parents will be very opposed to children playing games until late, but my dad used to make games, so he not only supported, but also took me to play, once in junior high school, the two of us played a console game together, and I wanted to sleep in the middle of the game, and he said how can it work, what if you sleep with your teammates?
When I was in junior high school in Changsha, I came to Shanghai Yu Gang Experimental School to study high school because of my parents' work. Later, I was admitted to a good university, so I can see that I am a relatively lucky person both for family and Xi.
In my eyes, entrepreneurship is actually a good way to maximize your luck and continue your luck. I believe in the conservation of luck, if you are bad because of luck, then your life will only get worse and worse.
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Ling Tiange shared at the developer conference
I first started my business when I was a sophomore, when I returned to China to take online classes due to the epidemic, so the pressure was not so great, and I had some free time.
Actually, what I do has always had something to do with what I like to play. For example, at the beginning, we did online script killing, also because I like to play script killing. But at that time, all the online script kills didn't meet my needs, and they would all rewrite the scripts, making the original offline scripts very simple, and there were no real DMs (Dungeon Master, script kill hosts), more like a matching social game.
But what people who like script killing crave is that kind of very strong emotional resonance, and many times they can cry or quarrel offline, which means that this is a better experience. So we found a group of real voice actors to be online DMs, and we wanted to move the offline script completely online.
In this process, we have accumulated a lot of voice actors' voice resources, and script killing is also a game that needs to communicate through voice, if you can speak with the voice of the character you play, and combine the voice with the scene, it will be more immersive. So it's a natural thing to go to the sound track in the AI field to some extent.
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The interface for using the flatbread voice changing developed by Ling Tiange's team
Source: UP Master @-LKs-
Just like the skins that characters can buy in the game, what people hear when you speak is the voice of the person who changes their voice when you wear the "voice skin".
I'm also looking for more first-hand needs in the process of playing games. Many people may think that using a virtual voice or a character's voice to speak is not necessarily a very common need, but when I was a child, I played games many times because I was young and my voice was too naïve, and others didn't take me to play.
Now there are a lot of such prejudices, for example, when you hear that you are a primary school student, you think you are a pit, and when you meet a girl, you think you are a good game. Many players or streamers in second- and third-tier cities will be unconfident because of their unpleasant accents, so we can turn their voices into standard Mandarin in real time.
We want to empower people through AI, so that people have a stronger ability to work and play. Our vision is to achieve the freedom of sound, so that everyone can have the perfect sound.
We are also working on a real-time accent remover, which can turn Chinese English and Japanese English into authentic English and American pronunciations. Most Japanese players play Asian servers, and they will inevitably bump into people from various countries when they play the game, but many times people can't understand Japanese English, and we find that they need to eliminate their accents. Not only in games, but also in cross-border sales, customer service or cross-border conferences.
Playing games has also made me a lot of friends, many of my classmates have gone to different cities and countries in college, but because they play games together, they have always been good friends, and now many of my co-creators and employees are friends who play games with me.
Now our team is in Shanghai, there are 36 people, and the average age is about 96 or 97 years.
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The team's conference room with the walls painted yellow
Represents a more active collision of ideas
We generally call ourselves very teenagers in the technology innovation team. There is a very interesting little detail, our company in Zhangjiang, when decorating, the wallpaper color of different teams is designed to be different colors, and the wall of the technical team is green, because green means that there is no bug, and it is wrong if it is red. The operations team and the conference room will be a brighter yellow, representing a more active collision of ideas.
Our front-line employees can make independent decisions, and the product manager can skip the meeting with me if he thinks this thing is good. Management posts also do not exist in our place, because a radish is a pit, and everyone is very clear about what they do every day, and there is no need to use special KPIs or OKRs to manage.
Many seniors may feel a sense of accomplishment in being a big, organized company, but the better AI team in my mind is small and beautiful, but it is very explosive.
Maybe others will think that the post-00s team is not so rolled, or "rectify the workplace" or something, but in fact, different teams may be different, our work rhythm is about "10-9-5" (10 o'clock work, 21 o'clock off work, 5 days a week), so it is also a very hard team.
Looking back at when I first started my business, I just wanted to do a good project. But slowly doing it, in the past three years, several employees in our team have started to start families, buy houses and cars, and I began to feel that this is not a demo, nor is it just a project, this may be at least a small vision shared by twenty or thirty people.