"Mom, is Dad dead?"
The 3-year-old daughter asked Wu Qi.
The husband died suddenly. One day 2 months ago, he often stayed up late and drank some wine, lying on the sofa and saying that he was sleepy, and he lost his heartbeat after a while.
The ignorant little daughter witnessed her father's rescue process. Wu Qi lied to her: "Dad is already well, and he went on a business trip." ”
Then, she found Zhang Zewei's team.
Her appeal is very simple - let her daughters talk to their father again in the form of video. The eldest daughter is 7 years old and the younger daughter is 3 years old, and she hopes that they will know the truth when they grow up.
This is one of more than 1,000 orders from Zhang Zewei. His job is to use AI technology to "resurrect" the deceased who can interact with their loved ones.
And behind every "resurrected" digital person, there is an actor dressed in a real-time calculation model.
The "holster" of technology
Zhang Zewei's Taobao store is called "Digital Life Factory". In his office, he told me that his goal was to help humanity achieve digital immortality.
He created a digital doppelganger for himself, and every day he "fed" his corpus to this AI like writing a diary, and through continuous accumulation and training, he expects this doppelganger to become more and more like himself.
"As long as the time is long enough and the data is enough, it will get closer and closer to your own thinking patterns and language habits. Eventually, I will leave a copy of my consciousness to form a digital immortality. "It's like our Slogan – let the world have an eternal me." ”
Compared with replicating itself, the current more commercial scenario of this technology is to reproduce dead relatives, which is the so-called AI "resurrection".
Zhang Zewei is not the first merchant to do AI business on Taobao.
The commercialization of AI on Taobao broke out after the ChatGPT explosion last year. In those three months, investors and entrepreneurs have been struggling to explore the business scenario of AI, but small businesses on Taobao have earned their first pot of gold by relying on some AI tools with low thresholds.
From AI-generated picture materials, to AI avatar customization, AI-generated professional photos, AI dress-ups, to the production of AI virtual characters that can speak with kinetic energy, these various new businesses are popping up like weeds. So much so that in the second half of last year, Taobao also added a new first-level category of artificial intelligence services.
Whether it's moving photos of deceased loved ones or making the deceased "speak" through voice cloning, there are many precedents on Taobao, and these small and medium-sized businesses have always maintained a high degree of business sensitivity to new things.
As long as the audio and image samples of the deceased are sufficient, after a period of AI training, the corresponding digital human model can be generated. However, with current AI technology, it is not possible to communicate with people flexibly and warmly.
The digital human created by Zhang Zewei has improved on this point. But the premise is that behind every digital person, there needs to be an actor wearing a "holster".
This "holster" is a digital human model that contains the face and voice of the deceased. By calling up the virtual camera, the actor can interact with the deceased's face and voice in real time during a video call.
Most of these "playing" tasks are undertaken by this small team of only 5 people, and Zhang Zewei himself has played more than 100 times.
In order to make the matching more similar, after the digital model is completed, everyone in the team will wear this "holster" and then select the most suitable actor according to the face shape.
Taobao store products of the "Digital Life Factory".
There are two types of orders to play the deceased, one is that the client himself wants to see the deceased again. The other type is Wu Qi's order, where the client hopes to make an AI digital human of the deceased to comfort the unsuspecting elderly or children through video.
In the latter type of order, Zhang Zewei will first test the line with the client who placed the order. This is not only to allow the client to confirm the "performance" effect of the digital person, but also to rule out some details that may be "exposed" to avoid overturning during the official call.
"I was looking forward to it at first. "But when the model was actually trained, I avoided it." When her lover's familiar face and voice appeared on the screen, she found that her heart still couldn't accept it.
"If you don't know he's dead, it really feels like him. Wu Qi said. "But I know everything. ”
She couldn't help but scrutinize the details and look for flaws.
"I can't help it. She said, "A real person should be so rich." ”
During the official call, the daughters were very happy, they saw the "dad on a business trip" in the video, and listened to his usual instructions. But Wu Qi just wanted the call to end as soon as possible.
During this time, she suppressed her grief, collected audio and video from her lover's life, found a professional team, and worked with them to design the content of the dialogue, and planned this scam.
But now, she doesn't want to see her "lover" on that screen for a moment.
People who can't get out
Zhang Zewei can understand that not everyone is willing to meet their deceased relatives in this way. There is no shortage of controversy in the field of public opinion about the "resurrection" of AI. A representative opposition voice believes that the AI "resurrection" of relatives will only make the living indulge in pain and unable to get out, while people must always look forward to life.
People seem to presuppose that time will erase everything, and as long as you try to forget, you can move on.
"What about those who can't get out?" Zhang Zewei asked me.
The team once received an order from a father whose only son, in his early 20s, died on a construction site due to a safety accident and his head was smashed by a heavy object. When she saw her son's tragic condition when she recognized the body, her mother fainted on the spot, and since then she has been insane, chattering all day long, and people say that her son has become a headless ghost.
The father hoped that Zhang Zewei would cooperate with him in a play and let the "son" make a video call to his mother from "below". When entrusted, he specially explained that he hoped that his "son" must tell his mother that his head is still there during the video call.
When the video was connected, the mother was in a trance, and the actor shouted "Mom" a few times, but the other party did not respond.
When she finally noticed the "son" on the screen, she was stunned for a long time, and then she exploded emotionally, crying and calling for her son.
The actor was also infected by the old man's emotions, but he still completed the communication with a crying voice.
He told the old man, "I'm fine down there, I'm whole, not a headless ghost." ”
"If you miss me, ask Dad to contact me. He said.
In the past year, Zhang Zewei has seen too many such people, and for them, there will be no worse results. "The most painful thing is the loss of independence, which is more painful than the loss of an elder for a child. "Some people don't make it out of this life." ”
Ding Ding, who was born in 95, is the only woman in the team, and she can't help but feel sad when she first takes orders. "I cry a lot. She admitted, "I have a strong ability to empathize, and they don't dare to make too difficult lists for me." ”
A simple order is mainly to coax the elderly. It's nothing more than greetings and New Year's greetings, and listen to the chatter. "Some old people are old and can't hear very well, and they just want to see you. She said.
She often has to learn a few local dialects, such as "I will come back to honor you when I earn money" and "You take care of your health", which are common throughout the country.
Sometimes, the old man will pull Ding Ding and keep chattering, not wanting to hang up the phone. "Some parents ask you when you will come back, whether you have found a partner, and remind you to pay attention to your body when you go out. ”
Usually, the client will cooperate on the sidelines, reminding the elderly to rest, or that the "young man" is going to be busy, so as to control the time so as not to reveal the details.
Occasionally, some old people have sharp eyes, and they always feel that the younger generations in the video are different. "Zhang Zewei took over a peacekeeper and died. His grandmother was very old, her eyes were really good, and she asked a lot of details, such as how did her hair become like this, why did she not wear a military uniform, and she was very concerned about her grandson. ”
That time, thanks to the client's cooperation on the side, the old man did not become suspicious.
There is a cruel truth behind every order: the deceased are mostly the grandchildren of the elderly, and the clients who endure the cooperation are often the parents of the deceased. After the white-haired man sends the black-haired man, he has to hide it from his older parents.
Seeing the juniors who I haven't seen for a long time, the old man on the other end of the video always smiles. But Ding Ding's heart is difficult to calm down, she was raised by her grandparents since she was a child, and now she is working in other places, so it is easy to take on the role.
"They don't know that their grandchildren are no longer there, and they are still there to ask for warmth. Every time she thought about it, she was so sad that she couldn't do it.
Even if it is a "simple" coaxing old man, you must try your best to do it. A small negligence can lead to unpredictable consequences.
The 90-year-old Xu Xin usually plays the role of a young man, and he will arrange some credible details with the client in the communication before the order starts. For example, when the client and the elderly go to the vegetable market together, access the video, and then mention the common memories of the deceased and the old man about the vegetable market.
"Grandma, you had a fight with the grocery buyer here last time. Xu Xin said, "Something like this, I pretend to mention it inadvertently, and it seems very real." ”
However, no matter how cautious the plan is, the unexpected cannot be completely avoided. This accident is the special emotional connection between the old man and the deceased.
At one point, I played a young man who had been missing in Southeast Asia for two years. His mother had insomnia and cried every day, and his sister approached them and asked her to make a video call and say something comforting to her.
"A person has disappeared for two years, and he is ...... in Southeast Asia" Xu Xin is pessimistic about the fate of this young man.
His past audio and video are there, and it is not a problem to train the model and restore the image and sound. The difficulty lies in how to explain to the old man the two years that he has disappeared.
"We are very painful, this person has no news at all, how can we make it up in the past two years?"
Xu Xin, Zhang Zewei and his sister discussed for 3 days, weaving a timeline like writing a novel, and barely rounding out the story of the blank two years. In this non-existent timeline, the missing young man became a sailor, adrift at sea for many years, rarely going ashore.
At the beginning of the video call, Xu Xin was about to get rid of the story that he had made up for a few days, but after saying a few words, the old man on the other end of the video couldn't cry.
"You come back, I miss you. She said as she looked at the face of her "son" on the screen.
The same was true for the next few calls, the old man only wanted to see his face and hear his voice, but he didn't want to hear the story he made up.
"She knew I wasn't her son for sure, she could feel it. Xu Xin is sure that it is a unique bond and tacit understanding between a mother and a son. Even if the voice and appearance of the person in front of her were exactly the same as her son's, she could still sense that something was wrong.
"She knew everything in her heart. Xu Xin emphasized again. "If she believes that I am her son, how can she not want to listen to my story and solve her doubts for the past two years?"
The old man didn't say anything, perhaps in order to leave himself a little room for fantasy, like a boot that did not fall to the ground. The fate and life and death of the son can hang there forever.
Xu Xin also hopes that there is a slim possibility: that strange young man can live in the story he made up-
He did not leave this world, but became a sailor on an ocean-going ship. He had traveled to the other side of the globe and seen storms, islands, and whales.
His ship was up and down in the storm, the sea was dangerous, and communication was blocked, but he lived.
for there are still those who remember him in this world.
One day, he will return to shore and tell his mother the story of the end of the sea: in the sea where the iceberg floats, he caught a colorful tropical fish.
What are you most afraid of doing in this business?
I asked Zhang Zewei: Do you know that the person who is watching is not you, but a person who is important to him/her, but has died, can you still deal with it?
"Just like a doctor, if you do more surgery, you won't faint blood. "He looked calm.
But Xu Xin, who joined the team in the early days, told me that Zhang Zewei is not as "professional" as he seems. From the very beginning, they were not a "business-talking" team.
At the beginning of the business, when the number of orders was increasing, Zhang Zewei asked Xu Xin a question: "Do you know what I am most afraid of in this business?"
"I don't know what you're afraid of. Xu Xin said, "But I'm afraid of being poor." ”
Xu Xin talks about himself 10 years ago
At first, they were often moved by cases where "the customer cried a lot, and we cried a lot." Xu Xin said. "The customer side is desperately trying to give money, and our side is desperate not to collect money. ”
During that time, he and Zhang Zewei both helped others make a lot of digital people for free. He kept convincing himself that he couldn't give others free orders anymore, that he wanted to make money and support his family.
Now, he'll send the price list first. "What do you want, give me money and I'll do it for you. ”
Zhang Zewei is not worried about money at all: "Digital immortality is a subversive track, and it will not fail to make money." "With the massive exposure and conversion that comes with the opening of Taobao stores, their customer acquisition channels are becoming more convenient and broad, and they are no longer able to acquire customers through private domains as before.
"What I'm most afraid of is that I'm going to be apathetic and numb after doing this job. Zhang Zewei said.
And what happened afterwards was exactly as he said. "After a long time, when the same thing happens to us, we are not so easy to empathize, because we have seen too much. Xu Xin said.
But there were still a few moments when Xu Xin was still moved.
Many customers visit late at night. People always think of their old friends at this time, and they think of irreparable shortcomings. "In psychology, it's called an 'unfinished event'. Xu Xin said.
Many clients will emphasize, "Don't talk too much, just let me see him." "Because the more an actor speaks, the more flaws there are. It is in the quiet gaze that the customer can feel the presence of that person more.
In a few minutes of silence, the actors on the other side of the camera could detect the overturning of each other's hearts.
Xu Xin received one such client, who was a foreign company executive with a successful career, but had a strained relationship with his father. After his father died, he found the team and hoped to see his father again.
Because his father was strict with him since he was a child, he couldn't say many words when his father was alive.
After staring in silence for a while, the client gradually became absorbed and began to cry about his regret for his "father": his father's illness dragged on for too long, and he was too stressed, which seriously affected his family life. As a result, "there is no filial son in front of the bed of a long illness", and in the last days before his father left, the relationship between father and son was still tense.
He burst into tears, and I couldn't control it. Xu Xin said, "Because of empathy." Many words, while the person was alive, were not spoken. ”
Xu Xin has his own regrets. He grew up in the countryside and was often bullied as a child. But the family didn't care.
"Chinese parents, they will say so many children, why don't you hit others and hit you, you must be wrong. Xu Xin recalled, "Only my little uncle, he is different from others. He took me to clean up my bullies. ”
He still remembers his uncle taking him for a ride in a rented car, taking him into the supermarket in town for the first time and letting him pick up whatever was on the shelves.
"He lied to me and said he didn't need money to get snacks in the city. I took a lot of them, and he actually paid for them. Xu Xin said, "Thinking about it later, in fact, he has no money, and he likes to show off when he goes back to his hometown." He's tough. ”
It was such a strong uncle who, after suffering from a terminal illness, avoided almost all relatives and friends.
"Knowing that he was terminally ill, I didn't even dare to call him. He didn't want his younger generations to know, and he didn't want his relatives and friends to see him like that. Xu Xin said, "I love him very much, but I haven't even been able to tell him 'get well soon'." ”
In the last years of his uncle's life, the uncle and nephew never saw each other.
Don't want repeat customers
"It is impossible for a person to appear for no reason. "Zhang Zewei explained the logic of model training to me, and then turned the topic back to digital immortality.
He always advises everyone to leave more images and corpus so that after his death, his digital avatar can still accompany his relatives and future generations.
"Everyone, should leave something in the world. "It's not just heroes and great men who deserve to be remembered. ”
Zhang Zewei is making a digital human
This reminds me of the two wooden slips in the Sleeping Tiger Land Qin Jian, which are believed to be the earliest family letters in China. The sender was two Qin soldiers on the front line - "Surprise" and his brother "Heifu".
In this letter to his brother, he greeted his mother and family members one by one, and asked the family to send clothes and money as soon as possible. In addition, the most touching thing is a sentence of surprise about her daughter "Yan": Shocked by her family's history, she sincerely teaches her to take a salary, so that she does not dare to go far away as if she were paid (she is far away from home, and Brother Lao takes care of her, don't let her go too far to chop wood).
The letter was found in the grave of the heart, and scholars speculate that Surprise and Heifu may have died on the battlefield and did not return to their hometown alive. The last letter from his brothers was taken to the grave as a treasure.
As a result, people today can know that 2,200 years ago, there was a frightened father, on the front line of uncertain life and death, worried that his daughter was too far away from home when she was chopping wood.
This is a nobody in the war, leaving a little warmth to the world.
In Zhang Zewei's view, in the era of AI, there are still too few such memory fragments. Many clients approach him with only a photograph of the deceased. Every time he thinks of this, Zhang Zewei always regrets deeply, "The most important person in him is only one photo left." ”
Despite his enthusiasm, the idea of making the deceased digitally immortalized seemed like an idea ahead of its time.
After that call, Wu Qi never used her lover's digital person again. Her husband is her college classmate, and the two have spent 16 years together from acquaintance, love, marriage and childbirth. To this day, she still falls into self-blame from time to time: if she hadn't let him drink that day, if she had observed his body earlier......
她甚至不敢再听丈夫生前的音频。
"I can accept it slowly, accept that I don't have a husband or a man, and I will have to carry everything alone in the future. She said. But she decided she wanted to leave something for her daughters.
Since the birth of his two children, he has never left them, he plays with his daughters, cares for them, and "has a very good relationship with them. ”
"I'm going to isolate all of this myself, but I'll still save some for my daughters, after all, my father still has a very good image in their hearts. Wu Qi said, "If one day, they have a strong request and want to video with their father, I will still take out 'him' again." ”
For practitioners like Xu Xin, the use of AI to resurrect the dead is nothing new. But the orders he received always reminded him that there is still a huge information gap in the use of AI, especially for people outside the third and fourth tier cities.
He often remembered the shock of some of his clients when they saw their loved ones "resurrected", and a young man who said to him gratefully after his father's picture moved: "I can kowtow to you in front of me." ”
Through Taobao, AI, a new technology, can reach and soothe the hearts of more people driven by business logic. On the eve of the Qingming Festival, the number of people searching for "resurrected relatives" on Taobao skyrocketed by 605%, rushing to the Taobao hot search.
"Everyone knows that this thing is fake. Zhang Zewei said, "But the people who find us have a need for this." ”
"We don't want repeat customers. Xu Xin added, "That means he didn't come out." ”
Saying goodbye to life and death is still a difficult problem that human beings cannot overcome. The one who once made us no longer lonely and helpless will one day be separated from us.
The vast majority of people who want to see their "resurrected" relatives have regrets in their hearts that cannot be filled. Seeing too much, Xu Xin told himself: "The important thing is to grasp the moment and cherish the people in front of you." This is a sentence that is close to common sense, everyone can say it, but few people understand it as deeply as he does.
A year after his uncle's death, Xu Xin saw a back in the crowd from a distance on Mount Emei.
"It's a lot like what my uncle looked like when he was 30 years old. It was as if the lights of the whole world had been turned off, and only one light was left on that person. "I walked nervously, I knew it couldn't be my uncle, but there was a force that drove me faster and faster......"
(Except for Zhang Zewei, the names of the interviewees in this article have been changed)