By Kate Yuan

(JW Insights) May 17 -- Chinese AI company Xiaoice (小冰公司) has launched the “GPT Clone Program” in China and Japan, the Microsoft spinoff announced on May 16. The first batch will recruit 300 people and create their own digital life based on the 3-5 minute videos and personal social network data they provide, Pandaily reported.

Xiaoice, formerly known as AI Xiaoice Team of Microsoft Software Technology Center Asia, is Microsoft’s biggest independent R&D team of AI products in the world. In July 2020, Microsoft spun off Xiaoice as a standalone Chinese company based in Beijing.

The “clone” is generated using large language models, neural network rendering, and supernatural language technology. It will inherit a real person's appearance, voice, and personality and can engage in real-time interaction. Meanwhile, a platform will be provided where one people offer certified clones to their own audience for a fee or free of charge.

Xiaoice stated that it plans to lift restrictions on the number of people and quotas gradually. Currently, the plan is to expand the scale of GPT clone humans to 100,000 people by the end of this year. To register, you can contact WeChat AI Xiaoice directly and say “I want to register for cloning”.

Xiaoice CEO Li Di stated that Xiaoice’s GPT model was developed and completed half a year ago, and has become the most downloaded open-source large-scale GPT model in Japan.

Over the past few months, Xiaoice has been conducting extensive data collection, training, and compliance security checks to ensure the safety of the “Clone Plan”, said the Pandaily report.