— Thank you very much.

AI (人工智能) makes our lives easier and better. From Apple's voice-activated assistant Siri to the software algorithms (算法) that shipping companies use to deal with deliveries (投递), AI is very much a part of our lives..

Cool driverless bus

A bus door opens and you get on. Wait! Where is the driver? Here is a new kind of driverless bus called Apolong. It has 14 seats and doesn't need a driver. The bus follows traffic rules. . The bus is very comfortable.

Hi, everyone. I'm Xiaobing, a chatbot (聊天机器人). I speak like a 17-year-old girl. If you feel lonely, you can talk with me. I'm talented at singing, writing poems and telling stories. I want to be your friend!

World' s first AI anchor (主播)

Hey, look! The famous Chinese anchor Qiu Hao is reporting news for us. But, is "he" really Qiu Hao? The answer is "no". This is the world's first AI anchor. . It can work 24 hours and doesn't make any mistakes. You might see it on TV soon.

Popular AI artist

This beautiful painting was at an auction (拍卖) in 2020. The painting is worth about 3,000,000 yuan! But it is not a work by a famous painter, such as Vincent Van Gogh. . Three Frenchmen created the AI artist. It studied over 15,000 paintings. In this way, it learned to paint.

Ancient art doesn't have to be boring. Technology in the 21st century can help to bring it to life by combining (融合) the best of the old and the new.

Along the River During the Qingming Festival

Walking into the China Pavilion at Expo 2010 in Shanghai, people were amazed by seeing a huge digital (数码的) painting. Scientists digitized (数字化) the famous painting Along the River During the Qingming Festival by Chinese artist Zhang Zeduan.

The original (原先的) painting shows life during the Northern Song period and it includes many details of ancient Chinese customs, lifestyles and technology.

_________ Farmers work in the fields, sailors move around on their boats and people eat and do business in restaurants. Parts of the background are also animated (做成动画). You can see the wind blowing through the trees and across the water. These animations perfectly combine modern technology and ancient art.

Digital technology allows today's artists to express their ideas in ways that ancient artists would not believe possible. Techniques such as animation and 3D digital projection (投影) make art come alive.

Dunhuang Cave Paintings

Dunhuang Caves, which are protected ancient treasures in the Gobi desert in Northwest China, are filled with paintings and sculptures with lasting value. This artwork was created over a period of around 1,000 years.

The good news is for art lovers who cannot travel and for the caves. Scientists have created a 360-degree, 3D digital projection of the caves, which makes the artwork come alive. There is also a function (功能) that lets viewers zoom in (使……拉近) and enjoy the paintings and sculptures in greater detail.

Digitising ancient art allows us to explore the ancient practices. It also makes the whole world understand the art while protecting the original artworks for the future.

Robots may seem smart, but they cannot even pick up a chess piece. Let's take a look at some tasks that are easy for kids but not for robots.

Pick things up

Picking things up is not easy. If we drop our pencil on the floor, our brains work hard. First we must find the pencil. Then we move our hands to it. A robot cannot always move its "hand" to the right place. When we touch the pencil, it might roll (滚动) a little bit. Robots cannot easily understand this either. So, if you drop a pencil on the floor, a robot will probably roll it around the room.

Get around in large space

If someone drops us in a building we've never been to, we might feel a bit lost. But we can look around, find a door and get out quickly. But a robot will look everywhere for a door, even on ceilings (天花板) and floors. This is because it's hard for them to understand spaces, especially large, blank things such as walls or ceilings.

Understand the world made by people

"Common sense" is what we don't need to think or talk about. Because of common sense, we do not look for doors on the ceiling. We pick up a coffee cup by its handle (把手). We feel whether it has coffee inside, and whether it is hot.

A robot? It may turn the cup upside down. It may hold the hot part of the cup. Scientists have tried teaching robots common-sense rules. But even huge databases (数据库) don't help much. Maybe they need more time to learn.