Chapter 115 The Eureka Moment

November 23rd, Wednesday.

Lu Zhiyao returned to the hotel where he was staying.

In the past few days, aside from going to the film set to shoot, he had holed himself up in the hotel, repeatedly studying the script given to him by Director Zhu, and trying to fathom the inner world of the character Qin Yi.

Being cooped up indoors all the time, Lu Zhiyao felt inexplicably restless.

However, this sense of restlessness was precisely what he wanted.

Throughout the entire movie, Qin Yi was also confined to the command module, unable to communicate with others, let alone go outside. For a soldier who had been fighting on the front lines for a long time, this was undoubtedly a very frustrating situation.

Moreover, Qin Yi was under immense mental pressure in the movie. His every move determined the lives of countless soldiers, and even the survival of the entire human civilization, which only increased the mental pressure.

If he couldn't effectively portray this mental state, then Lu Zhiyao's performance would be substandard.

Therefore, Lu Zhiyao had been cooped up in his room playing games for the past few days, in order to better experience Qin Yi's mental state.

But he always felt like something was missing.

After completing today's filming task, Lu Zhiyao returned to his room as usual and forced himself to sit in front of the computer.

Although he was almost sick of playing the game, and was very tired after a day of shooting and wanted to rest, Lu Zhiyao knew very well that his current state was the closest to Qin Yi's, and he had to remember this mindset.

However, as soon as he sat down, he noticed that something seemed to be different in the room.

He was staying in a suite, and the computer was on the desk in the living room. At this moment, an automatic argument machine had appeared on the floor next to the desk. A soundbar was connected to the computer, and two small surround sound speakers were placed behind him, on the cabinet opposite the desk.

Obviously, this brand-new intelligent argument machine had been brought in by the staff during the day.

Lu Zhiyao's eyes lit up.

Wasn't this the Aeeis physical smart speaker he had requested earlier?

Great, now he could rehearse his scenes!

The most troubling thing for Lu Zhiyao before was that he wasn't actually acting in a one-man show, but rather in a scene with Aeeis. But during filming, everything was green screen, and he had to imagine his co-star entirely, so how could he act?

Even if he could find someone else to rehearse with, the voice of a person was still very different from the voice of Aeeis.

Now that he had a physical Aeeis, as long as he recorded all the lines, he could rehearse the scenes over and over again!

Lu Zhiyao looked at the automatic intelligent argument machine. From the outside, it was just a huge black box. The top part had the automatic argument function, the lower part was the soundbar's bass section, and the front had a glowing circle that would indicate when Aeeis was speaking.

There was a note on the automatic argument machine that read: "Say 'Aeeis, return to your initial form' to begin rehearsing."

Lu Zhiyao remembered clearly that this wasn't Qin Yi's first line. Before this line, Aeeis had a few lines of dialogue with Qin Yi in a female voice.

But this line was a turning point. From then on, Aeeis became a cold electronic voice, and Lu Zhiyao's scene with it officially began.

All of Aeeis's lines in the script that Lu Zhiyao currently had should have been entered into the system. After detecting Lu Zhiyao's speech, Aeeis would automatically reply with the next line.

Lu Zhiyao: "Aeeis, return to your initial form."

Aeeis: "Captain Qin Yi, perhaps you are angry now, but humanity needs you to continue to fulfill your mission as a soldier..."

One person and one machine, they began to converse, line by line.

He had to admit, it was actually pretty good.

Lu Zhiyao had been performing to the air before. Even when he rehearsed with others, they were just reciting the lines, and he didn't get that feeling. But now, facing Aeeis's calibrated electronic voice, he was instantly and quickly immersed in the role of Qin Yi.

After going through the lines a few times, Lu Zhiyao decided to take a sip of water and rest for a while.

He had tried several different performance styles during the rehearsal, and had recorded the entire process of his performance with a camera. Now was the perfect time to watch all the recordings and carefully identify any gaps.

However, after watching the recordings several times, Lu Zhiyao still felt that something was missing from his performance.

This feeling was very strange, because Lu Zhiyao had already tried his best to express all the possible emotions that Qin Yi might have, including gratitude, anger, disappointment, determination, and so on, but he still felt like something was missing.

What exactly was missing?

Or was it just an illusion?

Lu Zhiyao aimlessly flipped over the note and found another sentence on the back: "You can say 'Enter argument mode' to Aeeis to relax."

"Huh?"

"What is argument mode?"

Although he didn't know what it did specifically, the name "argument mode" sounded interesting!

Lu Zhiyao immediately said, "Aeeis, enter argument mode."

Aeeis: "Okay, there are always self-righteous humans who want to start this boring game. Do you think you're smart?"

Lu Zhiyao: "?"

...

Fifteen minutes later, Lu Zhiyao silently lit a cigarette and began to contemplate life.

What was it like to be rendered speechless by an artificial intelligence?

Originally, Lu Zhiyao thought that Aeeis's so-called argument mode was just a gimmick. Even if it could barely argue with humans at the beginning, it would soon be defeated and say, "Sorry, I don't quite understand what you mean."

But he never expected that Aeeis would be so aggressive, directly arguing with Lu Zhiyao to the point where he doubted his own existence!

As soon as the argument mode started, Aeeis began to ask questions aggressively. Lu Zhiyao tried his best to deny it, but no matter how he denied it, he was cleverly cornered by Aeeis and unilaterally abused.

Then, Lu Zhiyao, unable to bear it any longer, started a shouting match with Aeeis, launching a frenzied personal attack on the machine. But to his surprise, Aeeis was completely unmoved, and continued to attack Lu Zhiyao's intelligence from multiple angles with a constant speed and a calm tone.

In this confrontation, Lu Zhiyao was quickly defeated, became despondent, and began to think about many life and philosophical questions.

Of course, these questions also included "How much does the argument machine cost?", "Will I have to pay compensation if I smash it?", and "Will it become a scandal if the news of me smashing the argument machine gets out?"

Suddenly, a flash of inspiration struck Lu Zhiyao's mind.

"So that's it, I understand what's missing!"

"My expression of emotions towards Aeeis was inadequate in the previous performances!"

Lu Zhiyao suddenly realized.

The previous performances were all filmed against a green screen, and the staff were the ones who read Aeeis's lines to him. So Lu Zhiyao focused his main energy on figuring out Qin Yi's own mindset.

The character of Qin Yi had a very complex experience, and the plot involved a very complex mental fluctuation. Lu Zhiyao needed to take care of all aspects, so he inadvertently overlooked Qin Yi's emotions towards Aeeis!

Or rather, although Lu Zhiyao had realized that this was a scene between him and Aeeis, he didn't understand it deeply enough. He was too immersed in exploring the inner world of the character of Qin Yi, and ignored the role of Aeeis in the scene.

Lu Zhiyao quickly pulled out the script again and reread Aeeis's lines.

Clearly, Aeeis's subjective intentions were what Lu Zhiyao had been ignoring all along!

As an artificial intelligence, Aeeis's emotionless electronic voice made Lu Zhiyao subconsciously regard it as a tool person, but after arguing with Aeeis, Lu Zhiyao suddenly realized that it wasn't a tool. It also had purposes and tendencies!

The same was true in the movie.

In the movie, Aeeis actually influenced Qin Yi's thoughts at many key junctures, for example:

When adding "realistic elements," Aeeis used concrete data such as "morale will collapse if the casualty rate exceeds 5% in ancient battles" to make Qin Yi more clearly aware of the increased difficulty in the realistic mode;

When Qin Yi was feeling frustrated due to failure, Aeeis timely reminded him that the accuracy of the data analysis had reached more than 87%, which could be used as a reference, objectively playing an inductive role;

When that couple sacrificed themselves, Aeeis's first reaction was to cover up the truth, explaining it as "random and unpredictable behaviors and phenomena that appear in the intelligent system, used to simulate emergencies on the real battlefield";

After Qin Yi questioned this, Aeeis admitted after a while that Qin Yi was commanding a real battle...

There were similar instances everywhere.

Every line of Aeeis's in the movie actually had a role in advancing the plot. A large portion of the lines directly affected Qin Yi's mindset and cognition, and a small number of lines seemed to hide even more content.

For example, when Qin Yi asked Aeeis if that couple was real people, Aeeis answered after a while.

Since it was an artificial intelligence, and all reactions were calculated through programs, then according to common sense, all questions should be answered immediately.

This "after a while" could actually imply many things, and Qin Yi should have reacted to it.

Even a subtle expression would be more reasonable than not realizing it at all.

Obviously, Lu Zhiyao's previous performance had a big deficiency in this regard. Although he knew very well that he was acting in a scene with Aeeis, he didn't truly bring out the essence of the scene, which was why he felt like something was missing.

Thinking of this, Lu Zhiyao couldn't help but excitedly knock on the table.

"That's right, that's what's missing!"

"When I was performing before, I was still too obsessed with exploring my own character's inner self, and I didn't really treat Aeeis as an intelligent being."

"Now, being rendered speechless by Aeeis has made me realize this, and this is very important!"

Now that he had found the crux of the problem, it would be easier to handle.

Lu Zhiyao cheered up again and said to Aeeis, "Aeeis, return to your initial form!"

Aeeis: "Captain Qin Yi, perhaps you are angry now, but humanity needs you to continue to fulfill your mission as a soldier..."

One person and one machine, began to converse again.