●Liu Yu Song Chen

When the room is messy, I will take the initiative to do housework, when I am hungry, I will look for food all over the house, and when I am bored, I will turn on the TV...... A few days ago, at the general artificial intelligence forum held at the annual meeting of the 2025 Zhongguancun Forum, a simulated little girl with a smart expression and quick response on the electronic screen attracted the attention of the audience.

Her name is "Tongtong", which is a prototype of a general artificial intelligence system developed by the Beijing Institute of General Artificial Intelligence, and also points to the current hot word in the field of artificial intelligence - AI agents.

"AI intelligence can be understood as a more three-dimensional, 'human-like' intelligent system. In addition to providing a wide range of language communication for large models, it can also complete more complex tasks. Pu Zhiqiang, a researcher at the Institute of Automation of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said.

The reporter saw that when the researchers raised the sensory temperature of "Tongtong", the task of "turning on the air conditioner" was triggered. In order to get the remote control placed on the high wall shelf, "Tongtong" first took off his shoes and went to the sofa, and then used the cushions on the sofa to increase his height, and finally succeeded.

"'Tongtong' is like a 'little assistant' with intelligence, emotional intelligence, understanding, and help." Zhu Songchun, president of the Beijing Institute of General Artificial Intelligence, said that it is not driven by data, but by value and cause and effect, so it will actively participate in all aspects of the task, rather than passively executing. In the future, if it is put into practical application scenarios, it will not only help improve production efficiency, but also better cope with unexpected situations and improve the flexibility of production and services.

This year, "embodied wisdom" was written into the government work report for the first time, and it has become an important direction for China's cultivation of future industries. At present, AI agents have been applied in many scenarios, such as customer service, content creation, and mobile assistants.

Zhu Songchun said that the institute is exploring the combination of the technical advantages of "Tongtong" and embodied intelligence, which is equivalent to installing a "brain" for humanoid robots, further learning industry-specific knowledge and skills, and allowing agents and robots to enter everyone's family.

At present, artificial intelligence technology still has a long way to go beyond the "parroting" wisdom and breaking the dilemma of "brain in a jar". However, if "Tongtong" has the ability to perceive, cognitive, make decisions, learn, execute, and cooperate with society, and is in line with human emotions and moral concepts, will it also bring risks such as security, ethics, and privacy?

Zhang Yaqin, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, pointed out that the ability of intelligent twins to self-plan, learn and achieve goals is a good technology, but its path is often uncontrollable and will bring security risks.

Zeng Yi, a researcher at the Institute of Automation of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and an expert from the United Nations High Advisory Body on Artificial Intelligence, believes that superintelligence may appear, and it may be a living and self-evolving artificial intelligence, and it will also become a major issue for the entire human society.

Industry insiders generally believe that 2025 years may become the first year of agents. The reporter expects that "Tongtong", who is growing up in the simulated environment, can more deeply understand the expectations and emotions placed on it by human beings, and embrace the future of harmonious coexistence between man and machine.

According to Xinhua News Agency