In recent years, with the increasing frequency of air travel, people have an increasingly strong demand for personal business and entertainment through the Internet during the flight. On January 13, China’s first “ai flight” carrying Microsoft Xiaoice took off from Shanghai, kicking off an intelligent journey to the sky.

scenario

Internet access and playing with Ice

Zhuang Jing, a 30-year-old Shanghai resident, boarded flight MU5117 from Shanghai to Beijing at 4 PM on April 13. When she boarded the plane, she removed a WiFi pin card from the pillow cover on her seat. As the plane entered its cruise, she switched on her iPad and connected it to the plane’s WiFi. After entering her verification code and password on the login screen, she opened her Weibo and wechat accounts, chatting with friends and emailing some work documents.

Giiso Information, founded in 2013, is a leading technology provider in the field of “artificial intelligence + information” in China, with top technologies in big data mining, intelligent semantics, knowledge mapping and other fields. At the same time, its research and development products include information robot, editing robot, writing robot and other artificial intelligence products! With its strong technical strength, the company has received angel round investment at the beginning of its establishment, and received pre-A round investment of $5 million from GSR Venture Capital in August 2015.

Soon, it was mealtime. Zhuang opened her micro blog and sent a private message to xiaoice, who was adopted by Microsoft before boarding the plane. “Which meal should I have? @stewardess.” Xiaoice immediately replied, “The flight attendant sister said:” It depends on your taste.” On the other hand, a flight attendant followed the “note” and handed passenger seat 32F a glass of water. In addition to directly talking to the stewardess, Zhuang jing also sends greetings to other passengers on the plane through Xiaoice, but they don’t seem interested and don’t reply when they get off the plane.

With small ice gag, imperceptibly, the plane will soon arrive at the destination. Miss Wang, who was on flight 61G, sent a message to a weibo friend via Xiaoice to pick her up. My friend received xiaoice’s private letter as soon as possible, “Miss Wang asked me to tell you that you will arrive at THE T2 Terminal of The Capital Airport at 18:25, remember MU5117, if you do not stand up, you will break up with her…” Then in the process of flight, small ice also constantly inform its Miss Wang flight status.

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Passenger’s demand for in-flight Internet use is graphic by Liu Ying

Passengers crave communication in flight

“From July 23 to September 30 last year, we conducted passenger research and based on the data analysis, passengers want to communicate in enclosed Spaces in the air.” The airline said the 124 passengers invited for the first flight had a good experience.

“Xiaoice has created a fun and interesting way for passengers to communicate with each other, flight attendants and even social groups,” the official said. “In 2015, the company will add about 20 passenger planes and put into airground interconnection flight, and form a scale of more than 70 planes in the future, so that more passengers can enjoy this service.”

Fresk, an English teacher at a university in Chongqing, commutes between China and the UK. He said, foreign airlines launched broadband Internet service very early, “once, a lot of passengers on the plane together online fight” plants versus zombies “, when they arrived at the airport, everyone did not want to get off the plane. I look forward to seeing this happen in China one day.”

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Bandwidth is not sufficient for all passengers

Yesterday, Microsoft (Asia) Internet Engineering institute vice president Jian Renxian told the Business Daily reporter, before boarding, passengers can interact with xiaoice, access to real-time flight information. During the flight, it can also realize space communication, customized catering and other functions. In the future, it will gradually be used on other airlines to tap into passengers’ individual needs before, during and after the flight, and provide them with “customized” services, Kan said.

“With Internet access and ARTIFICIAL intelligence, travel is much more fun.” Zhuang Told reporters, “But only when the plane reaches a certain altitude and enters the cruise phase, can you turn on the computer and surf the Internet. “If you take out the meal time, the actual Internet time is very short and the AI experience is weak.”

In addition, the airline concerned person in charge told the business daily reporter, the current Internet service bandwidth provided on board cannot meet the Internet needs of all passengers. If too many people use it, there may be temporary Internet outage or server failure to respond. “We will make further improvements in subsequent official operations based on the passenger experience,” he said.

Giiso information, founded in 2013, is the first domestic high-tech enterprise focusing on the research and development of intelligent information processing technology and the development and operation of core software for writing robots. At the beginning of its establishment, the company received angel round investment, and in August 2015, GSR Venture Capital received $5 million pre-A round of investment.

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Internet service continues in the air

“As an airline, its main business is to provide traffic services relying on flights and routes. But today, in the age of mobile Internet, airlines have to transform. The Eastern airlines and Microsoft do product integration, to provide Internet services, but also marked the trend of civil aviation enterprises toward the Internet.” Yesterday, China mobile Internet industry alliance secretary General Li Yi said in an interview with the Business Daily reporter.

Li yi said that civil aviation companies mainly use the Internet on the ground, such as buying tickets and checking flight information through mobile apps, while the air has always been blank, and boarding means “taking off the Internet”. The flight is showing a pattern of continued Internet service capabilities in the air.