How to “deeply learn” Luo Zhenyu’s New Year’s Eve speech?

The results of the New Year's Eve programs of various TV stations have been announced. According to the data released by Luoji Siwei, Luo Zhenyu's 2016 New Year's Eve speech "Friends of Time" won the first place. So many viewers came to see a fat man instead of a young star. This shows at least two things: First, although entertainment programs that do not require thinking have become a red ocean, the demand for thinking is still there, and a blue ocean market can be created; second, there are still not many programs that can make people think, and Luoji Siwei has become a clear stream in the entertainment industry.

(Source: Luoji Siwei CEO @脱不花妹妹 Weibo)

Considering that Luo Zhenyu's strength is cross-border, it is reasonable for him to be the first in the entertainment industry in the current environment where the professionalism of celebrities is getting worse year by year. The content of the speech is also cross-border. The hot topic of artificial intelligence appears in the speech. Although the three points summarized by Luo Zhenyu (see the Leifeng.com article "Luo Zhenyu's judgment on artificial intelligence is not even correct nonsense") are basically common sense in the eyes of artificial intelligence researchers, they are already rewarding enough for the general public. Especially in terms of the impact of artificial intelligence on future life, Luo Zhenyu described it like this:

Yuval Noah Harari, the author of Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, has published a new book called Homo Deus. This book says that a kind of useless people may appear in the future. If artificial intelligence is powerful enough and willing to be exploited and enslaved without complaint, some humans may not even be worth being exploited. A series of occupations are about to disappear. With artificial intelligence, drivers, secretaries, civil servants, doctors, lawyers, chefs, these occupations will be threatened.

When I saw this passage, the first thing that came to my mind was this story:

A and B met a bear in the forest. A bent down to tie his shoe. B said, "Don't be in a hurry, man. You can't outrun the bear!" The man who was about to run replied, "I don't need to run faster than the bear, I just need to run faster than you."

In this story, AI is the bear and Luo Zhenyu is the man who ties his shoelaces. Just as Wu Xiaobo mentioned in his New Year's Eve speech that AI can imitate his voice by using deep learning, in theory, as long as there are enough speeches by Luo Zhenyu, AI can imitate Luo Zhenyu's style of speech through deep learning. But as a seller of opinions in the new media era, Luo Zhenyu is always one step ahead of readers. Even if AI replaces human jobs in the future, Luo Zhenyu will be the last one to come.

So, if we let an AI study Luo Zhenyu's speeches in depth (assuming there are enough speeches), what kind of rules will it draw? Leifeng.com made a prediction:

1. Find materials from cross-border content

"There are 100 million people who love me and 100 million who hate me." - Alan Iveson

Although Luo Zhenyu's description of artificial intelligence in his speech is problematic in the eyes of the industry (for example, the statement that Fei-Fei Li's move to Google means that artificial intelligence cannot develop in academia), this speech undoubtedly confirmed Luo Zhenyu's status as "the speaker who understands artificial intelligence best." Luo Zhenyu's typical readers are the general public, or more accurately, fans who "love and support." He doesn't need to satisfy everyone, as long as he can get the pain points of his fans. How much difference does Luo Zhenyu's understanding of artificial intelligence have? It doesn't matter. As Luo Zhenyu himself said, the general public doesn't care what is right, they are only happy to accept what they know.

So, what kind of content is the public happy to know?

2. Start with something familiar

"A step ahead is a genius, a step ahead is a madman." - Proverb

Unfortunately, the field of artificial intelligence may be more than one step ahead of public perception.

In the chicken soup world, there is a term called "psychological comfort zone", and Luo Zhenyu is undoubtedly an expert in this area. He usually starts with familiar nouns or some phenomena around us, expands a seemingly fresh point of view, and then tries to interpret it with some knowledge he knows. For example, the GDT mentioned in the speech links money and time based on the GDP that the audience is familiar with, and the same is true for many metaphors in the artificial intelligence part (such as looking at pornographic pictures, etc.).

3. Simple and crude reasoning

"If you have a hammer, everything looks like a nail." - Common saying

As Luo Zhenyu said in his speech, "As a liberal arts student, I have a little advantage. If I understand a little bit, I will express it in human language." The focus of this sentence is not on "understanding a little bit" but on "expressing it in human language (to express the effect I hope for)".

For example, Luo Zhenyu's reasoning about artificial intelligence in his speech:

“Algorithms… I don’t understand them, so just let it go… I don’t know about the advancement of hardware… The key point is big data.”

All right.

4. Cross-application of jokes and panic-mongering to create emotional resonance

“Literature is like looking at a mountain; one does not like flatness.” - Yuan Mei

With cross-border knowledge points, familiar scenes, and simple and crude reasoning instead of thinking, the rest are details. The whole speech is still Luo Zhenyu's style of throwing out free stuff one after another, but in addition to bringing laughter to the audience, he also needs to adjust their emotions and resonate with panic views such as "If artificial intelligence is powerful enough, some humans may not even be worth being exploited" after the high.

The same is true for the appearance of a large number of celebrity portraits and aphorisms. Leifeng.com noted that in Luo Zhenyu's speech, we saw Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg, Zhang Ruimin, Jack Ma, Robin Li, Hoffman, Zhang Yiming, Shi Yuzhu, Wang Xing, Zhang Xiaolong and others take turns to "endorse" Luo Zhenyu. In the terminology of PPT, this is called the "panic effect". After a famous quote is reinforced, when the reader feels as if he has gained some insights, he immediately switches to the next one, and in such a pressing situation, he achieves a sense of identity.

What I said is all wrong.

Luo Zhenyu's New Year's Eve speech, like many of his previous programs, has received mixed reviews. Luo fans will feel that it has enlightened them, while Luo haters will feel that Luo Zhenyu is still just a knowledge dealer who has not created any new value. But in any case, in the face of the tide of artificial intelligence, Luo Pang is a person who is more diligent and thoughtful than most people. For example, in the answer to the question "What do you think of Luo Zhenyu's 2016 New Year's Eve speech "Friends of Time" on Shenzhen Satellite TV?" on Zhihu, the top-ranked answer has the following passage:

I think Luo Zhenyu's real value is

It is for a group of young people who used to not like to think much.

Opened the door to thinking.

It is for a group of people who have thought a lot before.

Provides some extra angles.

No matter how Luo Zhenyu introduced artificial intelligence from a layman's perspective in his New Year's Eve speech, or how many famous quotes he quoted to try to tell everyone something, it doesn't matter. If after Luo Zhenyu's New Year's Eve speech, people who watched the speech with various mindsets have their own thoughts, that's enough.

Just like what Zhang Xiaolong likes to put on the last page of the PPT, this is the correct way to open Luo Zhenyu’s New Year’s Eve speech:

"Every word I said was wrong."