Winter Heralds Its Arrival, Extending Sparkling Warmth to Everyone

A transformative surge in technology is on the horizon as large models transition from a fervent discussion topic to practical applications. From start-ups to industrial giants, companies embrace large models to bolster their competitive edge. Beyond the limelight of the times, the dawn of large models radiates warmth even to the most “overlooked” vulnerable groups. The spark not only kindles innovation across myriad industries, but also brings fresh opportunities for social good causes.

Whether safeguarding the mental well-being of left-behind children, spearheading anti-fraud initiatives for disabled communities, or catalyzing barrier-free product research and development, iFLYTEK Spark Desk is at the forefront of this new era in technology. Today, we engage in conversations with developers to explore how iFLYTEK Spark Desk empowers the underprivileged to live better lives.

1. Emotional “tree hole” for left-behind children

As Alfred Adler, an Austrian psychiatrist and psychologist, aptly noted, “Fortunate people have their whole life protected and healed by their childhood, unfortunate people have to have their whole life protected and healed from their childhood”. The absence of parental presence and limited family resources often render many left-behind children vulnerable to profound feelings of inferiority, depression, and insecurity.

In Guangzhou, a group of young people has undertaken the mission to “help every child in China experience nurturing growth.” Their objective is to offer precise, professional, and enduring psychological support and quality companionship to children, especially those from rural areas, who lack the effective warmth of parental affection.

As the technical head of the Youth Development Center of Panyu District, Guangzhou, Mai Genting has spearheaded the development of the “Companion Intelligent Mental Health Public Service Platform”. This platform strategically pairs suitable mentors with left-behind children, fostering long-term and effective virtual companionships centered around learning guidance, interest cultivation, talent discovery, and mental development. It has mobilized over 60,000 volunteers from more than 200 colleges and universities, benefiting over 100,000 students.

“Despite receiving a large number of inquiries daily, the public service platform faces challenges in meeting the extensive concurrent demand due to the limited number of volunteers,” said Mai Genting. The introduction of iFLYTEK Spark Desk has instilled hope in addressing the issue.

Through the iFLYTEK AI social good project “Blessed with Sound,” Mai Genting’s team secured access to Spark Desk V3.0 API and created an intelligent companion consulting robot, Smart Buddy. This smart companion, built upon iFLYTEK Spark Desk 3.0, serves as a psychological counselor with the benefits of being accessible anytime and anywhere, personalized, and efficient. It can extend mental health support to a much wider audience.

Highlighting the positive performance of iFLYTEK Spark Desk, Mai Genting commented, “Spark Desk 3.0 exhibits commendable overall capability, providing accurate responses to a broad spectrum of queries. In instances where volunteer availability is limited, children can independently seek guidance on psychological and educational matters.”

He envisions leveraging iFLYTEK Spark Desk to offer comprehensive growth support services, encompassing psychological education, assessment, screening, emotional counseling, and long-term cloud-based companionship consolidated into three pivotal prevention, identification, and open dialogue modules. iFLYTEK Spark Desk, through these modules, can actively engage in uncovering and alleviating psychological challenges and delivering counseling services to support a greater number of left-behind children.

Mai Genting remarked, “Spark Desk possesses significant potential to play diverse positive roles in the realm of social good causes.” For example, by extracting valuable insights from vast information pools it can aid social good organizations in more efficient resource allocation and swift identification of areas requiring urgent assistance. Additionally, it can deliver personalized services and foster the development of intelligent educational tools.

2. Resilient defense against fraud for the disabled

Since late 2016, He Huiming has been actively involved in the One plus One Spoken English social good project in Minzhi Street, Longhua District, Shenzhen. Over time, he has become a senior volunteer at Longhua Disabled Persons’ Association of Shenzhen, and assisting people with disabilities is now an integral part of his daily life.

Nowadays, telecom and network fraud is rampant, and fraudsters employ ever-more sophisticated tactics that can be challenging to discern. “People with disabilities, given their unique circumstances, have heightened emotional needs and are particularly vulnerable when fraudsters exploit emotional vulnerabilities,” noted He Huiming.

Anti-fraud awareness plays a crucial role in the initiatives undertaken by Longhua Disabled Persons’ Association. The integration of large models not only enhances He Huiming’s work efficiency but also sparks innovative ideas on leveraging large models' capabilities for anti-fraud advocacy.

Utilizing iFLYTEK Spark Desk 3.0, He Huiming is developing an AI-based anti-fraud product tailored for people with disabilities which aims to:

• Provide accurate and real-time responses to queries from people with disabilities regarding policies, subsidies, benefits, etc., ensuring they stay informed with the latest and most accurate information;

• Create interactive anti-fraud simulation games presented as engaging dialogues to empower people with disabilities in identifying potential frauds and traps to augment their awareness and enhance their ability to protect themselves.

3. Streamlining barrier-free product development

Equality prevails in the realm of technology. Contemporary design and development increasingly prioritize incorporating barrier-free features, aiming to ensure everyone can partake in the marvels of today’s world. Nevertheless, the design and development of barrier-free products pose considerable challenges.

On one hand, profit-driven enterprises may hesitate to invest substantial time and resources to cater to a relatively small user base. On the other hand, product designers may find it challenging to shift their perspective to that of individuals with disabilities and empathize with their unique usage scenarios and pain spots.

Chen Lan, an accessibility expert from the Expert Committee of Accessibility Research Association in Shenzhen, collaborates with her colleague Liu Biao, an accessibility engineer, to develop a groundbreaking tool, “Barrier-free Co-pilot” Assistant, powered by iFLYTEK Spark Desk.

“Barrier-free Co-pilot” harnesses the extensive professional knowledge base of the research association. Utilizing a multi-dimensional approach (considering factors such as obstacle type, age, ability, and digital literacy), it simulates scenarios with obstacles. Through interactive question-and-answer sessions, it provides valuable information references for users working on developing barrier-free products. Simultaneously, it facilitates users’ acquisition of general knowledge in the realm of accessibility.

At the onset of AI Generated Content (AIGC), Chen Lan was keenly interested in the inclusivity of large models, particularly whether they would cover inquiries of vulnerable groups and individuals with disabilities, and whether the responses would be appropriate. Following extensive research into various large models, Chen Lan attests that iFLYTEK Spark Desk not only exhibits exceptional capabilities but also excels in terms of accessibility. “Visually impaired engineers at the research association face no challenges in using and creating the assistant,” said Chen Lan.

iFLYTEK Open Platform consistently prioritizes the user experience of developers with disabilities. The barrier-free version of the iFLYTEK Open Platform official website was launched in 2020, bringing a fresh interactive experience for visually impaired users and fostering greater compatibility, openness, and user-friendliness.

To gauge the value of a technology, it’s essential to consider its industry applications and contributions to social good causes. iFLYTEK Spark Desk, with its remarkable capabilities, provides new possibilities for developers and organizations dedicated to social good causes.

“The gift of teaching someone to fish is better than giving them a fish.” iFLYTEK has been actively trying to improve people’s lives with artificial intelligence. In 2017, iFLYTEK Open Platform launched “Blessed with Sound,” a social good project. Diverging from traditional social good models that center on donating goods, “Blessed with Sound” focuses on empowering individuals with distinct abilities, guiding them to master the craftsmanship of creating goods, facilitating their integration into society, and ultimately elevating their overall quality of life.

Under the charge of Zhou Cheng, a visually impaired youngster born after 2000 who harnesses the speech tranion capability of the iFLYTEK Open Platform, the software has served over ten thousand visually impaired users. Meanwhile, the dialect-preserving program “Resounding Voice” at Sichuan Normal University is leveraging artificial intelligence to accelerate the preservation of the cultural heritage of Chinese languages.

To date, developers on the iFLYTEK Open Platform have successfully crafted nearly 30,000 barrier-free applications, serving the needs of 12.69 million individuals facing visual or audio impairments.

In the age of large-scale models, iFLYTEK Open Platform remains dedicated to harnessing advanced large-model technology and diverse AI capabilities to ensure that the benefits of modern society facilitated by technology and equality, reach everyone.