Using AI to write novels, ALS uses technology to synchronize with the world

Original article: The Paper, title: "World Frozen Day｜He Tries to Use AI to Write a Novel, Hopes to Use "Digital Life" to Record His Life"

Image source: Generated by Unbounded AI‌

From Japanese translation to game development, script design, to writing novels with ChatGPT, and designing game keyboards, Feng Jinyuan, who is gradually freezing, is always in sync with the world.

June 21, 2023 is the 23rd "World Frostbite Day", and it is also the seventh year that The Paper has followed and reported on Feng Jinyuan.

This year, he was 38 years old. Shortly after he was born in 1985, Feng Jinyuan was found to have weakness in his legs and feet. His parents took him to seek medical treatment everywhere, but they still could not curb the development of the disease. The "powerlessness" spread from his legs to his arms, hands, and then to his head. Only the two fingers of the left hand and a pair of eyes can move, and this state has continued to this day.

Due to lack of mobility, Feng Jinyuan seldom went out in recent years. Fortunately, without further treatment, his condition did not appear to be getting worse.

Relying on his strong learning ability and hobbies, he constantly switches roles between translator and game developer, wandering around Zhihu, Station B, Steam game websites, etc., making or completing multiple game products and story game videos and translations.

For many years, Feng Jinyuan has been with the computer and lived with his grandmother who is over 90 years old. His aunt takes care of his daily life, and his family often visits him. In the past three years of the new crown epidemic, he once "escaped" with emotion, but at the end of 2022, he and his grandmother also experienced symptoms such as fever and sore throat, which lasted for about a month before gradually "yangkang".

Today, Feng Jinyuan still relies on Japanese translation to maintain his living expenses, and is constantly looking for partners for newly designed game scripts, hoping that one day he can put them on the market and let his works "be seen".

After watching the movie "The Wandering Earth 2", he also thought: If one day he dies, he can live forever in another world through "digital life", "I hope that the 'digital life' can record my life ,my thoughts."

Games are one of Feng Jinyuan's great hobbies.

Haven't gone downstairs in 6 years, very homely but also very self-disciplined

On June 17, 2023, Shanghai entered the rainy season, accompanied by sweltering heat and humidity. For many years, Feng Jinyuan has been renting a high-rise residence by the Suzhou River. He is used to sitting by the window, taking advantage of a cool breeze outside the window, or a small fan beside him, and chooses the same posture to spend every day.

"Since I moved here at the end of 2017, I have never gone downstairs." Feng Jinyuan said frankly that the inconvenience of mobility has made him lose the idea of going downstairs. Find happiness.

Although he is an "otaku", he is very self-disciplined: he gets up at 7 in the morning and goes to bed at 8-9 in the evening. He spends most of the day working or studying, and translates some Japanese works every year.

In addition, he writes game scripts according to his hobbies, looks for art, music and other teams, and develops games in the form of video. He also often visits Zhihu and Bilibili to learn new knowledge, give his brain some space for entertainment, and try to understand what young people are paying attention to.

Feng Jinyuan recalled his first experience of being infected with the new coronavirus at the end of 2022. As a rare patient with low immunity, he was somewhat scared, but fortunately this infection did not bring him too much pain.

"It's like the symptoms of a cold. I had a fever for about 2 days, and I had a sore throat, but there was no cough or sputum. After taking antipyretics and Chinese medicine granules, the fever subsided within 5 days." During the infection period, Feng Jinyuan could only lie down. Rest in bed and eat something occasionally.

Shortly after he was infected, his 93-year-old grandmother and the aunt who took care of them were also infected one after another. Fortunately, everyone's symptoms were not serious, and they were not sent to the hospital for treatment. The grandmother had symptoms such as low fever, cough, and rapid heartbeat. Fortunately, After taking antipyretics in time, Feng Jinyuan also bought an oxygen generator online in advance for grandma to use.

About a month later, after experiencing fatigue and hardship, the whole family "healthy" one after another and returned to a normal rhythm of life.

In order to strengthen his resistance, Feng Jinyuan also began to take some vitamins and dietary supplements. In order to prevent himself from catching a cold as much as possible, he seldom turns on the air conditioner in summer. The cold wind will make him more likely to catch a cold. Once he develops a cough and phlegm in his throat, he may face aggravated illness and difficulty in breathing. Avoid this from happening.

The objects placed on Feng Jinyuan's computer desk accompany him to work and study every day.

A game developed has been paid back, and a new game is on the way

Translation and games are Feng Jinyuan's work and his two hobbies.

Self-study Japanese for more than three years. In 2004, he obtained a first-level certificate in Japanese. His test scores ranked among the top 20 among the 5,000 candidates in East China that year. Since then, he has been in contact with publishing houses almost every year to translate comic books, novels, etc., and has translated a total of one million words in the past 20 years.

"This year's translation work has decreased. In the past year, I have translated 5-6 books, but this year I have only translated 2 books." Feng Jinyuan said with emotion that he can complete the translation of a book in an average of 2-3 months For him, this job is very simple, and at the same time, he also lamented the huge challenge brought by artificial intelligence to translation, "In terms of translation, AI is currently very capable, even higher than some translators. "

Feng Jinyuan's "Game Life" started in 2018. "You Linglan" is his first game work. This is a text adventure GALGAME. After more than a year of creation, it was born in June 2019. The script was written by himself Completed, character image design, character dubbing, game soundtrack, etc. were completed by looking for a post-production team on the Internet. Now that this game has been launched on the Nintendo Switch website for more than 2 years, it has paid back, which gave him great encouragement.

"Camellia Train" is a game he created over two years, and the game script alone has more than 100,000 words. This game will be launched on the steam website at the end of May 2022. "At present, the popularity of attention is not very high." Feng Jinyuan said that there is another game "Summer Fireworks" that he participated in the design of the performance script. The 700,000-word game script "Muhai Lingtao", which took three full years to write, is still in the follow-up production process, and there is still a gap in funding.

In addition to writing game scripts, Feng Jinyuan plays games whenever he has time, hoping to get design inspiration from them.

In his view, China’s single-player games have experienced a glorious era. For example, the stand-alone game "Sword" produced in the 1990s once gained a lot of attention in the domestic market. The game has a perfect and touching storyline, which has moved many players. . But looking at the present, there are very few stand-alone games like this. Many online games are mostly aimed at "krypton gold", and the output in terms of plot design, game content, and character emotions is much less.

He also paid attention to the story of "Yuan Shen" produced by Mihayou Company, "The innovation ability of Chinese games is not weak, and "Yuan Shen" has won internationally in terms of art and music. I believe there will be more hits like this released in the future." This is Feng Jinyuan's expectation.

Feng Jinyuan tried to use ChatGPT to write novels.

Try to use ChatGPT to write a novel, only a passing grade

Artificial intelligence and ChatGPT are the topics that Feng Jinyuan will focus on most in 2023.

He said frankly that his programming level is still at the entry level. He learned C language when he was a child, and he also learned the basic syntax of Python language in 2022.

Just 2 months ago, he tried to use ChatGPT to write a novel. He gave the character setting, plot outline, story outline, etc. The novel of nearly 4,000 words was released in only 2 hours. The title "Cursed Ghost Shadow: The Lin Family Secret". This is a horror and suspense novel. It tells the story of many members of the family who die mysteriously at a certain age. The cause of death is related to a ring worn during his lifetime. Then the protagonist goes to the old house to find the reason and lift the curse.

"The content of the plot written by AI is quite satisfactory, without much new ideas, and can only be scored as a passing grade, which is still far away from being excellent." He felt through practice that in the creation of personalized scripts, AI cannot yet replace humans. Creativity is endless, based on rich life experience, life experience, etc.

He also tried to make a black-tech screen keyboard with ChatGPT, mainly for games, and recorded his attempt in text and posted it to the Internet for sharing.

"In the past, I have also tried a lot of black technology to help me play games, such as VoiceAttack, a voice control tool, various on-screen keyboards, and even a virtual controller adapter specially made for me by my friend. Through the entire PS3 and PS4 era." Feng Jinyuan said that the on-screen keyboard that comes with the Windows system is not so easy to use due to its simple functions and low degree of customization, which also inspired him to make this new keyboard. The gaming keyboard makes it very convenient for him to play games.

In addition to ChatGPT, he often thinks about "digital life", which is also derived from the experience of watching "The Wandering Earth 2". Feng Jinyuan thought that maybe one day, after he died, he could live forever in the computer world through "digital life". "I hope that 'digital life' can record my life and thoughts."

Feng Jinyuan also gave his love to left-behind children. In 2022, he applied to join the "Blue Envelope Care Center for Left-Behind Children". Over the past half a year, he "written" two letters with the mouse, hoping to pair up with left-behind children and help them solve their difficulties. He does such public welfare activities He has done a lot, such as helping caring people in the society to build school buildings in Tibet, donating to teenagers like him who were unable to go to school to study and suffering from "lymphoma", and teaching orphans to learn Japanese and e-books to help them learn by themselves.

"I hope to do my best to help some people. This is my belief and my social value." Feng Jinyuan said.