How Tsinghua and Alibaba Are Shaping the Future of Human‑Machine Natural Interaction

Movies like "Iron Man" and "Big Hero 6" have long imagined intelligent robots that interact naturally with humans.

On April 3, 2018, Tsinghua University and Alibaba announced a strategic partnership to establish the Tsinghua‑Alibaba Natural Interaction Experience Joint Laboratory, dedicated to researching the next generation of human‑machine natural interaction.

Tsinghua Vice President Yang Bin emphasized that natural interaction research seeks seamless communication between people and machines, endowing devices with the ability to understand human intent and profoundly affecting work and life.

Alibaba CTO Zhang Jianfeng highlighted that Alibaba will leverage its rich application scenarios in new retail and the Internet of Things to upgrade human‑machine natural interaction experiences.

Machines Will Have "Five Senses" and Understand Emotions

Traditional interaction via mouse and keyboard is learned and unnatural; natural interaction aims for instinctive, effortless communication.

The joint lab focuses on the human dimension, studying voice, tone, facial expression, and gestures to capture diverse intentions.

Professor Xu Yingqing, director of the lab, explained that building emotional cognition and computation models will enable machines to perceive and understand human emotions, while multimodal perception technologies will give machines five senses for more natural exchanges.

Human‑Scene Interaction: Building the Relationship Between People and the World

China’s "New Generation Artificial Intelligence Development Plan" lists human‑machine interaction as a key technology for AI deployment across retail, smart homes, autonomous driving, and other scenarios.

Fu Limin, co‑leader of the lab, said the focus is solving "human‑scene interaction" problems, where the "scene" refers to the environment linking people, machines, and contexts.

Future machines will not merely follow commands but will recognize emotions, context, and provide emotional feedback—adjusting music, temperature, ventilation, and lighting based on user states.

Jack Ma once said that while the past 30 years turned people into machines, the next 30 years will turn machines into humans, ultimately making machines more like machines and people more like people.

Rich Business Scenarios Empower Cutting‑Edge Research

Emotion and context recognition in human‑machine interaction is still nascent. Tsinghua, a global leader in user experience and interaction design, will bring interdisciplinary expertise from design, psychology, art, and engineering to collaborate with computer science, psychology, and material science.

Alibaba contributes extensive scenarios from new retail, fintech, and IoT, such as 2 million Tmall Genie devices and over 500 k cars equipped with AliOS, creating a fertile ground for research breakthroughs that will, in turn, reshape those very scenarios.

Both parties see this collaboration as a new model for university‑enterprise cooperation, linking fundamental research with practical applications.

Alibaba’s DAMO Academy, with a 100 billion‑yuan three‑year investment, lists human‑machine natural interaction among its priority research areas alongside quantum computing, machine learning, and chip technology.