Spark

Chen Nian and Li Xiang met Wang Jiancheng in the apartment they had arranged in advance. After more than a year, the latter seemed to have matured a bit. He began to wear his clothes in a serious manner, and his hair was not as messy as before.

As soon as he saw Chen Nian, Wang Jiancheng immediately greeted him excitedly. He didn't care about a few words of pleasantries, so he started to change the topic to the business about Bai Ze AI.

This familiar reaction made Chen Nian smile wryly --- it turned out that it was only the appearance that had matured, but the inside hadn't changed at all.

".So I thought about it. If we only make a purely functional AI, there is actually no need to think too much about image recognition and speech recognition. Our core is to make it smart. This kind of smartness does not necessarily reflect On 'humanity'."

"Look, the interaction between machines is inherently different from the interaction between humans. Why force anthropomorphism?"

"Of course, anthropomorphism is also an important development direction in the later period, but that is icing on the cake."

Wang Jiancheng's words reveal a kind of extreme pragmatism, but it fits well with Chen Nian's philosophy.

In fact, he has always felt that the real future of AI lies in the processing of complex tasks, rather than the so-called simulation.

Just imagine, do you need a personal assistant who can really help you do most of the work, or do you need a high-end doll that looks like a real person, can talk and bring spiritual companionship, and is even as soft as a real person?

Hmm. It seems that the second type is more marketable.

However, from the perspective of productivity development, the significance of the former is undoubtedly more significant.

The reason why the development of the former is not as good as the latter is that the key problem lies in the training materials.

Relying on the Internet, you can find countless pictures, videos, and texts to train the processing ability of AI, and quickly obtain breakthroughs and progress visible to the naked eye.

But it is difficult for you to design a working environment that meets the training requirements, and it is also difficult to use automated means for random generation.

This is why, the vast majority of complex task processing AI training is based on relatively simple activities such as games and chess competitions.

Clarity of rules is not the main reason, more importantly, is its repeatability.

Thinking of this, Chen Nian said:

"Your thinking is right—at present, it is consistent with the expectations of our project."

"So what exactly is our project going to do?"

Wang Jiancheng asked immediately.

Chen Nian and Li Xiang looked at each other, and then replied:

"You have to sign the non-disclosure agreement before I can tell you the specific project details."

"Official project? Battlefield command system? It must be! Quick, quick, where to sign? Let's hurry up!"

Wang Jiancheng's reaction was somewhat beyond Chen Nian's expectations, not because he guessed the content of the project, but because of his positive attitude.

He thought that the other party would at least hesitate for a while.

After all, the cooperation method this time is completely different from his previous cooperation. It is no longer independently developed by himself, or joined the project team as an outsourced consultant, but to truly enter the "institution".

But he doesn't seem to care?

However, this saved Li Xiang a lot of trouble - after confirming Wang Jiancheng's wishes, he immediately notified his superiors to prepare for assessment and confidential training, and officially started the process.

Due to his relatively special status and previous cooperation records, Wang Jiancheng's process went very quickly. When the three of them came back after going out for dinner, the application had already been officially approved, which was amazingly efficient.

Wang Jiancheng was very excited about this. He almost couldn't wait to see what was going on with this project. AI goes up.

"So am I officially joining the organization? Is this the real core of the military industry? Is it Chengfei's project?"

"I remember that there is no official artificial intelligence research institute in China right now? Who are we working for?"

Wang Jiancheng's words reminded Chen Nian. He remembered that the artificial intelligence researcher here in Sichuan will not be formally established until 2019. Although it cannot be said that it is too slow, it is indeed far behind the advanced research institutions in the world. distance.

You should know that although the United States Joint Artificial Intelligence Research Center was also established in 2018, the technical support they received came from CSAIL, SAIL, ISI and other artificial intelligence laboratories. The earliest history can even be traced back to 1850s.

In contrast, before the 21st century, China's exploration of the field of artificial intelligence was basically blank.

Even now, it has only just completed the "ice breaking" of this technology, and the icebreaker used for breaking the ice is still the neural network algorithm provided by Chen Nian himself.

Perhaps it is time for us to create a professional research institute to comprehensively deal with various matters related to AI.

Thinking of this, Chen Nian replied:

"It's not Chengfei's project—that's the same sentence, the specific project details, let's talk about it after you pass the review and join the project team."

"What about you? Are you also a member of the project team? So is Brother Xiang?"

Li Xiang on the side shook his head, secretly feeling a little funny.

Is it just me who is still a member of the research team? How many catties and taels I have, I still know it in my heart.

Chen Nian, although he is the technical source of the project, in fact, he will not directly participate in the project.

So Li Xiang was the only one who really joined the Zhanlu project in a strict sense.

I don't know if he will be disappointed or excited after knowing the truth.

After all, he doesn't know yet that he may become the de facto leader of this project.

Seeing that Chen Nian and Li Xiang didn't intend to get to the bottom of it, Wang Jiancheng had no choice but to give up.

During the next three days of review time, he was looking forward to the release of the results almost all the time, for fear that he would not perform well and be directly dismissed.

After all, not being able to enter the establishment is a trivial matter. If you miss such a project, you will never have another chance in the future.

This torment lasted for three full days. After passing the final review, Wang Jiancheng finally joined the Zhanlu project team smoothly.

But after getting the project documents, he was a little confused.

This project doesn't belong to Cheng Fei?

In the description of project affiliation, he can only see the lonely "Zhanlu command system project team", which is completely different from the Yujing project he participated in before.

He asked Chen Nian his own question, and the answer Chen Nian gave was completely beyond his expectations.

"The Zhanlu project does not belong to any existing research institute—to be precise, it is a directly affiliated project."

"As for its subordination. You'll have an answer before long."

On the other side, the turret.

Bob looked at the latest information sent quietly, without a trace of worry on his face.

Yes, our own side lost a large number of intelligence personnel at one time, and most of them are core.

It can be said that more than half of the entire intelligence network in China has been destroyed. Such a price, no matter what era it is placed in, is considered painful.

But so what?

The loss belongs to May Club, and the credit belongs to him.

Through Huaxia's strong reaction, he has been able to be 100% sure that that mysterious organization must exist, and that his side has touched the core secret.

And the most important result of this operation has been delivered to him before the interruption.

That is, a list of all the people connected to that organization.

These personnel lists cover almost all departments in the military industry, from aircraft, to missiles, to radars, to ships, to electromagnetics.

Each person corresponds to a huge breakthrough in one aspect of Huaxia.

All the problems have been confirmed, and all the things that our side could not understand before have been explained.

Bob also realized at this time that the May Society is not useless.

On the contrary, as experts in the intelligence field, they were aware of the existence of this problem as early as 2004, and launched a tentative attack in Chengdu.

However, such attacks, or investigations, did not last.

The intensifying military conflict between the two sides has attracted a lot of attention, coupled with successive setbacks in May, successive changes in charge, and major problems with strategic continuity, it has finally led to problems that should have been resolved more than 6 years ago , and finally dragged to the present.

Thinking of this, he silently made a sign of the cross for Pan En in his heart.

This old man probably didn't know until his death that he had done so many things and made so many fatal "mistakes", but in fact, he once held the most critical weapon of victory in his hands.

However, he didn't know the weight of this weapon.

Probably he thought that what he was holding was just an ordinary iron rod, but in fact, it was the holy sword of physics

Putting down the document in his hand, Bob let out a long sigh of relief, and then said to the assistant on the side:

"The situation is basically clear. Huaxia should have established a centralized organization and adopted extreme strategies to focus on military technology."

"This is really a rare gambler's method, but their luck is so good that they all won the bet."

The assistant nodded slightly and replied:

"Yes, compared with them, our luck is simply poor."

In fact, this is also his true inner thoughts.

Based on the available information, Huaxia encountered major economic difficulties at least from 2003 to 2005. At that time, they suspended a large number of key projects, and even directly canceled some projects that had been included in the five-year plan.

No one knew what they were doing. It wasn't until the J-22 and J-20 appeared that the intelligence organizations that followed the changes in China's budget realized the flow of the transferred funds.

Isn't this a gamble?

If the effect of the new equipment does not meet expectations, if the capital chain breaks

No wonder they were so vicious to open up the arms sales market at that time, and even took risks in the THAAD incident in the island country.

Of course, relying on arms sales alone could not alleviate the opponent's plight, but the problem was that at their most difficult moment, a major economic crisis occurred on their own side.

In this crisis, the other party not only plundered a huge amount of benefits, but also seized a large market.

It is also these robbed markets that slowly grew up in the following years and became a bargaining chip to support their continued radical adventures.

good luck

Or, this is not luck, but they have expected everything?

The assistant quickly shook his head, dispelling this unrealistic thought.

Looking at Bob on the opposite side, he continued to speak:

"Judging from the information we have about this organization, its organizational framework is basically clear."

"To be precise, it should be an organization similar to the National Military Industry Bureau, but more extreme."

"This organization is not only coordinating funds, resources, and manpower, but even technology itself is also within the scope of coordinating."

"This can be seen from the sequence of several of their major projects—it is not so much a 'Military Industry Bureau' as it is a huge 'Planning Bureau'."

"A planning bureau with execution capabilities."

"Such a nature is actually extremely terrifying. It has supreme power and supreme status. No wonder they can make such amazing progress in a short period of time."

Hearing his words, Bob hummed, and then said:

"But such development is not sustainable."

"Yes, it's not sustainable - but so what? If their luck continues, in five years we'll have no chance at all."

"At that time, even if they overthrow the entire system and start over, gritting their teeth and swallowing all the backlash, their foundation will not be shaken anymore."

"Indeed."

Bob nodded solemnly, then continued:

"So, we must now force them to admit the existence of this organization."

"In addition, we have to expose the true situation of this organization at all costs—to let their people know who swallowed up the interests that should belong to them."

"Only by doing this can we regain that little bit of advantage"

"We're already making arrangements."

The assistant replied immediately.

In the next few days, the U.S. public opinion offensive against China reached an unprecedented intensity.

One piece of carefully designed news was thrown out, one after another investigation report was "leaked", and gradually, the problem began to expand.

Over the past few years, Xinghuo has taken up a huge amount of resources, but unlike other confidential projects, its budget has been distributed among different departments, and the financial statements of these departments have been seriously affected by this, readable Sex drops sharply.

This has also become the main attack method of the United States.

For a while, the voices of "opacity", "structural corruption", and "corruption at the top" were overwhelming, and even the most experienced experts in the public opinion department felt a little overwhelmed.

However, at this moment, a completely unfamiliar face, who did not undertake any important work, stood up.

As a spokesperson, he released a message to the world on public channels that is enough to shut everyone up:

"Yes, we have established a new comprehensive research institute."

"Its name is, Starfire."