Cooperation Netizens Complain

Yuan Jingsong, noticing Li Zhou's slight aversion, dropped the topic of the network cable.

"Mr. Li, I must say, you are truly a genius—no, 'genius scientist' suits you better."

"Stop, just call me Li Zhou. 'Mr. Li' makes my skin crawl."

Li Zhou's behavior didn't faze Yuan Jingsong in the slightest. Geniuses, scientists—plenty of top-tier researchers were like this. Having dealt with countless experts and academicians at the institute, Yuan Jingsong was long accustomed to it.

"Alright, Li Zhou. This time, I'm here on behalf of the nation to seek cooperation. But before we proceed, I have a few questions I'd like to ask you, so we can clear up our doubts and decide on the form of cooperation."

Li Zhou was more than happy to address Yuan Jingsong's questions.

"Go ahead. Ask whatever you want, as long as it doesn't touch on my trade secrets."

With Li Zhou's approval, Yuan Jingsong felt a bit more at ease, and the atmosphere in the living room wasn't as tense as before.

Yuan Jingsong eagerly asked the questions the expert team had tasked him with posing to Li Zhou.

"First, is the current version of the Intelligent Assistant on the market the final version, or is it a stripped-down one?"

This question was critical to the nation. Though there had been some speculation at higher levels, only Li Zhou—the sole developer of the Intelligent Assistant—knew the actual truth.

Instead of answering directly, Li Zhou countered with a question of his own. "Major Yuan, what do you think of the mobile version of the Intelligent Assistant?"

"After our experts tested the mobile version, they found it incredible. Even without a network, relying solely on the phone chip's computing power, the Intelligent Assistant outperformed our secret Pangu Artificial Intelligence. We tried porting it to a computer."

"But it failed, right?"

Yuan Jingsong couldn't help but smile bitterly. That was correct—even under the lead of academicians, the porting attempt had failed.

"Yes, no matter how hard we tried, it failed."

Li Zhou wasn't surprised by this outcome. After all, he had personally developed the Intelligent Assistant and imposed restrictions on it. In reality, the mobile version of the Intelligent Assistant could be directly installed on a computer. For Li Zhou, cross-platform compatibility had never been an obstacle.

If there were any developers today proficient in the Han Language programming language, they would realize that the entire internet was defenseless against it.

"Major Yuan, the Intelligent Assistant does support computers. Or let me put it this way: from the very beginning, it was designed to be cross-platform. That means it can run normally on both phones and computers—and even on supercomputers, no problem."

"As for the version of the Intelligent Assistant, I think you can tell from the test results that I've imposed heavy restrictions on it. After all, you all know better than I do what artificial intelligence means on the internet."

With Li Zhou's confirmation, Yuan Jingsong breathed a sigh of relief. Seizing the moment while Li Zhou was still in a good mood, he pressed on with his second question.

"Will the Intelligent Assistant ever go out of control? Like in the movies, where it awakens and slaughters all of humanity?"

Hearing Yuan Jingsong's question, Li Zhou spat out the tea he had just taken a sip of.

"That's just a movie, okay! Even if we stretch it, the Intelligent Assistant can't even be considered true artificial intelligence. In my understanding, it's only pseudo-AI at best. There's no question of it betraying humanity."

"Of course, if no restrictions are placed on it, I can't rule out people with ill intentions using it for harm. After all, no matter how powerful the Intelligent Assistant is, it's still just a tool."

Yuan Jingsong understood Li Zhou's point. It was the same logic as nuclear weapons—they could destroy humanity, but it was humans who made the decision to use them.

Still, to be safe, restrictions were necessary.

Yuan Jingsong took a deep breath and asked his final question.

"Can the Intelligent Assistant be cracked?" Although the research institute had spent seven days without making any headway on cracking it, what if it was cracked—especially by foreign entities?

In recent years, thanks to the tireless efforts of countless predecessors in Xia Country, technological progress had been rapid. But in some areas, there was still a gap compared to the world's top tier—an undeniable fact.

"As of now, even if you gave yourselves twenty years, you couldn't crack the Intelligent Assistant. And if you can't crack it, foreigners have even less of a chance."

"I know what you're thinking. The truth is, foreigners have no advantage when it comes to cracking the Intelligent Assistant. In fact, they face an extra hurdle compared to you."

At this, Li Zhou's expression turned odd, and he couldn't help but want to laugh. Forcing foreigners to crack the Intelligent Assistant—first, they'd have to master the Han Language. Not that Li Zhou was bashing foreigners, but even among Xia Country's people, how many truly mastered the Han Language and its pictographic characters, understanding their deeper meanings?

Seeing Yuan Jingsong's puzzled look, Li Zhou revealed a little.

"This involves trade secrets, but it won't be long before you understand what I mean."

Yuan Jingsong had no choice but to accept it. With all his questions answered, he finally laid out the cooperation proposal he had brought.

After Yuan Jingsong finished stating his requirements, Li Zhou stroked his chin and fell into thought. As it happened, the customized Intelligent Assistant he had prepared in advance perfectly matched Yuan Jingsong's demands.

"Mr. Li—er, Li Zhou—is there a problem? If there's any difficulty, you can tell me."

Li Zhou shot Yuan Jingsong a look. "The Intelligent Assistant you're asking for—I've had it ready for a while. It fully meets your requirements, but it's only an installation package, not the source code."

Though Yuan Jingsong was somewhat disappointed about the lack of source code, he could understand.

"We get it. Trade secrets."

"So, what are your terms?"

Meanwhile, as Li Zhou and Yuan Jingsong were negotiating their cooperation, the entire internet was in an uproar over the Intelligent Assistant.

Everywhere was flooded with netizens' complaints.

Beneath the hottest short video testing the Intelligent Assistant, netizens had left comments venting their frustrations.

"Does anyone know which company the Intelligent Assistant is from? I can't help but want to call customer service and complain."

"So which company is the Intelligent Assistant from? No big shot willing to spill the beans?"

"This is infuriating. One second, I was marveling at how cheap the 100-yuan lifetime free use was and paid up immediately. The next second, I was dumbfounded."

"Don't even mention it. It's pure E-company tactics. I've already spent over 1000 on in-app purchases. The moment I hear Xiao Xue's cute, adorable voice begging, my hand can't help but hit 'pay.'"