Chapter 151

Previously, Einstein had spent long hours in the laboratory without achieving any significant results, and her appearance could only be described as withered. But now, she has achieved success in her career, and the dual satisfaction of material and spiritual fulfillment has clearly brought about a considerable change in her.

"It's all thanks to your help, Doctor Ai Yue."

Einstein finally calmed down from her initial excitement. She smiled and invited Ai Yue into the research institute. "If you hadn't repeatedly refused, you would definitely have been listed before me in the credits for this project."

Even if Ai Yue himself doesn't remember, Einstein will never forget that although Ai Yue only made some suggestions on the underlying logic of the Armed Doll, it was precisely those suggestions that finally allowed the Armed Doll to break free from the original simple category of weapons and become what they are today.

Not to mention that Ai Yue also provided Einstein with a lot of help in other ways. Putting aside everything else, without his approval, Einstein would never have been able to obtain enough Soulium to mass-produce intelligent cores for the Armed Doll. Even some of the sponsorships and public support that the project received later were due to Ai Yue.

"Don't underestimate yourself. The effort you put into the Armed Doll is the most important thing. Without enough passion and focus, you can't complete this project."

Ai Yue shook his head slightly, "I only helped you out, but that is by no means a necessary condition for your success."

Ai Yue knew very well that even without his presence, the Armed Doll project would still be successfully mass-produced and play a huge role. His actions had only given the other party a push, making the Armed Doll even better.

"You flatter me, Doctor Ai Yue."

Einstein knew perfectly well that this project was nothing to Ai Yue, so he didn't intend to dwell on the topic any further. "May I ask what brings you here today?"

As a pragmatist, Einstein was clearly not good at excessive pleasantries and small talk.

"The Armed Doll I see on the street outside are quite different from the ones I first saw in your lab,"

Faced with Einstein's question, Ai Yue did not answer directly, but instead asked about something else, "How many iterations have the current Armed Doll gone through?"

"The ones currently in mass production and being piloted are the third generation of Armed Doll."

When talking about his own field, Einstein spoke more fluently. "The Elf you saw in the lab was the prototype. Later, based on your suggestions, I completed the second generation 'Chi Yuan' and iterated through data collection. The result now is the third generation 'Solomon'."

Then she led Ai Yue to the institute's most confidential laboratory and showed him all the project data.

In Einstein's view, even if Ai Yue did not intend to participate in the project, he had the right to know every detail of the project, and might even be able to do better. There was absolutely no need to hide these things from him.

Conversely, if we could get Ai Yue's advice again, even if it was just some minor suggestions, it could be worth a lot of the researchers' time on the entire project.

Ai Yue quickly memorized the data and blueprints of the Armed Doll project and gained a detailed understanding of them. "Is the only difference between the third and second generations the subdivision of the simulated personality?"

The so-called pseudo-personality refers to the emotional changes that Armed Doll can exhibit, which are close to those of humans. By planning the evolution of the pseudo-personality of Armed Doll in advance, they can be divided into different types such as "calm type" and "lively type" according to their personality, so as to meet the needs of different groups of people.

"Well, that's all we can do for now. Further evolution will require the Armed Doll to undergo a long process of imitation and learning alongside their users."

Einstein spoke of this with a hint of helplessness, saying, "We conducted the pilot program in the hope of enriching the database in this way, so that the Armed Doll can become more intelligent."

The evolution of Artificial Intelligence requires not only the accumulation of data, but also the updating and iteration of algorithms. After all, Einstein and his team do not possess super Artificial Intelligence of the level of Prometheus, so they can only evolve slowly in this way.

However, this was not the part that Ai Yue focused on.

He looked at the design blueprints of the most crucial core component of the Armed Doll —the intelligent core that carries their self-awareness—and a thoughtful expression appeared on his face.

"W-what's wrong, Doctor Ai Yue?"

Seeing Ai Yue's expression, Einstein thought there was some flaw or hidden danger in the design drawings, so he became a little nervous as he spoke, "Where is the problem?"

"Oh, no, I was just thinking about some things."

Ai Yue snapped out of his reverie and shook his head. "By the way, you asked me earlier why I came to see you, right?"

He looked at Einstein and said with a smile, "Actually, I want to have a unique Armed Doll made from you."

Einstein paused for a moment, then adjusted his glasses. "What are the specific requirements?"

She wasn't surprised by Ai Yue's answer, after all, she was indeed the professional in this area—even though Ai Yue had a far more advanced laboratory, he was still slightly inferior in terms of professionalism.

Besides, all she can do here is make Armed Doll. If Ai Yue wants to ask her for help, it seems like there's nothing else she can do besides this.

In fact, Ai Yue was not the first person to want to customize Armed Doll. Many people are willing to pay a lot of money for unique features. Einstein already has a mature design scheme and can even design unique pseudo-personalities for Armed Doll according to the requirements of the order.

Of course, Einstein cannot meet certain overly special needs, after all, this is a legitimate research institution, not a private place built to satisfy personal fetishes.

The only question is, why did Ai Yue ask Einstein to clear the area beforehand? Was his need something shameful?

Einstein quickly realized why Ai Yue had made that request—because the other party had taken out a special piece of metal from his pocket.

"The latest generation of Soulium has even stronger performance and new characteristics."

Ai Yue said casually, "It's still an undisclosed product because the production volume is too low. However, using it as a base material to make an intelligent core can improve the existing performance by about ten times."

Ten, ten times?

Einstein paused for a moment, then quickly began to calculate, "With this level of performance improvement, the realism of the simulated personality could even reach the level of a six-year-old child!"

It's no wonder Ai Yue demanded the area be cleared out, since such things are clearly not something that can be touched by just anyone.

It is known that human personality is basically formed around the age of seven or eight. If the simulated personality of the Armed Doll can reach the level of a six-year-old child, it means that it is close to having a truly independent consciousness.

Of course, these are just preliminary theoretical calculations, and even if such a performance level could be achieved, it would still be a huge gap from Einstein's vision of each Armed Doll having independent consciousness.

However, none of these things are a problem for Ai Yue, because he possesses Artificial Intelligence of this level.

The reason for Einstein to make an Armed Doll was simply to give her a body that could move.

By the way, let's complete the things we agreed on beforehand.

Both Ai Yue and Einstein were action-oriented. After deciding what to do, they both got to work. Einstein was responsible for developing the basic body of the Armed Doll, while Ai Yue was responsible for creating the improved intelligent core.

In order to handle the entire process by herself, Einstein even woke up the Armed Doll assistant that she had previously put into sleep mode—in order to meet Ai Yue's requirements, she had turned off everything that moved in the research institute.

"Einstein, it is a pleasure to continue serving you."

Elf, with her golden hair, opened her eyes and then floated up from her personal Armed Doll stand. "What do you need me to do?"

Einstein was still using the prototype she had initially researched. Although its performance was relatively outdated, after several iterations, it was actually no less capable than the third-generation Solomon. However, due to a lack of data support, the simulated personality was not perfect and still looked somewhat dull.

There was nothing that could be done about it, since Elf had always been by Einstein's side, and it was indeed difficult to collect much valuable data from Einstein.

"Elph, use the best materials to create a completely new body. You will be in charge of monitoring the equipment's operation."

Einstein walked, he said, "Pay attention to details. It doesn't matter if we're a little slower. We must ensure the quality of the final product."

"Understood, starting the relevant equipment."

Elf remotely controlled the process via the internet, saying, "Estimated completion time: four hours and thirty minutes. Please wait patiently."

Einstein nodded, then suddenly remembered something.

The performance of the new generation of Soulium far surpasses that of the past, so its processing difficulty will certainly increase significantly. With the precision and strength of the equipment in our research institute, are we capable of handling this task?

Thinking of this, she hurried to the intelligent core production workshop—the equipment breaking down was a minor issue, but if this material was wasted, it would be a huge loss!

Fortunately, the production workshop for the intelligent core was not far away. Einstein arrived in just a few steps, and when she saw that the equipment there had not yet been started, she couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.

It seems it hasn't started yet, but that's normal, since only a few minutes have passed. Even if Ai Yue already has ideas for improving the intelligent core design, he needs to write them down first so that it will be easier to get started.

But the next second she saw Ai Yue walk out of the workshop with a small, exquisite spherical object in his hand. He was stunned when he saw her. "You're done over there? That was pretty fast."

"No, it's only just begun..."

Einstein subconsciously shook his head, then looked at what the other person was holding, "This is..."

"Oh, the intelligent core."

Ai Yue held up the spherical object in his hand and shook it. "Doesn't it look pretty good?"

Einstein silently looked at Ai Yue, then at the quiet production workshop, and a huge question mark gradually surfaced in his mind.

No, how did you do that?

15

Chapter Fifteen: The next step is to stuff humans into a hard drive, right?

Einstein ultimately did not voice her doubts, because she guessed that it might be some kind of secret technology possessed by the other party.

After all, an intelligent core is not some cold weapon that can be dealt with with a furnace and a hammer. It is a data processing center with a sophisticated and complex internal structure. Such a thing cannot be done by hand. The only possibility is that the other party is carrying a portable high-precision metal engraving device.

This kind of thing is obviously not something that ordinary people can access.

However, although Einstein was very self-aware, he still couldn't help but secretly glance at Ai Yue, wondering how small the other party could shrink such a device to be portable.

Finally, even Ai Yue felt a little uncomfortable under the other party's gaze, and had to speak up to divert the other party's attention, "Ahem, Einstein, how much longer will it take to complete the body of the Armed Doll?"

"Uh, it'll take at least another four hours,"

Einstein glanced at the time somewhat awkwardly, then said apologetically, "I'm sorry, Doctor Ai Yue, this is already the fastest I can do."

At first Einstein thought that compared to the doll body, which already had a mature solution, the intelligent core, which needed to be upgraded based on the original design, would obviously take a lot of time to make. She thought she might be able to help in some way. However, she didn't expect that the intelligent core would be completed first, which made her research institute seem very incompetent.

"It's alright, it's civilian equipment after all, it's normal for it to be a little slow."

Ai Yue didn't seem to care. "I'll design a new production line for you later. After all, we're going to expand globally in the future, and such low production capacity won't do."

"Really?"

Einstein first showed a surprised expression, then said somewhat apologetically, "I'm so sorry, I thought I could help you, but it seems that I'm the one who's helped more."

"It's just a minor detail, don't worry about it too much."

Ai Yue waved his hand, "If you want to help me, then do your best to make this project the best it can be."

The Armed Doll project was not actually a very important part of Ai Yue's plan to fight the Honkai, otherwise he would not have allowed Einstein to develop it. However, this project has a profound significance for the entire human civilization.

Once the Armed Doll truly possess their own minds, they can be considered a race created and "nurtured" by humans. Such a race will inevitably have a significant impact on the entire human civilization. How to coexist with the Armed Doll may reveal the possibilities for humanity's future.

If humanity can eventually peacefully accept the new race of Armed Doll and live together harmoniously, it will at least show that humanity is not lacking in the capacity to accept foreign things. However, if even a race created by itself is met with suspicion, distrust, and even enslavement, then it means that humanity still has a long way to go on the path of evolution.

Of course, evaluating humans in this way might seem somewhat one-sided, so Ai Yue would only use it as a reference and would not judge humans based on their performance in this one instance. After all, the power he wields is too terrifying for humans, so he must be cautious when making such a decision.

However, these are things we'll have to consider later.

Ai Yue held the intelligent core in his hand, then looked at Einstein beside him. "Einstein, I need to borrow your laboratory again."

Waiting around isn't a solution. Since we still have time, why not try something we planned to do earlier?

"Oh, okay."

Without asking any further questions, Einstein turned around and began to lead the way, saying, "Use this one. This is a brand new laboratory that has just been built, and all the equipment is new."

This new laboratory is used to explore the latest technology for Armed Doll, Einstein felt that it was most suitable for Ai Yue to be the first person to use it.

After entering the laboratory, Einstein consciously withdrew. Judging from the intelligent core incident just now, he was completely unable to help Ai Yue. Staying here would only be a hindrance and might even hinder Ai Yue's performance.

Ai Yue breathed a sigh of relief at the other party's tact. After all, it was rather impolite to borrow someone else's laboratory and then ask them to leave. Fortunately, Einstein was very considerate and told Ai Yue not to bring it up directly.

He first familiarized himself with the equipment in the laboratory, and then connected the intelligent core in his hand to Prometheus's sub-unit: "Rose, input the data that was previously classified as 'soul backup' into this intelligent core."

"Understood, data entry in progress."

Prometheus's calm voice echoed in Ai Yue's ears, "However, Doctor Ai Yue, such data alone is not enough to reproduce the soul you mentioned before, is it? Moreover, this intelligent core does not have the function of carrying a soul. Is this really feasible?"

"Of course it's not feasible,"

Ai Yue shrugged. "But that's exactly what I want—it's not feasible. It's just a way to filter out the 'Herrscher toxin.' Otherwise, why do you think I would suddenly commission an Armed Doll?"

Now, Ai Yue's purpose for this trip is very clear: he hopes to use the Armed Doll to transfer the soul seed of the Herrscher Prometheus that he had previously preserved, and attempt to convert the soul back into data through the "Soul Editor" in order to see if he can filter out the Herrscher- related distortion in Prometheus's soul.

Although the success rate is somewhat worrying, it is at least a method worth trying. If it succeeds, he will have an Armed Doll with a complete mind of its own.

"I thought it was to fulfill a promise you made to me before."

Prometheus said, "Isn't that so?"

As an Artificial Intelligence, Prometheus would not forget anything. Ai Yue had promised to prepare a body for her that could move in reality, and now was the best time to fulfill that promise.

"Of course, that's part of the reason, but it's not the whole story."

Ai Yue pulled out a helmet and plugged the two ends of the connecting cable into the helmet and the smart core respectively. "After all, the body of the Armed Doll is still not very convenient. When we get back, I'll make you a realistic body, the kind with wet parts. That would be much more exciting, right?"

"That sounds really good."

Prometheus commented, "But if wet parts are used, are you sure there won't be any ethical or moral problems?"

"Just tell me if you want it or not."

Ai Yue dodged the question, saying, "Anyway, if you don't tell and I don't tell, who will know I used a wet component?"

"I will listen to you, Doctor Ai Yue."

Prometheus replied, "The data entry is complete. You may proceed to the next step."

"Very good."

Ai Yue then put on the helmet and closed his eyes. "Now check my mental state. If anything abnormal happens, wake me up immediately."

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