Was Foreign Necessarily Better?

Still, as long as he got the money, that was all that mattered!

Lavrov resisted the urge to flash his passport.

But just as everyone was absorbed in their own fantasies, a cool, slightly husky voice rang out.

"Dean Wang, Professor Lavrov, may I ask whether the core technology your system relies on, SNN, or spiking neural networks, can really handle a high-speed conveyor belt? It runs at least three to four meters per second, and more than 300 pills pass through the camera's field of view every second."

Brilliant!

Hearing that, Wu Chen was overjoyed.

He had been trying to figure out how to snap Jiang Hongyue out of it!

Looking at Jiang Nan, who was frowning slightly beside him, Wu Chen raised his assessment of her academic abilities a notch.

Although she wasn't a specialist, she had identified the central problem with putting the system into practical use with extraordinary precision:

The event-driven nature of spiking neural networks simply couldn't meet the need for continuous, high-speed inspection on a production line.

In other words, on a fast-moving production line, it couldn't identify defective pills at all.

Not unless hardware performance improved dramatically.

Still, for someone with no expertise in artificial intelligence, she had done very well.

Wang Hongfa and Lavrov were both taken aback.

They really had studied Wu Chen's paper carefully.

But the two spent their days indulging in wine and women, and they hadn't looked deeply into many of the details. Naturally, they hadn't discovered the countless pitfalls Wu Chen had left for them.

After all, Wu Chen had only written about SNN's accuracy and low power consumption in his paper. He hadn't mentioned dynamic, high-speed scenarios or optical interference at all.

"As for that question, this is how I see it. After all, it shouldn't count as a problem, but can only be treated as a simple question..."

In his haste, Lavrov lapsed into his usual Russian-style babble, hoping to bury the question under a mountain of empty words.

But Jiang Nan had clearly come prepared.

She ignored Lavrov's nonsense and continued asking questions.

"How do you plan to solve the problem of random reflections from the coating causing interference?"

Another bombshell dropped.

"Ah, that question needs to be viewed from several angles..."

Lavrov still couldn't answer.

Seeing beads of sweat cascade down his bald head like a waterfall, Wang Hongfa finally reacted and hurried to rescue him.

"Teacher Jiang, Professor Lavrov isn't very fluent in Chinese, so he may not have understood your questions. Why don't we let Wu Chen answer them? He did take part in some of the research, after all."

With that, he gave Wu Chen a look: You're up.

Roger!

Wu Chen returned the look with a resolute one of his own.

He rose calmly and nodded to Jiang Hongyue and Jiang Nan with a faint smile.

Everything else aside.

His composed manner made a better impression than Lavrov's boastful talk.

Jiang Hongyue had also noticed that something was off about Lavrov.

But he didn't think much of it. Instead, he took an interest in Wu Chen, feeling that he possessed a composure rare among his peers, rather like his own daughter's.

Jiang Nan, on the other hand, lowered her head, showing little interest.

Wang Hongfa and Lavrov breathed sighs of relief.

After being leaders for so long, when they actually ran into something specific, they still needed the front-line workhorses to step up.

Wang Hongfa was immensely glad he had brought Wu Chen along today.

And so, under everyone's various gazes, Wu Chen spoke.

"As things stand, the problems Teacher Jiang raised have no solution."

"Huh?"

"Hmm?"

"Suka blya..."

Jiang Hongyue, Wang Hongfa, and Lavrov all stared at Wu Chen with wide eyes, unable to believe he had contradicted Lavrov on the spot.

Even Jiang Nan looked up at him, a hint of scrutiny in her gaze.

Wu Chen seemed oblivious to their reactions and continued speaking at length.

"In fact, SNN's core strength is event-driven discrete signal processing, which is best suited to static or low-speed scenarios..."

It would have been better if he hadn't explained. Once he did, the problem only grew worse.

Wang Hongfa was so angry he nearly had a heart attack.

That one phrase, "best suited to static or low-speed scenarios," meant there was no point in discussing the deal any further!

The conveyor belt on the pill production line moved extremely fast!

Jiang Hongyue's expression changed from initial surprise to gravity.

From Wu Chen's manner, he could tell the young man was very confident and wasn't talking nonsense.

And although he couldn't understand it, he could tell Wu Chen's words had substance.

Compared with him, Lavrov's earlier talk seemed far too broad, full of lofty but empty claims.

Jiang Hongyue glanced at Jiang Nan.

His genius daughter had also grown serious and was listening carefully to Wu Chen's explanation.

"...so, as things stand, Teacher Jiang's concerns are quite valid."

With that, Wu Chen concluded.

Jiang Hongyue had a vague idea of what was going on, and a look exchanged with Jiang Nan confirmed it.

The technology could be researched.

But putting it into production wouldn't work.

His expression turned stern, and he asked Wang Hongfa, "Dean Wang, are the problems Teacher Wu mentioned really impossible to solve?"

"Factory Director Jiang, I think it's just that young people don't know any better and are afraid of difficulties. They shrink back as soon as they run into a few problems. I'll have a good talk with him when we get back. But this system does have prospects, and we can definitely solve the problems!"

The flesh on Wang Hongfa's face trembled.

He had never expected Wu Chen to stab him in the back so suddenly, and he had already cursed all eight generations of Wu Chen's ancestors in his heart.

"Is that so?"

Jiang Hongyue grew even more suspicious.

He didn't quite believe Wang Hongfa's assurances, so he looked at Lavrov again.

Lavrov had wanted to back down.

But then he thought again. He wouldn't be the one doing the work in the future anyway, and who couldn't bullshit?

All that mattered was getting his share of the money!

If anything went wrong, they could come find him in America!

Having thought it through, Lavrov immediately straightened his back, regaining the "foreign expert" air.

He thumped his chest and said, "Factory Director Jiang, I can assure you that none of the issues raised just now are problems. They'll definitely be solved within three months!"

Three months!

Even Wang Hongfa was startled to hear that timeframe.

But Lavrov was a trusted senior of his, and his research abilities had indeed been excellent back then. Otherwise, he wouldn't have been offered a position at the university.

Besides, research in America was surely more advanced. Perhaps once Lavrov went back, he could easily find a solution to the problems.

At that thought, Wang Hongfa relaxed.

His eyes shifted, and he chose words Jiang Hongyue would like to hear.

"Factory Director Jiang, Lavrov is a professor at a well-known foreign university. His guarantee must be reliable. Foreigners value their word above all else!"

Because of the times he had lived through, Jiang Hongyue was still relatively trusting of "foreigners."

So, although he had doubts and the current sample clearly had major problems, he still wanted to give Lavrov a chance.

But just as he was about to agree, Jiang Nan's cool voice rang out again.

"Is foreign necessarily better?"