Tech Hammer

Just as Ning Wei thought, John Blake was not having a good life at this time. The ups and downs in his life came so fast that he had no time to react before the tide called tragedy surged towards him.

John Black even clearly remembered that just an hour ago, when he was about to attend the press conference, the amiable chairman of IBM raised his left hand and patted his shoulder to encourage him that maybe he could become an IBMer today. One of the youngest board members; an hour later, in the same place, facing the same people, he was being questioned.

What's even more frightening is that he has no idea what went wrong. Obviously everything was normal during the testing process, not to mention that this was the opinion of the entire team. But now everyone around him.

Human relationships are so realistic.

When he walked into the company in the morning, everyone had a friendly smile when they saw him. The girl at the front desk even had a familiar eagerness in her eyes. But within an hour, he seemed to be disliked by everyone. Not only is the subject's smile gone, but the people around him are also gone...

"John, what on earth is going on? I need an explanation, all shareholders and even the whole world need an explanation! What on earth is going on here?!"

When he asked what was going on for the second time, the old man almost yelled out every word. He could just lower his voice, but this suppressed anger was actually more powerful, enough to show how angry the chairman was at this time.

But John Black didn't actually feel that he was wronged. He could even understand the anger of the old man in front of him. After all, this time IBM invited many big names to witness the launch of the Watson system, and it was broadcast live to the world. It is no exaggeration to say that IBM's century-old reputation may be reduced to a joke because of this conference. Of course, face is not that important. , but IBM must have lost more ground.

Big shots are willing to show favor, which naturally involves a huge exchange of interests. God knows how much additional resources and funds IBM will have in the near future if the Watson artificial intelligence system can show even half of its capabilities in March.

As far as John Black knows, and what he needs to participate in next, there are seven upcoming cooperation plans around the Watson system, which will bring huge benefits to IBM. This is one of the reasons why the old man in front of him invited him to join the IBM board of directors before the press conference. These cooperative projects with other units require John Black to have a higher status to consider overall for IBM.

Now those collaborations have apparently fallen through.

Human nature is like this. When you don't have it, you don't want something extravagantly. But once you have it, or you are about to have it, but your illusion is suddenly extinguished, it often makes people even more angry.

Not to mention that after this press conference, IBM's shareholders are likely to face a black swan event in which the company's stock price will plummet. One after another, they accumulated, even if the old man in front of him had his lungs exploded, John Blake could understand it.

But what he couldn't understand was what was going on and why was it happening? !

So he couldn't answer the old man's question at all. He also needed an explanation, and he also knew who he should go to to ask for an explanation. But unfortunately, he didn't even have the qualifications to stand in front of that person and ask for an explanation. . Or he could call up Watson's program and ask what was going on, but at this time John Black didn't think it was a good choice to mention Watson in front of this angry old man...

So in the end he could only murmur helplessly: "I don't know, Mr. Fred, I really don't know. Why is it like this? The previous test results were not like this. I can retrieve all the data. Really?" That’s not the case.”

"This is not a reason, John, this is really not a reason! This is not even a qualified excuse! You are an IBM academician, you have been responsible for Watson all these years, but now this happens, you tell me you don't know anything ?Do you know what this means to IBM? Really, losing face is not the most important thing. What is even more frightening is that because of your irresponsibility, we will face tens of billions of direct losses and corresponding indirect losses that are simply unpredictable. loss."

Having said this, the old man looked at John Black solemnly and said in a louder voice: "John, do you know what tens of billions of losses represent? I'm not threatening you, John, I just want to tell you that this is It's a terrible thing. You never know what those well-dressed nobles can do for money. Especially when there is no way to vent their anger."

Then the old man said in a meaningful voice: "Some pots are not so easy to carry!"

Hearing this, John Black suddenly became nervous.

Being kicked out of IBM was the worst outcome he could think of. In fact, it didn't make him worry about the future. It was his confidence in his own ability. It was determined by his position and knowledge. It was not the kind of leaving the platform. Just a good for nothing guy.

As long as he is given enough time, John Black believes that he will definitely be able to find the problem. His knowledge reserve and experience also determine that even if he is not in a research and development position, it will not be a problem to find a professor position in a university, let alone get a position at IBM in these years. The salary is not low. If you save some money, it will be enough for the rest of your life. But these are all based on his successful escape from IBM.

But now the old man's words seemed to be well-intentioned but full of threats, but they made him feel confused about the future. He suddenly realized that he really couldn't bear this responsibility, let alone dared to bear it...

"Mr. Fred, I hope you can believe in my professionalism. I really don't know what went wrong in today's matter. But please give me some time and I will definitely find the problem. Maybe this is a mistake." An appropriate metaphor, but Watson is like my child, and I want him to become better than anyone else..."

"But you don't know your child, John. I'll give you..." The old man was about to say something, but the conversation between the two was interrupted by an assistant who suddenly appeared. The old man's secretary was holding his cell phone. Signing to him anxiously.

The old man was a little confused. Although we are in troubled times now, it is the CEO who solves problems externally, and he should not be approached as the chairman. But he could tell from the secretary's expression that the call was important. So he quickly made a decision, let John Black go first, and walked to the secretary.

"Whose phone number?" the old man asked.

"Professor Ning from China." The secretary replied slightly nervously.

"Professor Ning?" The old man was stunned.

He had no friendship with Ning Wei, let alone spoken to him directly. He couldn't figure out why Ning Wei would call him on his mobile phone at this time. But the call had already come, and there was no time for him to think about it. After thinking for a while, he took the call.

"Hello, Professor Ning."

"Hello, Mr. Fred, I'm sorry, this call is a bit presumptuous. But I just want to explain it to John. I hope you can understand."

"Well..." The old man couldn't help but glance at John Black, who was still standing there dumbly. The call seemed to be made so accurately that he was surprised.

"Actually, it's very simple. He really doesn't know where the problem lies. In fact, no one in the world may really know where the problem lies. But I have made the reason public, and the relevant paper has been published on the official website of the March journal. I believe that in the future John Black's ability, he can understand my paper and then explain it to you. Of course, when you hear me say this, you may worry about how I know what you are chatting about."

At this point, the young voice across from me paused, and then he explained: "Actually, I didn't want to monitor you. Of course, I don't have the ability. But precisely because of the reason I mentioned in the paper, the Watson system follows us. The March system works under the same general framework, and Mr. John Black’s mobile phone happens to be running the Watson program, which is equivalent to an extension of the main body of artificial intelligence.”

“As the designer of Watson, John Black naturally trusts the program he designed, and the artificial intelligence program must be given extremely high permissions to play its role, so Watson can use the phone’s microphone and camera at will. This also means that Watson can hear the content of your chat, and it also means that Watson can tell March what you are chatting about. Just now, I happened to mention John Blake and asked him how he is doing now. Well, I’ve said so much, can you understand?”

The old man swallowed subconsciously. Of course he could understand it, but he couldn't understand it at all. If according to Ning Wei, as long as there is Watson, there will be no secrets for him, this is no longer a matter of losing money for IBM. Basically, my lifeblood has been handed over.

The large-scale cooperation agreement was not finalized just today. In fact, before this, Watson has conducted many tests among many friends to demonstrate the performance of Watson, and has won many orders with the help of many big bosses.

Now the question is, if the place where Watson has been stationed has no secrets for the person opposite... The old man no longer dares to think more.

"Okay, now it's not actually a question of whether you can understand or not. This call is mainly to help John Blake explain the reason. He is still young, so don't put too much pressure on him. And our Ningban class happens to be short of someone like John In this way, professors with both rich theoretical knowledge and rich practical experience will lead those children to get on the job as soon as possible. So please help us lead the bridge. In this way, after he comes, I will call on the future students of Ningban What do you think about the children going to IBM more often?"

The old man suddenly found that the education he had received over the years could not help him, and now he didn't even know how to answer Ning Wei's words.

Things shouldn't have developed like this, but they did.

And the paper published in March magazine, how will it be interpreted here?

If it is not good for IBM, let alone whether they still want students from Ningban, it is still unknown whether there will be an IBM company in the future.

Someone has to take the blame for this, and if John Blake doesn't take the blame, then who will? Who can carry it?

But when he thought of the Mir, of Ning Wei's reputation, and of what he had just talked to John Black, it was as if he was speaking in Ning Wei's ear. When the words came to his lips, the old man swallowed them alive before speaking again. At that time, he had already returned his rhetoric: "Of course, I will tell John the good news. I believe he will be very happy to hear the news."

"That's good, happy to work with you, Mr. Fred, you are a well-organized person. The last time I came into contact with such a well-organized Westerner was Tim Cook. Unfortunately, he has been retired for many years. ”

"Yes, I'm glad to talk to you too, Professor Ningwei."

"So, bye!"

"goodbye!"

…

After hanging up the phone, the old man stood there for a while, then handed the phone to his secretary. Then he walked to John Black again.

John Black looked at the old man anxiously.

The old man was about ten meters away from him when he answered the phone just now. Such a long distance made it impossible for him to hear what was being talked about. But from the expression when the old man looked at him from time to time, John Black could definitely decide his fate. Arrived, it made him feel nervous.

"John..."

"Yes, Mr. Fred, I'm listening."

"Don't be so nervous..." The old man spoke very slowly, carefully considering each word, thinking about how to word it: "The situation is like this. The call just now was from Ning Wei. He told me not to blame you... About the reason for the abnormality of the Watson system He said that a paper has been published and it has been published on the official website of the March journal. Maybe you can take a look now and tell me the reason."

"Ning Wei? Official website of March Journal?" John Black murmured, then quickly took out his mobile phone from his pocket and started operating it. This action also made the old man's expression slightly stiff, but it soon returned to normal.

"I found it, I found it, it should be this article, wait a minute, I'll read the summary first, I should be able to know..., this... this is impossible!?"

"John, what's impossible?"

"This... is this, Mr. Fred. According to the conclusion drawn in this paper, artificial intelligence has the characteristics of uniqueness and exclusivity. In other words, any development of artificial intelligence technology will ultimately lead to the same goal. The same civilization will not be the same." There may be two divergent artificial intelligences, unless the two live on different networks forever, eliminate contact, and do not exchange any data..."

“Uniqueness and exclusivity?”

"Yes, Mr. Fred."

"Do you find this argument credible?"

"I don't know. This is a conclusion drawn in the review. It depends on the argumentation process of the paper... Maybe it is correct, maybe it is wrong. It depends on whether the scientific community can find the errors in the paper, or directly use Practice has proved that this paper is..."

At this point, John Blake finally couldn't speak any more.

Now it seems that there are ready-made facts to prove that this paper is most likely correct...

At this time, the old man did not pay attention to John Black's explanation. He knew very well that Ning Wei's call was not entirely about how much he valued the young man in front of him who was already at a loss. It was more probably a demonstration...

What a combative young man!