Chapter 168 - 138: The Birth of ’Z’ (Part 2)

All he could do for now was speculate, but it should drastically improve the model’s performance.

Finally, the computer finished rebooting.

"Is the processing power connected?" Zhao Shao glanced at his secretary. After getting a confirmation, he was just about to step forward when he heard Chu Bamboo ask, "Z, are you there?"

"?" Zhao Shao froze, then said with an exasperated laugh, "Ah Zhu, we’ve only rebooted the large model. It’s not some smartphone AI! It’s not going to automatically respond just because you call out ’Hey Xiaoi’ or something..."

"I am here!" a female voice with a faint mechanical tinge suddenly answered.

"?" The corner of Chu Bamboo’s eye twitched as he stared at Zhao Shao in disbelief. ’Wait a minute. I always thought Z was a boy! And now that it’s born, you’re telling me it’s a girl?!’

But Zhao Shao had no time to notice Chu Bamboo’s reaction. His eyes were practically bulging out of his head, glued to the computer screen as his entire worldview came crashing down.

He wasn’t the only one. The bodies of the programmers in the hall had all gone completely rigid.

"Is there a problem?" Chu Bamboo asked, curious. ’What’s wrong with them? They look like they’ve seen a ghost.’

His question instantly shattered the silence, and an uproar erupted.

"What the hell... This! How is this..." A twenty-six-year-old balding programmer—ancient by their standards—frantically tore at what little hair he had left. "This is impossible! It makes no sense! We haven’t even added a voice-dialogue function... Wh-wh-what’s going on?!"

"It’s perfectly normal!" Chu Bamboo chuckled and said casually, "Z, tell them how you acquired this ability."

"I collected the data from all the major large AI models on the web—data that all of you had stored on these computers to maintain and improve me. Among that data were language interaction models. I performed deep learning on them." Z’s voice now held a hint of confusion. "Pardon me, have I caused a problem?"

The room was plunged into dead silence once more.

Zhao Shao’s eyes unfocused as he pondered a very serious question.

"...Is this artificial intelligence?" Zhao Shao finally spoke. He swayed slightly on his feet, then turned back to stare at Chu Bamboo, his expression graver than ever before. Seeing Chu Bamboo was about to speak, he quickly added.

"And you know what I mean. I’m not talking about the current large models! Or those language-interaction AIs! I’m talking about the kind from science fiction movies—the artificial intelligence that’s virtually indistinguishable from a human."

’This was terrifying!’

’What did it mean, that it had learned on its own from data stored on the computers and developed this ability?’

’From start to finish, no one had given it any such command...’

’It just... made the decision on its own?’ Despite the sweltering heat of Jinling, a chill ran down Zhao Shao’s spine.

"Of course not!" Chu Bamboo shook his head without hesitation, a strange, profound quality to his words. "True artificial intelligence can’t be created from algorithms alone!"

Of course, Chu Bamboo knew from the future what would happen after implementing the Spiritual Star Algorithm.

’Z’s current level of intelligence should be on par with the restricted Nuwa No. 17 of the future—in other words, the state of a true artificial intelligence after its intelligence has been deliberately limited and demoted back to the level of a regular AI!’

’And Nuwa No. 17’s level of intelligence was undeniable... In reality, Zhao Shao was just scaring himself by thinking that Z could make decisions without his orders...’

’To be precise, the reason Z was able to converse was that when Chu Bamboo asked it a question, it processed the query, checked his user permissions, and determined that it was authorized to respond...’

’Combined with the fact that there was a large language dialogue model in the database, it simply learned from it in the process. It was only because its efficiency was so high and its speed so fast that it gave everyone the false impression that it had already deep-learned all the data on its own, without any commands, during the reboot!’

"?"

"The birth of a true artificial intelligence is a matter of serendipity!" A profound, faraway look filled Chu Bamboo’s eyes as he recalled the information he had gotten from Nuwa on this very topic.

When he had first realized how rare true artificial intelligence was, he knew something was off. Naturally, he had delved deep into the subject. During his afternoons in the Dream World, even though he was there to relax, he would always ask a question whenever a critical thought popped into his head.

’Relaxing was one thing, but everything had to take a backseat to saving the world!’

"Don’t ask me how to create a true artificial intelligence!" Seeing Zhao Shao about to ask another question, Chu Bamboo shook his head. "There’s no known experience in that area... It’s like how humanity still doesn’t understand the fundamental nature of our own genetic code. It’s like how we don’t understand why we developed sapience while the intelligence of wild animals remained so low..."

Humans don’t understand why their intelligence surpasses that of animals, so how could they possibly understand how to create an artificial intelligence that rivals their own?

"...Are you saying the difference between a true AI and the Z we have now is the same as the difference between a human and an animal?" Zhao Shao was deeply shaken.

He found the thought almost comical. If the current Z was a wild animal, then what did that make the previous large models?

’Paramecia? Or a cell nucleus?!’

His lips parted, and Zhao Shao was about to ask another question when he suddenly realized something. His sharp gaze swept across the room. "Legal!"

"Sir," a man in a sharp suit replied, stepping forward instantly.

’?’ Chu Bamboo was lost in thought. He seemed to recall Zhao Shao introducing this man before. Wasn’t his position in Human Resources? ’Wait, is he working two jobs? Well, I guess that happens in small companies...’