Chapter 283 The Terrifying Alpha

Everyone was amazed at the capabilities of the new generation of Hornbills.

Because artificial intelligence has developed rapidly in the past few years, from AlphaGo in the first year to ChatGPT a few years ago, these two time nodes respectively marked the arrival of the artificial intelligence era and the commercialization of artificial intelligence.

But they are essentially more about data integration and display. Hornbill has simply gone a step further on this basis and made optimizations that are more in line with the needs of the search engine user group.

The energy displayed by this generation of Hornbills is already simulating human thinking.

It is certainly difficult to train artificial intelligence to this level, but it is possible for many companies, including Tencent, to do it with some effort.

The Tencent executives present here have been exposed to a lot of information related to artificial intelligence over the years. After watching the demonstration of the new generation of Hornbill, everyone has a lot of ideas in their minds, such as what technology to use for simulation, what data to use to feed the model, etc.

Many people have even thought of more than one method. With Tencent’s resources, they can proceed with multiple routes simultaneously and then try out a relatively suitable route.

What everyone cannot do is balance the computing power.

For the same application, the requirements for computing power scheduling and the costs involved are completely different at the million-level, tens of millions-level, and hundreds of millions-level.

After Hornbill became popular around the world, Internet companies including Google have tried to make similar products. OpenAI has also launched an artificial intelligence search engine called SecretGPT.

Without exception, these products are unable to solve two problems. The first is that AI is prone to self-interpretation errors. For example, if you want to know the local weather in the next five days, AI will find the weather five days later for you. The second is speed.

Users who have used ChatGPT-like products are well aware that this type of application answers questions word by word. The search engine can generate a whole page of content in 0.42 seconds, while GPT may take half a minute.

If this speed is compared with that of search engines, users will not be able to tolerate it.

Therefore, even though Hornbill has been on the market for a year and has dealt a fatal blow to Google and Baidu, there is still no product on the market that can match it.

The root cause is that these two points cannot be resolved.

By the same token, Tencent can also make similar products, but Hornbill only takes half a minute. Not only does Tencent need to use more computing power, but the response speed may also be slower.

“I think what everyone is saying is just their own conjecture, and what we really need to do now is to figure out what Samad wants and what his purpose is.

From my perspective, I think the next generation of Hornbill has gone a step further, from ChatGPT's conversations with people, to the various AI girlfriends that have been born in the past two years to meet human virtual social needs, to driverless cars.

Artificial intelligence is entering every aspect of our lives, but a product like Hornbill that directly helps you think should be the first.

Whether it is GPT or Kimi, these things can help everyone write articles and codes, but these are all questions you ask after thinking, and it will give you feedback.

Hornbill is a software that helps you think when you need it and directly provides you with the results without any human involvement in between.

Honestly, I think it doesn’t matter to Alpha whether the product itself is profitable or not. What matters is that in the process, he can make the model fit the curve of human thinking, so that AI can truly think like a human.

Of course there is another possibility, that is, Alpha hopes to develop into a unique monopoly form.

Because everyone is mainly focused on domestic affairs, and I am also responsible for some things of Shopee, I am a director of Shopee.

So I am very clear about what Alfa has done in Malaysia in the past.”

Shopee is an e-commerce company similar to Lazada. Tencent invested in Shopee and held a controlling stake in Lazada.

Tencent previously held a 40% stake in Shopee, and then began to withdraw its shares starting in 2023.

“Alpha is leveraging its leading technology in artificial intelligence to help the manufacturing industry in Johor Bahru quickly transform into an intelligent one.

Commodities cannot be separated from production, sales and transportation.

In the past, Alpha intervened in production through artificial intelligence, and now it intervenes in sales.

As for the transportation aspect, there are a large number of companies engaged in driverless driving. Alpha does not need to do it itself. It only needs to acquire one at the right time. With Alpha's strength in the field of artificial intelligence, it is likely that it will be able to achieve driverless driving with the help of acquisitions.

Then they did it all at once, producing, selling and shipping.

All businesses and consumers in the entire chain need to rely on this ecosystem.

Given the ambitions shown by Samad and Alpha, I think these are the only two possibilities.”

“I think we have to cooperate with Alpha and use all of Tencent’s resources to promote this project.

Alpha is too far away from us, and TikTok is too close to us."

This executive provided a new perspective based on the challenges faced by Tencent internally, which immediately raised the expectations of all Tencent executives present. Those who were originally spinning their pens with their heads down stopped writing.

He went on to say:
“Everyone is very clear about one statistic: Douyin has long surpassed Tencent in terms of user time. Douyin alone exceeds the sum of all Tencent products.

In the past, they have frequently entered the fields of live streaming sales, short video sales, and local life similar to Meituan and Dianping.

All of these not only create a large source of profit for Douyin, but also make Douyin's bloggers profitable, further promoting Douyin's content ecology.

The new generation of Hornbill can fundamentally kill TikTok.

Of course I know that everyone will say that Hornbill does not have the fun of shopping. I just want to say that user habits can be cultivated. Before Luckin Coffee, most Chinese people did not drink coffee.

Not to mention that the new generation of Hornbill is essentially a better product that can help users save time, reduce purchasing desire, and downgrade consumption.

In this era of consumption downgrade, instead of buying cost-effective products, it is better to let AI help you buy them. In this way, you will not be able to enjoy the fun of shopping, the frequency of purchases will decrease, and consumption downgrade will be more thorough.

We start with the male group, and let them accept this from the perspectives of futurism and convenience, and then make it a popular lifestyle so that women can accept it as well.

Once Douyin stops bringing in revenue from selling goods, their ecosystem will not be ruined, but will at least dry up to the level of 2018, and we will take the initiative again.”

For Tencent, TikTok is their biggest enemy now.

Tencent can coexist peacefully with Alibaba, but they are mortal enemies with TikTok. TikTok has the possibility of counterattacking chat software by starting with short videos.

After all the executives had spoken, Mark suddenly felt an anticipation for the future of Alpha Technologies:
“Okay, I know everyone’s opinions. I think cooperation is beyond doubt. Even if it is only for a small number of people, this will be a unique e-commerce platform.

It is of great help to Tencent in expanding its business territory and fighting against its competitors.

Not to mention the accumulated data, which is also of great significance to Tencent.

Alpha can simulate human thinking, and Tencent’s artificial intelligence team can also use accumulated data to do the same thing.

We also want to develop Tencent’s own AI that can think.”

He did not mention whether they could jointly develop the technology. It goes without saying that Alpha would not open such key technology to them, even though Tencent is an investor in Alpha.

“Whether it’s the cooperation model or anything else, I think we can discuss it. In the past, we had a good cooperative relationship, even if we gave up some of the profits to the other party, I think that’s fine.

It's just important to understand Alpha Technology's purpose.

Sam, get ready. I will go to Southeast Asia with you later." Mark said. Sam is the Tencent executive who just spoke and is also a director of Shopee.

Although Chen Yuanguang did not interfere with Alpha's actions, he paid attention to it every day.

As someone who has witnessed the future of artificial intelligence dominating the world, he knows very well what kind of behemoth will be created if Alpha is allowed to develop.

Although the Alpha he developed using future technology has its limits, in theory it is impossible for it to develop into an artificial intelligence with its own thoughts.

But what if?
The Alphas of the future time and space can all be born by accidents. What if the Alpha of Malaysia embarks on the road of evolution and hits that one in a million possibility?

So Chen Yuanguang paid close attention to Alpha's every move.

After seeing Alpha send Oraz to Pengcheng to negotiate with Tencent, hoping to cooperate with Pengcheng on the next generation of Hornbill, he still felt a little chilly.

After arriving in Pengcheng, Oraz will soon transfer to America to discuss cooperation with Microsoft.

That’s right, Alpha plans to launch this new shopping AI all at once worldwide.

"Why do we need to cooperate with Tencent? Wouldn't it be better to start with Southeast Asia and then discuss cooperation with Tencent and Microsoft separately after building up a certain momentum?" asked Chen Yuanguang.

“Short-term benefits are not important. Opening up the American and Chinese markets through the new generation Hornbill will be of great benefit to Alpha’s development in Malaysia.”

"Tell me carefully."

“It is true that we now have a high status in Malaysia, but this status is based on national pride, and we need to strive for higher prestige and greater reputation to gain the support of the majority of people when I really stand out as a person to run for election.

Pride can't help us do this, only practical interests can help us do this.

With Hornbill, we can unknowingly expand the global market share of goods produced in Southeast Asia.

Under Hornbill’s proactive guidance, I am confident that we can increase the export share of Malaysian goods by 20%. If more manufacturing industries are moved to Malaysia in the future, this share will continue to increase.

Taking five years as the timeline, I think that in five years, most people in Malaysia will not be able to stand the days without Alpha Technologies.”

Alpha's strategic purpose is too clear. To them, money is just a number, and a few percentage points more or less are not important at all.

What is important is that as an artificial intelligence, it has to stand in the public eye and compete with humans. First of all, whether it will be subject to legal constraints. Secondly, Malaysia is essentially still a monarchy, so whether it will be restricted.

These are all unknowns, and you can solve some of the problems by killing, but you can't solve all of them by killing.

Alpha means to tie most people to their own community of interests. There is nothing wrong with this approach.

“What do you do in the five years after launching the next generation Hornbill?”

“We will vigorously introduce manufacturing industries, seize market share from traditional e-commerce platforms such as Taobao, Amazon, and Pinduoduo, promote the export of goods from Malaysia and even the entire Southeast Asia, and introduce more investors to enable Hornbill to have smooth global expansion.”

Chen Yuanguang didn't say anything else, because in his opinion, it would be difficult to do better even if he came in person.

“This is an incredible product that has overturned my previous understanding of what AI can do in online shopping.

I have always thought that artificial intelligence can only be used as an auxiliary tool for data analysis, and I have never thought that artificial intelligence can think for humans." Mark looked shocked.

This is a bit pretentious.

The shocking test yesterday was enough to satisfy my curiosity. This was purely a performance in the business social field.

Oraz nodded and said, “We were also surprised.

This is difficult from a technical perspective, and it is also a very radical choice from the product itself.

We have had very in-depth discussions internally, and everyone is skeptical about whether the transition from talking to artificial intelligence to having artificial intelligence think for humans is a bit too radical.

Whether users can accept it.

We also discussed with our boss whether we should make more gentle products.

For example, users raise requirements and Hornbill gives them a suggestion.

I suggest you buy something and then let him make the jump on his own.

If the user accepts it, we will then launch a paid version, and Hornbill will directly purchase the paid version for him.

This gradual approach may be easier for consumers to accept.

But the boss thought we should do it in one step.”

Samad needed a translator when he first met Mark, but now he speaks Chinese quite fluently.

After all, he traveled back and forth to China all year round, and with the help of a special Chinese teacher for training, his Chinese language skills improved rapidly.

“I agree with Mr. Samad that consumer habits can be cultivated.

If it’s just conversation recommendations, users will feel like we’re advertising.

On the contrary, they will feel resistance and think that you are helping merchants promote their products in this way.

If you buy it for him directly, he will only think it is amazing and future technology that will subvert their previous cognition.

On the contrary, it is easier for consumers to accept it." Mark said.

They conducted a questionnaire survey within Tencent yesterday afternoon to investigate how accepting everyone is of artificial intelligence helping them shop.

If we only talk about within Tencent, the level of acceptance is very high. The general reaction is that work is hard enough, and it is very convenient to have someone to help buy things, even if it is just online shopping.

Of course, the sampling objects are too extreme to be used as a conclusion, but they can explain certain problems.

“Yes, for AlphaTech, we hope that artificial intelligence can help everyone do more things.

However, there are still some problems, and we hope to get help from Tencent."

(End of this chapter)