Chapter 311 The Beginning of Mechanical Life

“It is difficult to measure the emotional level, but if we start from the data, this question has actually been answered a long time ago.

I think the reason why you came to me to do this interview program with the theme of answering Mr. Qian's questions is probably because of your emotional needs.

If we said this in the past, everyone lacked intuitive understanding. The number and quality of papers were too far away from the lives of ordinary people, while daily news was often about technology blockades.

From time to time we see news mentioning that we need to achieve independence and self-reliance in key technology areas. Doesn’t this just prove that we have not yet achieved independence and self-reliance in these key technology areas?
This kind of intuitive understanding makes us dare not talk about whether we have answered Mr. Qian’s question.

Actually in my opinion, I think we solved this problem a long time ago.

At least we have been on par with developed countries in the field of scientific research since a long time ago. I would not say that we have surpassed them, but at least we have been on par with them.”

Chen Yuanguang didn't want to say too much. It was not a bad thing to be restrained and leave some room for himself.

The host's eyes lit up after hearing this, because the interview itself needs room for further discussion. If the interviewee says something absolute, it will be difficult to continue the topic. The central bank left them enough time for this interview, and it can even be said that there is no time limit.

If Chen Yuanguang said that we are number one and have already surpassed the UK and the US, and then used the data from the paper as evidence, then the topic would be dead.

Therefore, within CCTV, hosts all like to interview Chen Yuanguang, because there is a lot of room for freedom in their performance, and he can often make some hot topics, not to mention that it also gives him exposure in terms of the national attention.

Everyone needs to fight for opportunities like the one to interview Chen Yuanguang.

“Guangshen just mentioned that we actually caught up with developed countries in this regard a long time ago, and the gap between catching up and public perception. This is the first time I have heard of this view.

Can we talk about it in detail?" the host asked.

Chen Yuanguang paused for a moment, considered his words, and then said:

“Simply from the perspective of scientific research personnel capabilities, scientific research results, and scientific research content, there is no essential difference between us and developed countries other than America.

Our gap is more in that in modern times, whether it is science, engineering or liberal arts, they all developed in the West, so their greatest advantage lies in this aspect.

Too many problems in specific areas were pioneered by Western scientists, and domestic scientific researchers have the biggest gap in this field.

Even though scientists at the University of Tokyo had similar ideas, we lacked the resources to realize them in the past.

Let’s take a very simple example. As we all know, Gao Kun is a predecessor in our scientific community. He won the Nobel Prize in Physics for his pioneering achievements in the field of optical fibers.

His main contribution was to prove the feasibility of optical fiber from a theoretical perspective and to actually promote the development of optical fiber in the communications field in the future. He is definitely a pioneer in this field.

If he was in China at that time, there would be no conditions in China to judge whether his research direction was feasible, because the country was very poor at that time. In the 60s, if you did these cutting-edge research, you could not see the returns, and you could not clearly explain what the use was.

Because at that time, even when Mr. Gao Kun was in America, he was lobbying glass manufacturers around the world to sponsor his research on new materials for communications.

Even in foreign countries, it still takes a lot of effort to obtain resources, let alone in China where resources were scarce at that time.

In the early days, China was relatively closed in the academic field, and it was difficult to have the opportunity to participate in international academic conferences on a large scale.

Therefore, I think Mr. Qian’s question is fundamentally caused by the lack of resources. Lack of resources means that you don’t have the cost of trial and error, and without the cost of trial and error, there is no way to talk about innovation.

I think the root cause lies in resources.

We can draw a formula: talents need to be cultivated, and innovative results require resource investment.

The results are equal to the resource input and the innovation model is multiplied by a certain coefficient. When the resource input is insufficient, no matter how high the efficiency of the innovation model is or how large the coefficient is, there will be no results.

Talent is also equal to the population multiplied by the proportion and then multiplied by the talent training model. The talent training model here is linked to the per capita investment in educational resources, the efficiency of the training and screening mechanism, and so on.

The proportion refers to the percentage of the population of appropriate age who are suitable for research and development. It is impossible for everyone to do research and development, and not everyone has the ability and interest in this area.

That's basically it. Whether it's the innovation model or the talent training model, our country learned both from foreign countries and made localized transformations based on the foreign training models.

If it is really changed into a coefficient, there is no essential difference from foreign countries.

If we stand at this historical juncture today and ask future generations a question, it is how to transform this model so that our coefficients in these two areas can be larger.

Because resource inputs will certainly continue to grow as productivity grows, at this time, other factors of growth become crucial.”

The host is already tired of listening. To be honest, as a host with a liberal arts background, he just wants to talk from an emotional perspective. It would be better to reflect on why it didn't work in the past and why it works now.

Chen Yuanguang's narrative logic of breaking things down bit by bit is a bit too hardcore, and the host didn't know how to respond.

Because to be honest, he had never thought about this development in the past, and he had to ask this country how they thought.

"Then God of Light, what do you think we should do?" asked the host.

Chen Yuanguang shook his head: "It is precisely because I don't know that I hope someone can help me answer it in the future.

How can we improve this talent training model and innovative R&D mechanism to raise the coefficients of these two areas?

This is the question I leave for future generations.

The current talent training model of the college entrance examination is very fair. I don’t have the ability to come up with a model that does not hinder the principle of fairness and can select talents more accurately. "

The college entrance examination is the most recognized selection method among the people of Dongda.

“As for the innovation selection mechanism, I became a special advisor to the National Natural Science Foundation of China in the past and held some power.

It’s been criticized by netizens in the past, but some of the projects we sponsored recently joined forces to produce something really, really amazing.

Of course, individual cases cannot represent the whole, but it also proves that the research matrix led by individuals is also effective.

I hope that with the development of the economy of Dongda University in the future, we can explore more models.”

These are too abstract, and the host feels that he has no room to play. The audience doesn't like to watch them either. What Chen Yuanguang just mentioned aroused his interest: "Can you briefly tell us what the project is?"

Chen Yuanguang said: "It is a project centered around artificial intelligence, and it is a more subversive discovery than AlphaGo and ChatGPT.

It will greatly change people's perception of artificial intelligence. I can only reveal so much, and you will know more later. "

The host was even more curious now, as artificial intelligence is increasingly affecting individual lives.

It's quite funny. China is a producing country and has no way to stimulate consumption. The United States is a consuming country and has no way to restore productivity. Yet these two most suitable countries are trying every means to break up.

"The God of Light said this, which makes me want to know what it is now," said the host.

Because both AlphaGo and ChatGPT have led people into a new era of artificial intelligence. If this time it is a brand new technology, he is really curious about where human society will be led.

It is obvious that after Chen Yuanguang finished speaking, the number of barrages in the live broadcast rooms of major platforms is growing rapidly.

"I'm not going to be unemployed, am I?"

"I don't think I've seen the Longyin Party come out to ask for their heads recently on Zhihu?"

"Don't worry, our company hasn't even mastered generative artificial intelligence yet, and you're giving us a whole new direction. We're going to have to start over again."

Domestic companies are like this: if there is any new hot spot, they will rush into it, regardless of whether the technology is mature or not, and then promote it on the market.

There was no rigorous internal audit at all.

"Will it have a greater impact on human society than the Hornbill in Malaysia?" the host asked curiously.

Chen Yuanguang thought for a moment and said: “If we only look at it from a technical perspective, then obviously yes, because Malaysia’s Hornbill is essentially still an integration of existing technologies.

The project we are working on is a complete subversion of the past from a technical perspective.

It is also a subversion of the scientific research model in the computer field. In the past, there was theory first and then results.

After the results are achieved, there will be more discoveries and more theories will be derived.

This time we only had a very abstract theory, and then we produced completely incredible results.

Do you believe in qigong?" Chen Yuanguang changed the subject.

The host asked back, "Which kind of Qigong are you referring to?"

"It's the kind of qigong that has special abilities after practicing it," said Chen Yuanguang.

"Of course not." The vast majority of people at Tokyo University are atheists. Even among theists, few believe in this, and the host is no exception.

Chen Yuanguang smiled and said, "What if someone tells you that he knows Qigong and demonstrates how to move objects with his mind right in front of you?"

The host said: "I would suspect that someone had tampered with it."

Chen Yuanguang asked: "What if you check again and again and find no signs of him tampering with anything?"

The host guessed what Chen Yuanguang wanted to say: "I still have doubts. I don't think this kind of qigong exists. I wonder if there is a mechanism that I haven't discovered."

Chen Yuanguang stopped asking questions and said: "This discovery is roughly like this. Even though we have witnessed the discovery of this type of artificial intelligence, it has been widely tested and even has been launched in kind, the scholars involved still do not believe it really exists.

The meaning behind it means that in the future we humans will be able to cultivate real mechanical life."

Chen Yuanguang's words shocked the host and the audience watching the live broadcast.

“???” The screen was filled with question marks on the comments section of users watching the live broadcast.

The host said the same thing: "Light God, mechanical life?"

Chen Yuanguang quickly explained: "I just said that maybe we have found a way to create silicon-based life in the true sense, but it does not mean that we have created silicon-based life now.

Perhaps it will take as long for Paramecium to evolve into a human being from our current starting point to a true mechanical life.”

After the live broadcast was over, not many people discussed Qian Laozhi's question, as they were all discussing what the project was.

Not only domestic media were shocked, but foreign media were also shocked.

The big names doing AI research on Twitter rioted after seeing the news reports from mainstream media.

"Can anyone tell me what exactly Wright discovered?"

“Wright has not published any papers in the field of artificial intelligence before. Can his words really be trusted?”

“Although Wright has not published any papers related to artificial intelligence, judging from the prediction model for the properties of small chemical molecules he built, he has quite deep attainments in the field of artificial intelligence.”

The paper previously published by Chen Yuanguang in Nature has been dug out again, trying to get a glimpse of the breakthrough in artificial intelligence technology revealed in his interview this time.

"Hornbill has shocked us enough. What exactly did Wright do? Can anyone tell us?"

Chen Yuanguang's credibility determines that the foreign academic community generally believes that he has really created something amazing.

All the comments under Musk's tweets were asking him to find Chen Yuanguang to find out what the technological breakthrough was.

"Sorry, Light said we need to wait a little longer to find out what it is."

On Zhihu, computer-related issues are among the few topics that still maintain professionalism.

"Does anyone know what the breakthrough in artificial intelligence technology that Guangshen talked about in the CCTV interview is?"

"Laxative, where are the Longyin Party? When you are not needed, you all come out one after another and say something like "Listen to the Longyin" or else you will be beheaded.

How come no one from the Longyin Party showed up when we needed you to take the lead this time?

I've been browsing Zhihu and Weibo for two hours straight, how come no one with inside information has come out to say a word?
Can Zhihu restore the anonymity function? You guys are scaring the Longyin Party so much that they don’t dare to come out.”

(End of this chapter)