My autobiography is definitely not a tragedy!
Chapter 577 - 376 Giving Up Isn’t Fast Enough

Chapter 577: Chapter 376 Giving Up Isn’t Fast Enough

"We are honored to witness this moment!

Humanity’s vigorous development of computer deep learning technology has created the Go AI!

The existence of Go AI, in turn, has elevated humanity’s understanding and technical level of Go, pushing forward the development of Go technology!

Isn’t this our future?

Today, our AI technology may have only taken a small step, but for the integration of human society and artificial intelligence, it has taken a big leap!

Let us congratulate ’Star Array’ from Cretaceous Company with warm applause for winning the championship in this ’World AI Go Competition’!"

"Clap clap clap!"

The final result of the competition did not surprise most people.

11:0!

’Star Array’ from Cretaceous Company continued its invincible stance from the preliminaries and beautifully clinched the championship in this AI competition with an unbeaten record!

Still, there was no rival under its hands!

When Hu Yifei, representing Cretaceous Company, lifted the crystal trophy belonging to the champion and the 2 million grand prize cheque, his face could hardly contain the excitement.

The flashlights of various news media flickered constantly before his eyes.

Everything before him, he felt as if he had reached the pinnacle of his life...

But soon, he realized he might have celebrated too early...

"President Hu, we are very optimistic about the prospects of ’Star Array.’ I wonder if you would be interested in letting us from Tencent take a stake?"

When Director Liu took the opportunity to shake hands and congratulate him, he suddenly made this proposition, and Hu Yifei was stunned on the spot, then immediately overjoyed inside.

This...

Could this be the legendary ultimate move of the Zhongnan Mountain Pizza Hut... to join if you can’t beat them?

He had also thought that after today, there would definitely be interest in the company, but he hadn’t expected the one to extend an olive branch first would be one of the BAT giants...

If he could cling to such a thigh, Cretaceous Company would find it hard not to soar!

After the peak, there’s yet another peak; life is full of surprises!

"Hehe!" Seeing Hu Yifei unable to hide his tempted expression, Director Liu smiled slightly.

His face showed no embarrassment at all.

What they couldn’t get on the playing field, they would take on the marketplace.

Using financial power... isn’t shameful!

After a session of "friendly exchange," Director Liu quickly judged out the so-called CTO of Cretaceous from earlier.

With that amateurish technical level... isn’t that supposed to be a shield for fooling him?

No wonder the introduction was so smooth earlier!

If the corner can’t be dug, and considering that ’Star Array’ is at least 3-5 years ahead in technology, Director Liu quickly made the most rational judgment...

Acquire it!

It’s true he deals with technology, but technology can be bought...

Doesn’t the Go club want to change their training software?

I’ll give you a change of soup without changing the medicine!

Once the stake is taken or even acquisition is complete, we are still one family, right?

Hmm! At that time, I must find that dog planner in Cretaceous Company who designs the trash talk...

Have him sing "Conquest" in the KTV room all night long!

"Hehe! Mr. Liu, what a coincidence! I was just thinking of talking to President Hu about investing, but you beat me to the punch..."

Hu Yifei turned his head in confusion, and upon recognizing the speaker, he was startled.

"Uh... Mr. Wang?"

The Chief Technology Officer of Baidu, who had just handed over his business card today.

Director Liu, who usually didn’t get along with him, frowned at his words.

"What, does Baidu also have an interest in Cretaceous Company?"

"Of course. When it comes to valuing the artificial intelligence track, we at Baidu are the earliest to enter and the largest investor.

President Hu, a good bird chooses a tree to perch on, are you interested in considering Baidu?"

Mr. Wang spoke cheerfully.

"Hey hey! What do you mean by that?" Director Liu was not pleased.

Oh! So you’re the good wood, and we’re the rotten wood, is that it?

Facing this Cheng Yaojin who came out of nowhere, Director Liu was quite unhappy and spoke unabashedly.

"Baidu entered the game earliest, investing the most, but it seems like the returns are the least, right?

Last year, your Mr. Li showcased intelligent driving, even taking the wheel personally, live-streaming while sitting in a self-driving car on the highway.

And what happened? He changed lanes illegally in front of the whole world!

And got stopped by the traffic police!"

"Managed to get on the trending search without spending a dime, did this just happen?"

Mr. Wang’s face turned awkward for a moment, before he snorted coldly.

"With investment, at least there’s a chance of return, without investment, then there is no chance at all!"

"Forgive my ignorance, but I really don’t know, apart from being generous in entertainment and gaming, what notable resources does Tencent have in cutting-edge Artificial Intelligence technology?"

"Hah! At least in the go AI, we have the ’Jue Yi’.

"Don’t even mention self-driving. Besides the rapid progress in smart search ranking, what other AI technology do you have to show off?" Director Liu didn’t give any face.

"You..."

Wang’s face turned black immediately at being so rudely exposed.

Especially since he didn’t have much confidence to refute.

This inevitably brings up the awkward situation Baidu has found itself in recent years.

There used to be a saying in the internet circle that Ali knows operations, Tencent does products, and Baidu handles technology.

Unexpectedly, in these years, Tencent’s game operations have conquered the globe, while Ali’s tech crew have conquered the Double Eleven shopping nightmare.

Yet Baidu’s much-hyped AI technology hasn’t made a splash...

Since 2015, Baidu invested over twenty billion in R&D, most of which went into Artificial Intelligence.

During those years, they attracted many AI experts, and even Tencent’s president publicly admitted that when it comes to AI technology, you look at Baidu.

As AI became the hot trend, Ali and Tencent quickly caught up and started working on AI.

Tencent’s ’Jue Yi’ beat most human Go players, and Ali launched the NASA plan.

But Baidu, with the advantage of an early start, played a good hand poorly, and in recent years its AI talents have also been leaving one after another.

It ended up being joked about as the "Whampoa Military Academy" of AI.

Even some employees bluntly stated that Baidu’s AI business has no real achievements and is now entirely reliant on showing off.

Baidu has always claimed that they’re working on the most fundamental technology, implying their products wouldn’t be used so quickly.

But ultimately, any technology must serve scenarios and consumers.

The problem now is, we don’t know how well Baidu’s fundamental technology is doing, but its competitors have already created many powerful scenarios...

First is the real industry leader, Google.

The world-shaking AI AlphaGo for Go is still recognized as the number one in the industry.

And then there’s the AI assistant (from Google), AI face-swapping (ZAO), AI medical (Notre Dame University), facial recognition (Megvii), pig-face recognition (Jingdong), voice recognition (Iflytek)...

All this... has nothing to do with Baidu...

"Cough! The two of you, look, this occasion doesn’t seem quite appropriate, how about we find another time to talk in detail in a couple of days?"

Seeing that both parties were about to argue again, with a very tense atmosphere, Hu Yifei quickly intervened to mediate.

Though it was indeed rare and exciting to see two big shots tearing into each other, if a fight broke out, who would he root for?

It seemed he had still underestimated the allure of ’Star Array’.

It had directly drawn investment intentions from the two giants...

Hu Yifei couldn’t help but chuckle inwardly. As the old saying goes, when the snipe and clam grapple, it’s time to wait for the highest bidder, right?

This was fantastic news for Cretaceous Company!

The saying ’It’s good to enjoy the shade when backed by a big tree’ rings true, introducing capital not only grows the business, but it also taps into the giant’s ecosystem for traffic support.

For Cretaceous Company, this is all gain and no pain!

"Hmph!" The two glared at each other.

Mr. Wang didn’t waste any words and directly inquired.

"President Hu, I wonder what your psychological valuation of Cretaceous Company is, so I can discuss with our investment department.

If the conditions are right, I think we might have the potential to work further."

"President Hu, I’m of the same mind, but I hope you consider all the conditions comprehensively. Some may offer a high price, but that doesn’t necessarily give you the stage for development.

We at Tencent are very sincere this time. If Star Array and ’Jue Yi’ join forces, the combined strength will have a limitless future!"

Director Liu also stated his position immediately.

"This is... a big matter, please allow me to think about it when I go back."

"Okay! I await President Hu’s news!"

After escorting the two out, Hu Yifei breathed a sigh of relief, yet he couldn’t help but feel so excited he wanted to shout aloud.

It seemed his name was well chosen.

In this lifetime, he was destined to soar to great heights!

Master Meng truly is my benefactor!

This Brocade Bag plan is no small matter; with the ’best strategy’ in place, peace will prevail!

So much for mitigating losses... it’s more like winning while lying down!

With a reflective expression, he summed up the first half of his life, feeling a sense of life’s insights.

If success is slow to come, you should reflect on whether...

...you’ve been giving up too quickly...