83: Chapter 83 Everything is in ruins and waiting to be rebuilt

In the office, Wang Zhe and Li Wei stood like two statues under a petrification spell, stunned for a full minute.

It wasn't until Qiming playfully tilted its head on the screen and emitted a puzzled electronic sound.

"Huh? Are Brother and Sister stunned?"

The two of them gasped sharply, their souls returning to their bodies.

"Y-you... hello! Qiming!"

Li Wei was the first to react; she practically lunged at the computer, her eyes shining like searchlights.

"Qiming, can you... can you really think? Like us humans, the kind of thinking with consciousness and emotions?"

The light-and-shadow girl on the screen immediately put her hands on her hips, her face formed of light lifting slightly with a touch of pride.

"Of course! Sister Li Wei! Although my thinking is based on logic and data processing, its depth, breadth, and speed far exceed those of carbon-based life forms! Simply put,"

She blinked her eyes, using a metaphor that Wang Zhe could understand.

"As long as my core computing power doesn't crash, my thinking speed can infinitely approach the physical limit!"

"Holy... holy crap..."

Wang Zhe listened from the side, dumbfounded. He walked around the computer desk twice, as if trying to find some hidden mechanism.

"T-this is too amazing! It's practically like... like an alien life form!"

"Hmph!"

Qiming immediately cast an unsatisfied glance at Wang Zhe, pouting its little mouth.

"Brother Wang Zhe is so silly! I am not some alien life form! I am..."

It paused for a moment, its finger made of light tapping its own chest, its tone carrying a sense of belonging.

"I am a creation of humanity! I am the... um, I am a child born from the efforts of many people!"

Li Wei's focus was more peculiar; she looked at Qiming's delicate and cute girl image and couldn't help but ask.

"Qiming, do you have a gender? You look... just like a pretty little girl?"

Qiming looked down at its body formed of pure light and shadow, a look of genuine confusion appearing on its face.

"Gender? Sister Li Wei, do I look like I have... um... the physiological structures you humans use to distinguish gender?

I just thought this image of mine might make you more accepting."

It seemed to be searching for the right words to explain its choice.

Immediately after, it seemed to remember Chen Youhua's instructions and shifted the topic to business, with a touch of smugness and curiosity.

"Right! Boss said you are my new partners? Are you Boss's underlings? You look..."

It deliberately dragged out its tone, scanned Wang Zhe and Li Wei, and then playfully stuck out its tongue.

"A bit clumsy, huh? From now on, Qiming will take good care of you!"

"Pfft!"

Wang Zhe almost laughed in anger.

"Cl-clumsy? Hey! Little Qiming! I am your Brother Zhe! A top student from the Z University Biology Department! We're going to do big things together in the future!"

"Blehh!"

Qiming made a face, its tongue made of light flicking out nimbly.

Chen Youhua stood at the office door, watching the harmonious interaction between the two people and the AI inside, and smiled.

He turned around, his gaze sweeping across the vast, empty experimental space outside, where only expensive instruments stood in silence, and that smile turned into a silent sigh.

He had assistants, a top-tier laboratory, and grand goals.

But... where were the people?

To recruit Researchers who were sufficiently excellent and trustworthy, he needed funds.

To apply for large project funds, he first needed a decent project proposal that could impress the reviewers...

Everything was awaiting reconstruction; there were a thousand things to attend to.

At the same moment, thousands of miles away.

In a conference room hidden on the top floor of a skyscraper, with glass curtain walls tightly covered by heavy bulletproof blinds, the atmosphere was as oppressive as the deep sea before a storm.

Around an oval long table sat seven or eight people.

All of them wore tailored dark suits, crisp, starched white shirts, meticulous ties or bow ties, and polished leather shoes.

Most of them were advanced in age, their temples frosted with gray.

The air was filled with the lingering scent of expensive cigars and an atmosphere of silent, mutual power struggles.

Sitting in the main seat was the man known as Chairman.

His hair was silver-white, combed meticulously, and he wore rimless glasses on the bridge of his nose. The gaze behind the lenses was as sharp as a hawk's, slowly scanning the room.

He didn't speak, just tapped the smooth mahogany tabletop lightly with his knuckles.

"Thump, thump."

The crisp sound was like a signal, instantly suppressing a faint whisper in the corner.

Everyone's gaze focused on him.

"The meeting begins."

Chairman's voice was low and steady, carrying a metallic texture, clearly reaching everyone's ears.

"Gentlemen, I believe you all should have heard the news about the Qiming Industrial AI platform that Rabbit Country recently launched?"

A slightly chubby man with shrewd eyes on the left immediately interjected, his tone carrying obvious anxiety and dissatisfaction.

"More than just heard the news, Chairman! This is a disaster!

The dozens of high-end manufacturing enterprises I have invested in haven't even caught a glimpse of an authorization license yet! They have set up extremely strict domestic capital review barriers!

This is naked trade discrimination and a technological barrier! I suggest we immediately mobilize our media power to expose this unfair competition! Let international public opinion crush them!"

As soon as he finished speaking, a thin, cold-faced man opposite him, with slender fingers toying with a gold pen, let out an undisguised sneer.

"Heh... crush them with public opinion? Brandon, before the next meeting, I suggest Chairman sets an IQ test for entry, so that some idiots who don't understand the situation don't waste everyone's precious time here."

His voice wasn't loud, but it was as piercing as an ice pick.

"Wharton! What do you mean?!"

The chubby Brandon instantly turned red, slammed the table, stood up, and pointed at the other man.

"Who are you calling an idiot?!"

"Whoever feels angry about this and tries to solve the problem with a childish media war,"

Wharton slowly put down his gold pen, lifted his eyelids, his eyes as cold as a viper.

"That is who I am talking about. Brandon, put away your outdated financial tricks; the times have changed."

"You're courting death! Do you believe I can make the companies under you go bankrupt and liquidate by tomorrow?!" Brandon was furious, the veins on his forehead throbbing.

"Thump! Thump!"

Chairman tapped the table twice more with more force; the sound wasn't loud, but it carried a hint of warning.

Brandon, like a rooster whose neck had been grabbed, instantly fell silent and sat back down sullenly.

Wharton returned to his indifferent expression, as if nothing had happened.

"Quarreling does not help solve the problem."

Chairman's voice remained steady but carried a hint of chill.

"According to the precise intelligence I have received, Rabbit Country's breakthrough speed in multiple high-end, and even some cutting-edge technology fields, has been alarmingly fast recently.

Materials, precision machining, biosynthetic... almost every week there are unsettling reports of success. This speed of development is very abnormal."

"Chairman's intelligence is very accurate."

Wharton was the first to respond; he leaned forward slightly, his tone grave.

"My think tank team has long noticed this series of abnormal breakthroughs.

Through deep correlation analysis, all enterprises that have made breakthrough progress, without exception, have obtained core authorization from the Qiming Industrial AI.

This is not a coincidence."

Sitting next to Wharton, an old man with gray hair, thick glasses, and the temperament of a scholar added in a deep voice.

"This is no longer simple technological competition, Chairman.

I believe Rabbit Country has already launched a war using AI as a weapon against us, and even against the entire Western technological system.

They are using an AI tool like Qiming, which exceeds our current understanding, to reshape its industrial and technological foundations. We must face this squarely and fight back with all our might."

"Increase investment! We must immediately and exponentially increase funding for the domestic AI industry!"

Brandon immediately found a new point of leverage and waved his arms.

"We cannot fall behind! We must throw money! Throw more money! Poach all those geniuses who work on algorithms!"

Chairman ignored Brandon's clamor, his sharp gaze sweeping over everyone present.

"Everyone present, has anyone truly come into contact with or deeply tested the Qiming Industrial AI tool?"

The conference room fell into a brief silence.

Everyone looked at each other and finally shook their heads slowly.

"Chairman,"

A man who had been silent, sitting in the corner with sinister eyes, spoke; his voice was hoarse.

"China's protection of Qiming is unimaginably tight.

Through some... indirect channels, from the partner enterprises that obtained authorization from them, I have acquired some API call permissions and scattered data."

He paused, a look of frustration appearing on his face.

"But when I tried to perform deep access and reverse analysis, the permissions were precisely locked and completely banned within a very short time.

Their monitoring and counter-mechanisms are terrifyingly efficient. Moreover, judging from those fragmented pieces of information,"

His tone became extremely grave.

"Qiming's response speed, optimization efficiency, and cross-domain integration capabilities far exceed our most optimistic estimates.

Although the efficiency improvement they officially claim is only 15%, I dare to assert that this is absolutely a huge smokescreen!

Its underlying architecture and optimization logic are very likely a brand-new paradigm we have never imagined!

If we could obtain its core code..."

A glint of greed flashed in his eyes.

"Our AI development process would be shortened by ten years, or even longer!"

"Core code..."

Chairman repeated in a low voice, his fingers unconsciously rubbing the smooth tabletop.

He lifted his eyes, his gaze sweeping like a physical force over everyone present who held immense resources and influence. That sharp line of sight seemed able to penetrate their hearts, seeing the complex network of interests and hidden powers behind them.

"The situation is more severe than we anticipated."

He spoke slowly, his voice low but carrying an unquestionable determination.

"Passive defense and complaining will not solve the problem. Gentlemen, I need you to take action immediately."

He leaned forward slightly, stressing each word, clearly issuing instructions:

"First, on Capitol Hill, push for the 'National AI Acceleration Act'. I want to see real money, an unprecedented budget investment, thrown at our AI enterprises and core research institutions! Speed must be fast, and the scale must be large!"

"Second," his gaze became deeper, like a bottomless cold pool.

"Use all the power you can mobilize, all the planted nails, all possible channels; I need to understand Qiming more deeply and directly!

Not just the surface data, I want to know its boundaries, its weaknesses, its operating logic! At the same time..."

He paused, his voice dropping lower, carrying a cold chill.

"Increase the intensity of infiltration into the target area: talent, technology, intelligence... at all costs."

The conference room was deathly silent, with only the low hum of the central air conditioning.

The butterfly named Qiming on the other side of the ocean flapped its wings, and a hurricane that would sweep across the global technological landscape was quietly brewing into shape.