MMB Chapter 482 Artificial Intelligence
Chapter 482 Artificial Intelligence
At 9:00 AM the next morning, all employees of TUTU Technology simultaneously received an email from the Human Resources Department.
The email subject line contained only one word: "Salary".
The main text is short, consisting of four paragraphs.
The first paragraph expresses gratitude to all employees for their dedication and hard work during this period.
The second paragraph states that the company has decided to increase the basic salary of all current employees by 10% effective immediately.
The third paragraph states that the difference for the first three weeks will be paid out and credited to the account along with this month's salary.
The fourth paragraph is the shortest: "No conditions attached. Everyone's share will increase."
Three minutes after the email was sent, the break room was already packed with people.
I didn't come to get water; I came to check my emails.
Some people held their phones and repeatedly swiped the screen to make sure they weren't seeing things, while others sat on the chairs in the break room, stunned for a long time before they came to their senses.
The short-haired girl was also there. She wasn't holding a cup today; she was holding her phone in both hands, and the email page was on the screen.
"Did you... receive that email?" she asked, her voice much softer than usual.
The person next to him nodded: "Got it. Ten percent. Ten percent increase without me doing anything. Am I dreaming?"
"I've checked it three times. It's not a phishing email; it really was sent by HR. The sender's name also has the company's name on it."
"Has Mr. Lu gone mad? Giving a raise at this time?"
"It's crazy, really crazy. I was already planning to send out resumes next week, but now that this 10% chance has hit me, I don't even know if I should go or not."
The boy with glasses was also standing in the corner, having already read the emails on his phone screen four or five times.
He pushed up his glasses, muttered to himself, "This... that's definitely his style. When everyone thinks he should back down, he insists on charging ahead."
The man in the plaid shirt was also there, leaning against the wall with his hands in his pockets. His expression was much more relaxed than yesterday: "To be honest, I almost went to a headhunter yesterday. It's not that I don't trust the company, it's just that I'm really afraid I won't be able to hold on. I have a mortgage of nine thousand a month, and I have two kids at home. If I really can't hold on and get laid off, I won't have any way out. But now that this salary increase has come... it makes me realize that my idea yesterday was pretty cowardly. The company hasn't even said it's going to collapse, and I've already prepared a backup plan for myself."
The short-haired girl put her phone away and looked down at the tips of her shoes. "I was hesitant yesterday too. What I said in the break room wasn't really what I felt; I was just going with the flow. Seeing others worried made me worry too. Seeing others say they were leaving made me wonder if I should leave as well. But when I saw this email this morning, I suddenly realized—if I really thought TUTU was hopeless, then this 10% increase would only keep me here for another month. But now I think… since Lu Ran dared to do something like this at this time, he probably really has something up his sleeve."
In the following days, the trend of resignations completely stopped.
The last person to leave completed the formalities on the afternoon of the same day the salary increase email was sent.
He was a young man in a technical support position who had been with the company for less than six months. He left quietly without saying goodbye to anyone.
As he was filling out the last form at the front desk, the young woman there looked up at him and asked if he wanted to stay for afternoon tea before leaving. He smiled and said no, thank you for taking care of me during this time.
Then he walked out of that glass door and never looked back.
After that day, no one ever submitted a resignation.
The resignation registration form hanging on the wall in the human resources department has not had any new names since line eleven.
Most of those who stayed understood one thing: their decision to stay wasn't just because of the 10% pay rise.
The pay rise only gave them a reason to stay and observe more. What truly kept them rooted to the spot were the tangible facts that had already occurred over the past year.
TUTU Technology has grown from a small studio without even a proper office to one of the top game companies in China, with simultaneous expansion into multiple overseas markets, in just over a year.
In that year, they witnessed League of Legends go from being ignored to becoming a staple in internet cafes, Minecraft topped the charts from the moment its beta version was released, and CrossFire made a comeback after being criticized for a month.
Every time everyone thought TUTU was going to fail, the final result was exactly the opposite.
Some people even ran into Zhao Yiming downstairs at the company when they left work in the evening.
Zhao Yiming, wearing a fleece-lined hoodie, stood under a streetlamp smoking. When someone walked over and called out "Brother Li," he put out his cigarette.
After chatting for a few minutes, Zhao Yiming casually remarked, "Have you heard about that project Mr. Lu mentioned? He said it could change the entire industry. I've worked in tech for so many years, I've seen more empty promises than I've eaten meals, but Lu Ran never makes empty promises. If he says it exists, it's most likely true."
The next morning, Zhao Yiming pushed open the door to Lu Ran's office and placed a stack of printed documents on his desk. The cover read "AI Engine: A Preliminary Exploration of Technical Feasibility".
Zhao Yiming said he stayed up until 3 a.m. last night to write this.
He looked up some scattered information, but it seems that not many people are doing this kind of research on the market.
I roughly deduced the technical route, and if it can really be done, the efficiency could indeed be increased several times over.
Lu Ran flipped through the document, read two pages, closed it, and put it aside.
After Zhao Yiming left, he sat alone in his office and closed the door.
Then he closed his eyes and opened the system's light screen in his mind.
The number on the screen had accumulated to nearly two billion popularity points, a significant increase since the last time he checked.
The number of concurrent online users in several markets in Europe, the Middle East, and South America is being updated daily, and each additional user generates popularity points.
Lu Ran typed a few words into the system's search bar: "Complete Artificial Intelligence Solution".
The screen redirects.
A folder appeared in front of him. The folder's name was a series of numbers, but Lu Ran knew what was inside.
He opened the folder, which was divided into more than a dozen subdirectories, each corresponding to an independent product line.
Natural language processing, computer vision, machine learning frameworks, speech synthesis, image generation, recommendation algorithm engines, automated programming aids... Each major category is further broken down into smaller modules, from the underlying mathematical library to the top-level application interface, all equipped with code, documentation, test cases, and deployment plans.
These elements together form a complete AI technology system that can be directly put into commercial use.
No one in China is doing it, and no one abroad is doing it either.
Lu Ran quickly scanned each subdirectory, not looking at them all, but just confirming that each part was complete, usable, and in line with current global technological conditions.
Instead of directly syncing these files to the company's main server, he first downloaded the most critical modules from the system and stored them on an encrypted external hard drive.
That afternoon, Lu Ran plugged the external hard drive into the company's main server.
He didn't notify anyone or give any advance notice; he just waited quietly for the file transfer to complete.
The moment the progress bar finished, he sat in his office chair and let out a long sigh.
He picked up his phone and sent a message to Zhao Yiming: "Come to my office."
A few minutes later, Zhao Yiming pushed the door open and came in. Lu Ran turned the computer screen to face him.
The screen displayed a pre-written code framework, less than a hundred lines long, but with a clear structure and rigorous logic. Each line did something that machines couldn't do before—this code allowed the program to automatically recognize the semantic intent of the user's input and generate corresponding execution logic accordingly. It wasn't keyword matching, nor rule enumeration; it was true semantic understanding.
Zhao Yiming stood in front of the screen for about three minutes. At first, his expression was normal, but after a minute, his brows began to furrow, and after a second minute, his mouth opened slightly.
When the third minute ended, he took a half step back, looked up at Lu Ran, and his eyes showed confusion, shock, and a speechless pause.
"Mr. Lu..." he began, his voice much lower than usual, "This code... did you write it?"
"The architecture is there. You'll need to fill in the specific details."
"That's not what I'm asking. I mean... the logic behind this is something I've never seen in any publicly available literature before. How did you manage to do it?"
Lu Ran looked at Zhao Yiming, thought for two seconds, and then said, "I spent a lot of time on things that others didn't notice."
Zhao Yiming did not ask any further questions.
He lowered his head again to stare at the code on the screen, his right hand unconsciously raising and tracing a few lines in the air, as if simulating the execution path of those lines of logic.
After a while, he straightened up and said, "If this code can really run, the development efficiency of the entire industry will be completely rewritten. We can now shorten the cycle of a medium-sized project to one-third or even less. Large projects can also be compressed to within six months. This is not an improvement, it's changing the engine."
"It's more than that," Lu Ran said. "What you've seen is only one aspect of natural language processing. There's also computer vision, speech synthesis, automated programming assistance... each of these is of the same scale. Putting them together forms a complete system, not just scattered tools. If all of these are implemented, TUTU Technology won't encounter any real competitors in the next few years."
Zhao Yiming stood there in silence for a while, then finally nodded and said, "I understand. I'll run this code once and see."
He turned and walked out, but stopped at the door and turned back to add, "By the way, everyone outside is guessing what your 'industry-changing product' was the other day, and nobody guessed right. They're all guessing games, game engines, game platforms, or esports systems and stuff like that. Nobody thought you were making this."
"They'll know when they see it for themselves," Lu Ran said, leaning back in his chair. "There's no rush to say anything now."
After Zhao Yiming left, the office became quiet.
The code on the computer screen was still lit up, and the lines of logic gleamed with a faint blue light in the grayish-white afternoon light.
Lu Ran stared at the code for a while, then turned off the monitor, got up, and walked to the window.
Traffic on the street downstairs has recovered considerably compared to last week, and pedestrians seem to be walking more briskly.
The awning in front of the convenience store in the distance had been put back up, and the owner was carrying a case of drinks into the store. The winter sun in Shanghai shone thinly on the asphalt road; it wasn't warm, but it was bright.
He looked at it for a while, then took out his phone and sent a message to Zhou Mingzhe: "Tomorrow at 1 p.m., in the conference room. Call Lao Wang, Zhao Yiming, Chen Mo, and Lao Feng. I have something to show you."
"it is good."
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