Wednesday morning.
A van stopped at the door of Yunmeng Technology.
Yang Yuan, who had come all the way from Shanghai with a photographer and interview equipment, jumped out of the car. Looking at this research institute located in the corner of the high-tech park, a look of surprise appeared in his eyes.
When most people mention Yunmeng Group, they think of the Yunmeng Building located on the riverside. Few people will remember this Internet company and such a low-key and mysterious research institute, hidden in the east of Jiangcheng. corner of the high-tech park.
"Is this the research institute of Yunmeng Technology?"
After getting out of the car behind him, Wang Hongsheng wiped the sweat from his forehead and said.
"Yes, and I heard that the research is still on the currently popular brain-computer interface technology."
Yang Yuan nodded thoughtfully, picked up the camera hanging around his neck, and took a long view of the entrance and main building of the research institute, intending to keep it as material.
And at this moment, he suddenly noticed a familiar face standing at the entrance of the research institute.
Recognizing the man's identity at a glance, Yang Yuan showed a smile on his face, put down the camera in his hand, stretched out his right hand from a distance, and walked towards the man.
"Hello! I am Yang Yuan, the editor-in-chief of "People's United Information Industry News"! Thank you, Mr. Hao, for taking time out of your busy schedule to accept our interview."
Holding Chief Editor Yang's hand and shaking it, Hao Yun said with a friendly smile.
"Editor-in-Chief Yang is the one. He came all the way from Shanghai. It must have been a hard journey."
Yang Yuan said with a hearty smile.
"Whatever happens, this is what we do, and we have long been accustomed to this pace of life."
Some pleasantries.
A group of people from the newspaper office followed Hao Yun into the mysterious brain-computer interface research institute and came to a computer room located deep in the corridor on the first floor.
"Is this the server room of World of Warcraft?" Looking at the rows of blade-shaped chassis displayed on the server rack, Yang Yuan had a surprised expression on his face.
"Yes." Hao Yun nodded, looked at the server in front of him, smiled and continued, "The world of Azeroth is here, and there are currently a total of 60,000 players playing the game on the server."
"It's hard to believe that 60,000 players actually need so many servers." Yang Yuan couldn't help but sigh softly.
"Of course these servers are not just for the 60,000 players, but for the artificial intelligence systems running on the servers."
"Artificial intelligence system?"
"That's right." Looking at Yang Yuan with surprise written all over his face, Hao Yun nodded and continued, ""
"I seem to have forgotten to explain before that the world of Azeroth that players see now is actually not entirely designed by the staff of our World of Warcraft project team. Compared with designing the content of the game itself, our staff The biggest role it plays is actually in designing the framework of the entire game.”
The look on Yang Yuan's face changed slightly.
"You mean... World of Warcraft is completed by AI and human collaboration? And those tasks and NPCs are the masterpieces of AI?"
Hao Yun nodded.
"Yes."
"And not only that, all interactions between NPCs and players in the game so far, and even the operation of the game world itself, are maintained by artificial intelligence systems running on these servers."
The computer room was silent for a while, and only the whine of the chassis could be heard.
It took a while for Yang Yuan to recover from his surprise, but the expression of disbelief on his face did not change at all.
His Adam's apple moved, and he struggled to squeeze out a sentence from his throat.
"How can this be."
A game designed and operated by AI
How can this be!
Although this was not technically unachievable, it was really unimaginable for him to have this happen to a popular game.
Just like AI writing.
Of course I can write, and I can also achieve basic smoothness of logic and sentences. However, it is basically impossible to write a famous book or a best-selling book.
The reason is simple. AI is still AI after all. Although it can imitate human behavior, it cannot possess human emotions. The core reason why a best-selling work is a best-seller is that it resonates spiritually with readers.
No matter where this resonance occurs in the spiritual realm...
But at least it has to exist!
To put it bluntly, how can an AI without emotions understand the human spiritual world
Yang Yuan could not believe that this was something that current artificial intelligence technology could do.
Hao Yun didn't know how to explain this to him. He couldn't say that he pulled a card from the system and stuffed it into the server case, and it became what it is now, right
Although this is indeed true...
Hao Yun coughed slightly and said.
"I know it's hard for you to accept, but this is indeed a fact. Of course, if you just say this, I'm afraid you won't believe it. So regarding this, I still recommend that you download the World of Warcraft client after you go back and log in Feel the game for yourself.”
"I will feel it." Yang Yuan nodded, looked at the servers in front of him, and sighed softly, "But to be honest, if the AI technology you designed is really so amazing, I would understand a little bit. Why do you want to build that supercomputing center when you have already set up so many servers?"
The more intelligent the program, the more it requires huge computing power to support it.
Yang Yuan couldn't figure out how intelligent this system was, but considering the computing power this system required, only supercomputing-level hardware could satisfy its appetite.
only…
He really couldn't imagine why this was necessary.
Before coming here, he had detailed information about the company Yunmeng Group. From pig farming to shared bikes to hotels to games, and even movies and toys, this company has done almost everything that makes money.
Is it really necessary to do this if it's just to make money
From the perspective of return on assets alone, this game is far behind not only compared to Clash of Clans, Love and Producers, but even compared to my "ancestor" Warcraft.
As if seeing through the confusion on his face, Hao Yun paused for a moment and continued.
"Your guess is correct. In fact, even with supercomputing-level hardware, we are not absolutely confident that we can always satisfy its growing appetite. As the game is operated, theoretically it will become more and more intelligent. High, until eventually players can no longer tell who is the player and who is the NPC in the game—if we don’t specifically indicate it.”
"It sounds fun... but is it really necessary to do this for a game?"
"On the surface, this does appear to be a bit of a fuss, but in fact, regarding this artificial intelligence system... we are not entirely designed for World of Warcraft."
"... What's that for?"
Looking at Yang Yuan who looked surprised, Hao Yun continued.
"This involves a key project being studied by our Brain-Computer Interface Research Institute."
Yang Yuan asked quickly.
"Is it convenient to reveal it?"
"It's nothing inconvenient. They are all public matters." Hao Yun smiled faintly and continued, "To fully connect the spirit with the Internet, it cannot be accomplished with a simple plug. In addition to the brain In addition to the computer interface itself, we are also studying how to directly connect our consciousness with the digital world."
Yang Yuan opened his mouth and said.
“…This sounds a bit like a science fiction movie.”
Hao Yun said with a joke.
"To those of us fifty years ago, wouldn't everything we have now be something that only appeared in science fiction movies? Someone has to take this step, otherwise what's the point of making so much money?"
In fact, this is not Hao Yun's Versailles, but the truest thought deep in his heart at this moment.
If it was just for money, he would have earned more money than he could spend in his lifetime. As for fame, he is not very interested in it. On the contrary, he is now too famous, which makes him feel uncomfortable as he is used to making a fortune in silence.
It's just that this casual answer failed to answer all the doubts in Yang Yuan's heart.
"So... what does the pseudo-neurology network have to do with the intelligent system running on the World of Warcraft server?"
"Of course it does."
Looking at Yang Yuan, whose face was still full of confusion, Hao Yunyan said briefly and concisely.
"The intelligent system running on the World of Warcraft server is actually the same thing as the core system of the neuro-simulated network we are studying."
"Or-"
"The former is the prototype of the latter!"