Top of the Great Era

Chapter 2954: Spiritual Attributes Outweigh Professional Attributes

"You can't do it?" Zhou Buqi was a little angry. "If you can't do it, who else can? Isn't this also what you said just now about evading responsibility?"

Shen Xiangyang said: "I am avoiding responsibility, not because I am afraid of taking responsibility, but because I know that if I am in charge of this project, I will definitely die!"

"Hmm?" Zhou Buqi frowned, "You don't even have this little bit of confidence?"

Shen Xiangyang said: "It's not a matter of whether you have confidence or not, it's about practice that makes perfect! I told you, when I told the scientists in the team about this, no one believed it, no one agreed. This shows that I don't have the infectious power to mobilize everyone to participate and give it a try. This is the most basic thing. I can't even do the most basic team cohesion now."

"They didn't listen to you?"

"Using power to oppress others?"

"Uh……"

Zhou Buqi was somewhat speechless at such a question.

Shen Xiangyang said: "If I use my position and power, I can indeed send a lot of technical experts to participate. But what's the point? It's nothing more than making a living. Some large projects can be pushed forward by force. You can build a cross-sea bridge or a super dam. These are construction projects. However, some large projects related to invention and innovation cannot be done. There must be a fighting spirit inspired from the inside out!"

Zhou Buqi said "hmm".

Shen Xiangyang said: "Like many large state-owned enterprises, they have money, people, and resources, and can even act as both referees and athletes to introduce policies that are beneficial to them, but they just can't play the Internet well. Because Internet entrepreneurship is an innovation project, it cannot be from top to bottom, it must be from the inside out. This is the impulse in everyone's heart, a belief in striving for career, life, wealth, ideals, and society, rather than accepting tasks and completing them."

Zhou Buqi immediately understood what he meant and took a deep breath. "Entrepreneurial spirit! Alibaba's boss Ma is a representative figure."

"Ah?" Shen Xiangyang was slightly startled, then laughed, "Yes, that's what I mean! If I had the charisma and leadership of Mr. Ma, let alone this generative model, I believe that even if this is a scam project, those AI scientists would be willing to work with me."

"Come on, you're still in this together, don't bother talking nonsense to me..." Zhou Buqi put down his chopsticks in a bad mood, and ate less than half of his bowl of noodles. "This general AI generative model I want to make will definitely succeed. This is not a scam, but a representative product that truly symbolizes the advent of a true AI era."

Shen Xiangyang asked again, "Yeah, who would believe it?"

Zhou Buqi snorted, "You don't believe it?"

"I believe it, because it's you, Zhou Buqi, who said it!" Shen Xiangyang didn't mean to flatter me, he was just telling the truth, "The same thing, you said it's effective, let me say it... I've already told you the situation, no one in my team believes it! They are all industry experts, they won't easily believe the big cake I draw."

Zhou Buqi remained silent.

Shen Xiangyang said: "If it is a small scientific project, it is easy to manage a few or a dozen people. Just appoint a scientist to be in charge. As long as his level is high enough, he can form a certain professional prestige and manage the team well. However, if it is a super large project, the scientific attribute is not so important, and the professional prestige is not so convincing."

Zhou Buqi remained silent.

Shen Xiangyang continued, "Even if it was Einstein, he couldn't lead a scientific team of hundreds or thousands of people. To lead such a large team, what is needed is not the level of scientific level, but the level of leadership. For example, the Manhattan Project, we all know that the person in charge is Oppenheimer, but is Oppenheimer the greatest scientist in the Manhattan Project? He never was. He never won a Nobel Prize in his life, but he had more than a dozen Nobel Prize winners under him. What he had was a strong personal charm, and everyone was willing to obey him. In addition, he had political talent, and he could have better negotiations with the White House and the Pentagon."

Zhou Buqi already understood what he meant.

He has a lot of experience with this.

For example, a company is a real high-tech company.

If this is a small company, a scientist can be the CEO; if this is a large company, it will be difficult to convince the public with just the scientist's professional scientific skills, and there must be someone with greater leadership and appeal to step forward and lead the larger team, even if he is a layman who knows nothing about technology.

Bill Gates was in charge of Microsoft in its early days.

But after Microsoft grew to a certain scale, Bill Gates realized the limitations of his own abilities, so he called in Ballmer, his good friend who studied business in college - a guy who knew nothing about technology.

Then, Bill Gates handed over all the power of Microsoft to Ballmer. He was nominally the chairman and CEO, but in fact he was only in charge of technology, which was equivalent to demoting himself to chief technology officer.

The same is true for hardcore technology giants including Qualcomm, Sony, and Samsung Electronics; their CEOs and presidents do not understand technology.

It doesn’t matter if you don’t understand technology, as long as you can lead a team and everyone trusts you, supports you, and is willing to follow you.

At this level, the role of spiritual attributes has far exceeded that of professional attributes.

Just like OpenAI, which brought up the general generative model in the past, its CEO Sam Altman was an "outsider" who knew some technology but was not an expert in artificial intelligence at all. Later, the board of directors rioted, fired him, and wanted to appoint the chief scientist as CEO.

After all, this chief scientist is the real technical god of OpenAI, and ChatGPT was developed by his team.

And then it was over.

The employees revolted.

The chief scientist has strong technical skills and indeed created ChatGPT... However, relying solely on this professional advantage, it is impossible for him to convince others and lead a large R&D team of hundreds of people.

Those technical engineers are willing to work under the chief scientist, not because of how strong or admirable his skills are, but because of their "spiritual belief" Sam Ultraman.

We believe that this large-scale generative model project, which has been denied by the artificial intelligence industry, can be accomplished and that there is hope, not because we believe in how good the chief scientist’s technology is, but because we believe in Sam Altman’s speech and believe that he has woven such a beautiful and desirable dream for everyone!

Later, there was no other choice. In order to prevent OpenAI from falling apart, the board of directors had to invite Sam Altman back, and then they resigned collectively to save the company.

Shen Xiangyang is facing the same situation now.

He has many top scientists in the field of artificial intelligence under him, and he himself is also a highly respected scientist in the industry.

However, they all lack the charm and "persuasiveness" that only entrepreneurs have.

  Now the entire AI industry believes that general-purpose generative large models have no future and no future. Even Google thinks this direction is absurd and hopeless. In this case, who is willing to get involved?

If you get involved, wouldn’t that be a waste of your precious life?

If we want to get this big project done, we must have someone who can lead the group!

Zhou Buqi hesitated for a moment and asked tentatively: "How about I come forward?"

Shen Xiangyang clapped his hands and almost burst into laughter, "I've been waiting for you to say this!"

"I'll go over and talk to the guys."

Zhou Buqi was reluctant, but he had no choice but to stand up.

"Uh..." Shen Xiangyang cleared his throat, "It may not be possible to talk about it."

Zhou Buqi said angrily: "Why is it not working again?"

Shen Xiangyang said: "I have known you for so many years, and my trust in you has been accumulated bit by bit. So I will believe you when you say that this big project has a future. Who of the scientists in the artificial intelligence laboratory has ever dealt with you? Everyone's respect for you comes from the admiration at the business level. What insights do you have on the field of technology?"

"Damn! Can't I convince everyone?"

"You can convince people, but you can't fish for three days and dry the net for two days."

"What do you mean?"

Zhou Buqi had some not-so-good guesses.

Shen Xiangyang said: "You need to work with them for a long time. I believe that even if you don't understand technology, as long as you have long-term contact with them, they will be infected by your personality charm, and will also discover your bright spots in the direction of the technology field in some details. With one surprise after another, these American scientists will have more and more trust in you, and will unswervingly follow your footsteps to participate in this major project."

"Are you kidding me?"

Zhou Buqi was unwilling to take action personally.

  He is busy!

I feel tired too!

The most important thing is that it is really painful to be with some technical geeks, and they often make him lose all his dignity. Occasionally, Zhou Buqi can still tolerate it and be generous and humble, but after a long time, it is hard to guarantee that he will not lose his temper.

Jobs' abnormal management style was probably related to his response to constant internal and external ridicule for his lack of knowledge of technology.

Shen Xiangyang didn't seem to be joking at all. He said in a deep voice: "To be honest, I think you are the most suitable candidate! If this big project is really launched, it will definitely be the most challenging scientific and technological project for both Ziweixing and Ziweixing International. Developing cloud computing was quite difficult before, but compared with this project, the difference in difficulty is more than a hundred or a thousand times. For something like this, a world-class entrepreneur must step up and lead!"

Zhou Buqi refused to accept it, "Don't try to challenge me!"

Shen Xiangyang said: "If you don't show up, I don't know how to do this. I believe this big project can be accomplished, but there is a prerequisite, that is, you have to do it yourself. Only you can fight against the entire world's artificial intelligence industry on your own!"

"Fuck! I'm not going!"

Zhou Buqi would never jump into the fire pit.

Even if the general generative large model is successfully made, it will take many years to truly develop it. For everyone involved, it is no less than peeling off a layer of skin alive... He is not willing to suffer this.

He also did not think he had the ability to lead those ignorant American scientists.

Shen Xiangyang is a bit of a blind worshiper.

Zhou Buqi was very self-aware.

We have to find someone more suitable.