star of the peninsula

Chapter 1172 It was the President who invited the wolf into the house

"Does C headquarters really intend to work hard on AI?"

The smile on Park Jin-young's face disappeared and he started to become serious.

"I am serious about this, and I don't have the mentality of 'I have nothing to do anyway, so I might as well give it a try'. I really want to treat this as an industry."

"Idols, actors, variety shows, music, TV dramas, these are all things that C headquarters is doing OK. But if we continue to work hard in these areas, the benefits will definitely not be as great as creating something new."

"If I have to put in 120% of my effort to improve my 90-point test score to 95-point, I definitely won't do it. I'm very comfortable with just 60-point on a single project."

Chen Chen's tone was just frivolous, but the content of his words was quite heavy.

"I understand." Park Jin-young frowned, "But for Soy Sauce Bottle, we haven't even achieved 90 points on your exams. It's not appropriate for us to play AI with you now."

"How about this." Park Jin-young exhaled, "Boss Chen, explain to me why the soy sauce bottle should be involved in this project as you envisioned. It would be great if you can convince me."

"I don't really want to convince you, so how about a threat?" Chen Chen narrowed his eyes and said half-jokingly, "If you don't join us now, you'd better grit your teeth and don't cry out in pain when you get beaten by something our AI project creates in the future."

The significance of bringing people into this project is just to make it easier for it to obtain richer and more real data. The other significance is not that great.

Because all these entertainment companies can provide is data. You can't expect them to steal a useful deep learning model for Chen Chen, right?

As for data, to be honest, data is pretty cheap nowadays and it’s easy to get.

What's more, C headquarters is good at collecting data on the Internet, and it can get most of the data even if others don't give it to it.

"I don't think AI is that powerful now." Park Jin-young waved his hand, not taking Chen Chen's threat seriously. "If you succeed in this project, in what ways can you help us?"

"Technology is not that advanced yet, and what we can do is quite limited. The most intuitive point is that we will have a clearer understanding of fans' preferences and do more perfect market research." Chen Chen replied: "Things like what is the best promotional routine, the most accurate advertising placement, what style of work is most accepted by the market, etc. As long as you ask a question, it will give you a high-quality answer with a very high accuracy rate."

"In addition, it can replace the staff to complete a lot of repetitive work, which can reduce costs and increase efficiency."

"After learning the editing methods of the most popular variety shows, it is much easier for us to edit our own variety shows. The same goes for things like sound adjustment, post-production, and adding subtitles."

"I won't mention AI's ability to write songs, scripts, special effects, dubbing, etc. The current level is not as good as that of real creators." Chen Chen stopped here, "The more exaggerated ones still need to wait for technology to continue to advance."

"In other words, the output of your project is at most to replace some employees." Park Jin-young asked: "Am I understanding correctly?"

Chen Chen nodded.

"Why don't you wait until the technology in this area improves?" Park Jin-young asked reasonably, "How can you hurt me with something like this?"

"..."

This question was a little difficult for Chen Chen to answer. He couldn't say that he was laying a foundation now and once a useful model came out, he could immediately use the previous foundation to be several steps ahead of his peers in this area, right? That was pure nonsense!

"Let me give you an example of publicity." Chen Chen thought about it and came up with a case study. "When doing publicity, we use AI to generate a large number of videos or texts that suit people's preferences and accurately deliver them to target users on a free platform. How much does this cost?"

"..."

This question was not difficult, but it still left Park Jin-young speechless because he really thought about it seriously.

The generation of appropriate promotional materials is based on the data previously fed in. It is definitely not difficult to hit everyone's preferences, but the cost is electricity and computing resources.

The ability to accurately deliver promotional materials that each type of person prefers to them also relies on the data that was previously fed in. The cost is still electricity and computing resources, and because the platform is free, it will even pay you.

Promotion and marketing can be said to be one of the most expensive jobs. If the company can save some money on this aspect, it will be several times easier to do things and will have more room to work on other projects.

This alone is enough to make people excited, not to mention that AI must have other benefits.

"It must be very costly to carry out your project, right?"

Park Jin-young's attitude changed from firmness to conflict.

"It's really huge." When talking about the investment, Chen Chen could only smile bitterly, "We must deploy AI locally to do this. The investment in software and hardware in the early, middle and late stages is very scary."

"Phew~ Next time you can just say this directly. You made me so tempted that I almost fell for it." Park Jin-young rejected Chen Chen's invitation in the most simple way. "I can't do it. I've known for a long time that the investment in artificial intelligence is ridiculous. Now that you confirm that it is indeed ridiculous, I am a little discouraged."

No money, hehe! Nothing can be done without money, especially such a super expensive project.

"If I'm not mistaken, you have a playful side to this as well." Park Jin-young continued, "You are very interested in it and think it is a trend of the future. Plus, there isn't much for you to worry about at the C headquarters for now, so you want to get involved in artificial intelligence, right?"

"That's what I thought."

Chen Chen admitted that one of the biggest reasons why he wanted to do this project was that he had money but nowhere to spend it.

Although it is possible to start C Circle and Alin Canteen, there is no doubt that those two will be dealt with by the giants in the same industry if they become big, so they can only be done on a small scale.

South Korea has its own excellent restaurant chains and its own food delivery software. If you compete with them for small businesses, they will certainly not bother to pay attention to you. But if you grow big and make them angry, they might even destroy your C headquarters.

If your backing is not strong enough, your existence will not be stable.

"Soy Sauce Bottle is different from the C headquarters. It is too luxurious for us to 'play as we like'. Sorry, I can't accompany you." Park Jin-young said seriously: "Thank you for the invitation, Mr. Chen, but the final result of Soy Sauce Bottle will be to withdraw from this project with dignity."

"Okay, I respect Soy Sauce Bottle's opinion." Chen Chen adjusted his mood and asked about something else. "October is coming soon. Have you decided what to do about my leaving Soy Sauce Bottle?"

"I have an idea. You can listen to it and see if it's suitable." Park Jin Young cleared his throat. "Well, your I Division has started to recruit trainees for C Headquarters. By the time your contract expires, you should have already recruited a group of trainees. We can start from there."

"What do you mean?" Chen Chen was a little curious, "What else can the trainees do?"

"Hold an exchange conference. Have regular exchanges at this time every year. Wouldn't it show that our two families have a good relationship?!" Park Jin-young looked at Chen Chen eagerly, "What do you think?"

"Good idea!" Chen Chen's eyes lit up, "Then let's do as you say!"

"In the next few days, Jiangyouping will write out the specific plan and send it to the I Division. Who is in charge of your I Division now?" Park Jin-young asked.

"Just send it to headquarters C. Lee Sun-kyu is in charge of branch I now." Chen Chen scratched his neck a little embarrassedly.

"Okay. No... Wait, is Lee Soon-kyu the Lee Soon-kyu that I understand?" Park Jin-young responded casually, but after the name went around in his ears for a while, he felt something was wrong, so he hurriedly asked.

"Girls' Generation's Sunny, my good friend." Chen Chen replied, "I found her another class."

"You're amazing, you can get someone like this to help you." Park Jin Young lowered his voice suddenly, his expression became a little gossipy, "To be honest, do you have a special liking for the members of the S.H.I.E. girl group? First there's Sulli and then there's Sunny."

"We are just simple friends. We just happen to need their help and they happen to be willing to come and help. What else can we say? Just use them!" Chen Chen glanced at him and teased, "I also want to have a special liking for the members of the Soy Sauce Bottle Girls Group, but there is no member left in Wonder Girls and miss A, so I can't use them!"

"Go, go, go away!" Park Jin-young pushed Chen Chen angrily, "Go back to your C headquarters quickly, I can't afford to offend you anymore!"

……

……

"S.H.I.E. does not intend to participate in C headquarters' artificial intelligence project."

The next day, Lee Sung-soo brought SMART's ideas and attitudes.

"Smith & Shaw has clearly understood how much impact AI can have on us, but we don't have that much money to invest in such a project."

"The debut of a new group, the pressure of the epidemic, and the development of side businesses are not as smooth as expected. For various reasons, our funds have become tight, and we can only give up this cooperation. Thank you for your understanding."

"..."

Li Chengzhu said a lot more afterwards, but Chen Chen didn't listen much.

From Park Jin-young’s attitude yesterday, Chen Chen knew what the outcome of today’s meeting on the artificial intelligence project would be. It was not surprising at all.

Even Soy Sauce Bottle, which is in a better situation than SMART, can’t afford to play with it, let alone SMART.

"Don't worry, I understand." Chen Chen said calmly, "How about discussing with SM C&C? Can it be done?"

"SMART is very willing to deepen its ties with C headquarters in the variety show industry, and the proposal to cooperate with C headquarters was unanimously approved at the meeting." Lee Sung-soo replied excitedly.

"Who is responsible for the cooperation matters? You?" Chen Chen asked playfully.

"You're joking." Li Chengzhu lowered his head modestly. "I'm the president of SM C&C. I started this matter, so naturally I need to be responsible. This is a joint decision of the entire senior management."

Of course Chen Chen knew that SM C&C was Lee Sung-soo, but he also knew that the president was not necessarily the person with the highest power, nor might he be responsible for more specific projects.

During the last conversation with Li Chengzhu, Chen Chen deliberately asked who controls SM C&C. Now it seems that there is an answer.

"Then I'll have to trouble Representative Li to coordinate with our Director Kang who is in charge of variety shows. Netflix will join in later." Chen Chen's face was full of smiles. "I didn't expect Representative Li to be in charge of it personally. If I had known, I wouldn't have handed it over to Director Kang. You are not on the same level as me."

"It's all about getting the job done. There's no point in talking about levels," Lee Sung-soo responded.

"No, from my experience, rank is very important. It's strange to tie the representative director to a specific project. I always feel..." Chen Chen acted entangled and secretive, "Well, it's nothing."

"Please speak frankly."

Lee Sung-soo pleaded.

"There's nothing to say directly. I don't know much about the internal relationships at SMART, so what I say will definitely be wrong, so I'd rather not say anything."

Chen Chen waved his hand and rejected his request.

"I think you must find it strange that senior decision-makers are trapped by specific projects." Li Chengzhu thought about it briefly and came to his own conclusion.

Chen Chen didn't comment, not even a "hmm".

"Because SMART is undergoing a drastic change." Lee Sung-soo complained, but seemed to be unintentional. "This change has a huge impact, but all the senior management can do nothing about it."

"An executive who is helpless about the situation?" Chen Chen continued to act, frowning in confusion, "The words executive and helpless don't go together, right?"

"Chairman Lee Soo-man is selling his old shares in SMART and pushing for a share swap with Kakao's subsidiary. Everyone will know about it soon."

Li Chengzhu broke a shocking piece of news that shocked Chen Chen.

So it was you, Lee Soo Man, who brought the wolf into the house, that happened later. You can't blame anyone else!

And my buddy seems to be late for the entrance. It's rare that he took the trouble to design such an entrance opportunity, but he's late? !
Finally, it seems that my C headquarters will become the Hybe role. I originally thought it would be the Kakao position.

"Uh," Chen Chen dragged out the tone, "Representative Li is really powerless in such matters, because it was Chairman Lee Soo-man's decision."

"But have you all agreed to the cooperation between the entertainment company and Kakao?" Chen Chen carefully considered his words, "Being associated with Kakao is not... uh."

Kakao has a nickname of "Industry Paraquat". It is well known to everyone that companies that played with it ended up with bad results.

"We can't object." Li Chengzhu complained, "Even if we have different opinions, they won't be taken seriously!"

"I understand." Chen Chen nodded repeatedly. "After all, SMART is Chairman Lee Soo Man's SMART company. Other people's opinions are indeed not as important as Chairman Lee's."

"..."

Li Chengzhu was silent and said nothing.

Chen Chen also fell silent, quickly summarizing the current situation in his head.

Things seemed to be getting interesting. The problems that occurred at Stupid Capital later seemed to have once again verified the power of the nickname "Industry Paraquat".

It turns out that there are only wrong names but no wrong nicknames. It's interesting.

……

(End of this chapter)