Reborn in 2010, the AI ​​in my mind is too powerful.

In May 2011, Apple was at a very delicate juncture.

On January 17, Steve Jobs announced his third medical leave.

Unlike the previous two times, this time he did not give a timetable for his return, but instead handed over the company's day-to-day operations entirely to COO Tim Cook.

Jobs' health was a source of speculation not only among senior management but also among lower-level employees, who were all very worried. No one knew if Jobs would ever be able to return.

For Apple employees, their feelings are very conflicted. The Steve Jobs era was full of suffocating harshness and high pressure, but it also gave those who deserved it enough trust, and made everyone feel a sense of mission to work hard for Apple's future.

For Apple's top management, this is like losing a guiding light. They have to make their own decisions on many key issues, and they no longer have the passion to change the world.

What's alarming is that the major reshuffling of the EDA industry in the past year has put Apple, which could have relied on its existing strengths, in a very passive position.

The disruptive development of FlowEDA, and the fact that Chen Yiran's technology is arguably a generation ahead, is not the key factor.

The key point is that Chen Yiran's first contact with Samsung was very pleasant, and the cooperation between the two parties went very smoothly afterward. In contrast, Chen Yiran and TSMC seem to dislike each other. TSMC has only obtained a letter of intent for cooperation so far, and no one knows what decision Chen Yiran will make in six months.

This forced Apple to change its original plan, which was to gradually move its foundry business to TSMC in 2014.

The relationship between Apple and Samsung has always been very delicate.

The lawsuits between the two companies have been ongoing. Apple sued Samsung in the United States, accusing the Galaxy series of phones of copying the design of the iPhone, from appearance to icon arrangement to packaging, and filed a total of sixteen charges.

Samsung retaliated by filing countersuits in South Korea, Japan, and Germany. The legal departments of the two companies are locked in a fierce battle globally.

Despite this tense situation, Apple continues to send foundry contracts to Samsung's wafer fabs simply because TSMC's current generation of process technology has insufficient yield.

Originally, with the improvement of TSMC's technology, Cook had been pushing for cooperation with TSMC after taking over the company. There was also a bit of personal grudge involved; when Cook was still at Compaq, he had a very strained relationship with their then-supplier, Samsung.

After joining Apple, he felt even more uneasy that Apple's core chip production capacity was controlled by the leader of the Android camp.

But now Apple has no choice; they have to use FlowEDA to design chips and continue to have Samsung manufacture them.

Because if they didn't choose FlowEDA, they might even lose the mobile phone war outright.

The Samsung phone that Chen Yiran brought out at the press conference was the Galaxy S2, which Samsung released three days earlier and uses all FlowEDA technology.

Samsung has made the right bet this time. It started using standalone software in the early stages of FlowEDA. After FlowEDA acquired the design side of Kaiden and integrated and completed the entire EDA business, Samsung received the fastest update and upgraded its chips.

The Exynos 4210 processor in the Galaxy S2 has unleashed astonishing power. Internal tests by Apple show that its performance is roughly double that of their A5 chip, and its power consumption is even better.

While both companies sourced and simply modified their GPUs for external use, Samsung still made some optimizations, resulting in performance that was 30% higher than Apple's.

This means that the iPhone 4S, which they are about to release in October, will have only half the performance of its counterpart, and the marketing team is already racking their brains about how to cover this up.

Apple doesn't have many cards to play. Besides touting the Apple operating system and the music store, it can only bet its hopes on Siri.

Siri is a voice assistant project that Apple acquired for $4 million in April 2010 and has been secretly integrating into the Apple system ever since.

Faced with a complete lack of hardware competitiveness, they can only gamble on an eye-catching voice assistant that will draw attention to their software ecosystem.

Then today, Chen Yiran shattered all of Apple's plans with a single blow. Several of Apple's executives were stunned, feeling like they had been set up, and lived in Chen Yiran's shadow for a whole year.

Scott Forstoll had poured a great deal of energy into the project, and after watching Chen Yiran's press conference, he was initially at a loss, and then became furious.

After cursing for a while, he refused to accept defeat and began to advocate fighting to the end: "We can't back down anymore! We must increase our investment in Siri! We need our own AI agent! I can have the team start analyzing Doubao right now. It's all open source anyway, we can just use it directly."

The other four people present looked at Forstoll as if he were an idiot. They knew that Forstoll was sometimes a bit strange and a bit eccentric, but they did not expect him to react like this after being frustrated, and to keep saying some brainless things.

Open source my foot! Doubao's open source code only includes the local inference engine and basic interfaces. The more crucial parts are not open, let alone the deep flow.

Eddie Cue, Senior Vice President of Internet Services, spoke first: "Let's get practical. Even if you can make it, so what? The most basic framework doesn't use DeepFlow. Do you have the ability to write something better?"

"Cook, we need to negotiate with Chen Yiran. We must integrate Doubao into the Apple system within five months, otherwise the launch of the new phone will be a disaster."

Forstoll turned around abruptly: "No way. This doesn't fit our usual strategy. Beanpack is open source. Who knows if integrating it will conflict with the Apple system? I disagree. We have to do it ourselves."

The subsequent meeting turned into a discussion between four teachers trying to persuade the delinquent teenager. Forstoll couldn't accept failure and couldn't accept the idea of ​​removing Siri and replacing it with Doubao.

Left with no other option, Cook had to make a compromise: "Let's prepare for both scenarios. First, we're not sure if they'll grant us the authorization, so Forstoll, you keep working and see if you can optimize Siri using Doubao's approach."

Our requirement is that it must have at least 7% of Doubao's capabilities. Then I'll contact Chen Yiran and try to negotiate. Forstoll is right about one thing: we can't force an open-source core into our system.

We'll try having Doubao (a software name) pre-installed. Whatever its requirements, we can reserve an interface for it in the system. That's it. The new device is due in only five months, and we must solve this problem.

Phil Schiller, senior vice president of marketing, tapped the table and asked, "There's another serious problem. The phone won't be released until October, but what about Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference next month?"

Didn't you notice that Doubao has another feature? It's absolutely compatible with mobile phones, computers, and even tablets. iCloud's selling point has now become a joke.

I need something to talk about, at least something inspiring to promote.

Cook rubbed his head and said, "We'll have to cancel the massive iCloud promotion."

Phil Schiller slammed his hand on the table: "I'm not asking what to cancel. I need you to give me something to promote. If you can confirm beforehand that Bean will work on Apple systems, that would be best."

Ignoring Faustall, who was still grumbling on the sidelines, Cook waved his hand and said, "I'll figure something out. You guys go ahead and eat. I want to be alone."

The group exchanged glances, then slowly went out the door. They roughly knew what Cook was going to do.

Cook took out his phone, and just as he was about to make a call, he saw the time displayed on the screen: midnight.

"Sigh, it's so inhumane to call a patient in the middle of the night. I'll contact him tomorrow."