As a mage, I just want to pursue the truth

Chapter 381 There is no one who can fight

“Lion City has been the focus of world attention since Merlin took office last year.

Whether it is artificial intelligence in government affairs, the released artificial intelligence programming language, or the biological silicon-based chips being built throughout the Lion City.

We can see that under Merlin's leadership, Lion City has a clear technical advantage over Blue Star.

I personally think that for Malaysia, giving up some insignificant land in exchange for an opportunity to make friends with Lion City is a very cost-effective thing.

Johor is considered a state with slow economic development in Malaysia, but this is based on its close trade relations with Singapore.

For Malaysia, Johor is a piece of land that is unlikely to be developed now or in the future, and it also has no mineral resources. Selling the land to Singapore is not a loss for Malaysia.

As long as Merlin does not show any further demand for land, it is completely acceptable to Malaysia.

As for why, when I was in power, we had ongoing disputes over an island and a port.

Because compared to Merlin, Malaysia does not expect to gain any additional benefits from the Lion City during my administration.

Whether they compromise or not, Singapore will still purchase the basic resources it should purchase from Malaysia.

It is not the case that there is a conflict between Malaysia and Singapore and Singapore will refuse to purchase fresh water from Malaysia.”

Lee's explanation was reserved.

In fact, he could guess what Merlin gave to Malaysia as a bargaining chip, as he had heard of the life-extending potion.

But this was just speculation, he had no evidence.

Even if he had evidence, he wouldn't dare to tell anyone about it.

In addition, when he was in power, Malaysia and Singapore would not give in even the slightest territorial dispute.

Another reason is that when Lee was in power, he had already expressed his intention to annex Malaysia.

Malaysia is worried that if it makes concessions on territory, Singapore will push its money further.

This is also a common phenomenon in geopolitics. Similar cases are everywhere from ancient times to modern times and then to the present.

"Mr. Li, I have another question for you. Lion City has maintained a state of anarchy, or an artificial intelligence government, for a long time.

You have been living in Lion City for the past six months. What do you think of the changes in Lion City?

Do you think it is benign or malignant?

Li paused for a moment and then replied:

“In fact, I have mentioned this issue to varying degrees on various TV programs over the past period of time.

And recently I happened to have some new insights that I would like to share with you.

There is no doubt that artificial intelligence can handle almost all government services much better than humans, both in terms of efficiency and accuracy.

Previously, even with the efficiency of Lion City, the entire process of company registration, from submitting relevant registration company information to obtaining the registration certificate issued by ACRA, took one day.

I asked my friend about the time now, and it’s five minutes.

As long as the information you provide is accurate, the registration certificate will be issued in five minutes.

Not only is there a qualitative leap in efficiency, but in terms of accuracy, computer processing is definitely much more accurate than human processing.

From this perspective, time is undoubtedly saved, and everything can be done at once on the mobile app or PC web page.

Another thing is to save costs. The salaries of all civil servants in Singapore are a huge expense.

Then this expenditure can be completely saved and distributed to everyone as national welfare.

Everyone should have felt it recently that the government gives money to everyone at every turn.

Also, since all government services are electronic and online, there is no need for physical buildings for offline government offices or government service centers.

I have also seen these buildings, and they are for sale.

In terms of cost, it also saves a lot of cost.

However, I personally have some opposing thoughts. That is, if we do not have Merlin's technological advantages, we will have to rely on manual development of similar government service-oriented artificial intelligence, and then the hardware facilities required for artificial intelligence.

When these costs are added together, they should not be much lower than relying on people to keep the government running.

Of course, this is just my speculation, and a professional can calculate the cost.

Therefore, the cost advantage is brought by the technology that Merlin gave to Lion City for free.

For other countries, this system may not be as adaptable as they think.

Because I read in the news that Northern Europe also wants to do this, but I don’t think they can necessarily achieve the same results as in Singapore.

Another point is that I have been thinking about a question. Over the past seventy years, Singapore has built a developed country with finance and services as its pillar industries by relying on high salaries and a service-oriented government.

Artificial intelligence has essentially taken over government services. If Merlin opens up the use of artificial intelligence in the future, the financial industry and other service industries will be replaced by artificial intelligence to a certain extent.

In this case, all unemployment problems will be covered by the government, but there will still be people who need jobs.

How to strike a good balance between these?

Of course, there is a solution to this problem, because many developed countries have encountered similar problems before Lion City. We can learn from their experience and explore solutions suitable for Lion City.

In addition, if the service and financial industries both adopt artificial intelligence on a large scale, the warmth of communication between people will no longer exist.

This is another disadvantage I think.

Before, government workers might give you a smile after we finished our work, but now they just turn off their phones after they’re done.

This may be just my old sentimentality.”

He was almost eighty years old at this time, but he still had a clear mind and his own thoughts, which was not an easy thing to do.

What he meant was also to test the waters, to see if everyone really supports having all government services taken over by artificial intelligence.

This is an opportunity. After his interview is released, the investigative agency behind him can collect opinions on it.

If more people express concern and disgust towards artificial intelligence, there may be a chance to overturn the current management model.

His idea is just an idea. For the vast majority of people, the welfare benefits they receive are better.

At least now the money is sent directly to your card without any restrictions.

And the official notice stated that the expenses were saved after the government optimized its human resources and would be distributed to everyone as welfare.

And what does service attitude mean? No one except lonely old people cares about the smiles of waiters.

Relying on these is too abstract compared with the real welfare benefits and efficiency improvement.

Besides, everyone has dark thoughts. You civil servants used to have good treatment, stable jobs, and clear career advancement paths.

I was envious of you before, but now I see you are unemployed. For those who are not vested interests, they are secretly happy. You should know that the income and benefits of all civil servants in Singapore can be comparable to those of civil servants in Suzhou Industrial Park.

This does not mean that the salaries are the same, but that the income positions in the local job market are almost equal.

“The Lion City will build a new science city on the latest land it has acquired from Johor state.

The overall plan for this city has been finalized. The Science City will serve as a purely academic research city and will be the first research institution in the history of Blue Planet to exist in the form of a city.

Currently, the Lion City is inviting qualified builders from all over the world to determine the urban planning scheme and specific construction parties through open bidding.”

In an era when global capital is shrinking, the Lion City’s large-scale construction plans are a piece of cake for construction and design companies around the world.

It is a piece of cake that is enough to satisfy the company's development in the next five to ten years.

Among them, Chinese companies are the most enthusiastic. Originally, ASEAN is also within the scope of influence of China's traditional forces.

What Chinese companies fear most when doing business in Southeast Asia is that they will not be able to take their profits with them, as they will be swallowed up for various reasons.

When doing business with local governments, they worry that the other party will not pay according to the contract, or will only pay 30 to 40 percent of the payment according to the contract and keep dragging their feet on the rest.

This is a common problem faced by the vast majority of Chinese construction companies going overseas.

It definitely exists not only in Southeast Asia, but also in Africa, South America, Eastern Europe and other places.

But you don’t have to worry about this when working for Lion City, especially with Merlin’s credibility. The two words Merlin alone are enough.

China is even willing to provide a low-interest loan to Lion City from the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, and then use the loan to carry out urban construction.

As long as Chinese companies can get this order, China does not mind providing an interest-free loan, or the Export-Import Bank of China can provide this interest-free loan directly.

What China values ​​is never money, but the jobs created, the influence generated along the way and the GDP growth driven.

You have to know that if you issue an interest-free loan to Lion City, Lion City will definitely pay it back, so it will definitely be a profit for China.

Some countries that borrowed money from China turned their low-interest loans into interest-free loans, and interest-free loans into subsidized interest loans. In the end, the loans were directly waived and the principal was not required.

“Lion City is still very wealthy, with a 1,500 square kilometer science city that claims to recruit talent from around the world.

In this era, this is a truly grand gesture.”

“I’m still curious, where does the funding for a purely research institution like this come from?

It would be very difficult for Singapore to support such a large research institute relying on its own finances.

If you don’t provide favorable conditions, it will be difficult to attract enough outstanding talents.”

"I wonder if it can be completed in five years? I am in my first year of PhD this year, and I hope to be able to work as a researcher in Singapore when I graduate."

“It is no exaggeration to say that Lion City is changing with each passing day. I went to NTU before and when I enrolled, the immigration threshold for Lion City was 80 million RMB.

Now the threshold seems to have been raised to 150 million RMB.

Just because of this threshold, my friends have immigrated there one after another. "

“It used to be China Resources Vanguard, but now it’s China Resources Lion City.

But it doesn’t matter, after all, Singapore is a country with Chinese as the main ethnic group.

Compared to the Li family, any deliberate attempt to de-Sinicize no longer exists under Merlin’s management.”

"Yes, when Lao Li was in power, he launched various de-Sinicization campaigns in order to reduce China's influence.

For example, English is forced to be the common language in Lion City, English is vigorously promoted, and it is required that road signs and other signs can only be written in pure English.

The media controlled by Chinese shareholders will be merged through compulsory measures and become media controlled by the Singapore government.

Although Merlin has not taken any action on policy now, there has never been any action to de-Sinicize at the official level.”

When Lao Li was in power, Singapore did not want to sit on the fence, but simply wanted to lean towards America.

It was not until the 1980s that Singapore began to gradually establish friendly exchanges with China in order to gain economic benefits in China and seeing the improvement in relations between America and China.

However, over the years, Singapore, as a country where the majority ethnic group is Han Chinese, is not as friendly with China as Malaysia.

Even though Malaysia discriminates against Chinese people in various ways, it is much friendlier towards China.

"I've always wondered if Science City could be a magical city, similar to the magical city of London?"

The Lion City's global tender to build a city on newly acquired land has sparked heated discussions around the world.

Among them, the most discussions took place in China, with the widest participation from all social classes.

Because for Chinese people, it is easy to hear that someone around you has immigrated to Singapore.

With the increase in the threshold this year, I have hardly heard of anyone around me immigrating to Singapore.

I only saw in the news that some wealthy people immigrated to Singapore.

"Do you know which companies won the bid in the end?" Li Shuyao usually stays in Gusu for a few days every month.

She was very curious about this because it was very important. Whoever could get this order, even if it was a state-owned enterprise, would be able to use this good news to hit several daily limit ups.

The size of the fund managed by Li Shuyao has many restrictions and can almost only buy large-cap stocks.

The larger the fund, the more restrictions the fund manager faces.

Taking Zhang Kun as an example, a public fund with a scale of hundreds of billions can only buy about one hundred companies.

Because with the size of their funds, if there are no restrictions, they can play much crazier than hot money.

The scale of assets managed by Li Shuyao is also over 100 billion yuan.

The companies she can buy include listed state-owned enterprises in the construction industry.

Li Miaomiao shook her head: "The entire bidding process this time was decided by artificial intelligence.

Not to mention me, even Zheng Li doesn’t know who will win the bid in the end.

But isn't this a great opportunity?
Let artificial intelligence make the decision and find out which of these construction companies in China has the best qualifications.

It can be regarded as helping you select a good company. "

“The problem is that by the time the AI ​​screening comes out, the price is so high that I don’t want to buy it.

High-quality companies, suitable prices, and a good industry environment are all indispensable." Li Shuyao said helplessly.

"I don't think the winning design company will be a domestic enterprise, but the winning construction company will definitely be a domestic enterprise."

In the field of infrastructure, there is no one who can compete.

(End of this chapter)