Technology dominance starts with learning machines

Chapter 9 "Hello"

In the room, Li Pingan was like a focused artist, completely immersed in the world of writing artificial intelligence code.

His eyes were fixed on the computer screen, and he was extremely cautious and careful every time he typed a character, as if the keyboard in his hand was an extremely precise instrument.

He knows very well that even the slightest negligence may plant a fatal bug in artificial intelligence, which can be exploited by someone with ulterior motives later and may even cause the artificial intelligence to get out of control.

However, at this quiet and focused moment, a sudden burst of firecrackers sounded like a heavy hammer, suddenly interrupting Li Pingan's thoughts.

Li Ping'an frowned slightly, slowly raised his head, and looked out the window, trying to find some clues from the direction where the sound came from.

In rural areas, everyone follows traditional customs. Except on festive occasions such as festivals, people do not set off firecrackers at ordinary times.

Once the sound of firecrackers is heard, it means that there is a happy event in the family and the neighbors need to be informed to celebrate together.

Or there would be unfortunate news, and the death would be announced by the sound of firecrackers.

In the past two days, Li Ping'an has not heard of any happy events in any of his uncles' families nearby.

He couldn't help but feel a little worried. When the weather gets cold, it is the most difficult time for the elderly. All the functions of the body become fragile under the invasion of cold, and many elderly people find it difficult to survive this difficult time.

Li Ping'an suspected that it was very likely that an elderly elder in the family stopped eating.

About twenty minutes later, Li Pingan vaguely heard someone shouting from a distance.

He stood up and looked out through the window, only to see that the person coming was Brother Xiaojun.

Brother Xiaojun's originally strong and powerful body now looked a little listless.

His eye sockets were sunken, with two obvious dark circles, and his face was full of fatigue and sadness.

Although Brother Xiaojun is of the same generation as him, there is a big age gap between them. He is more than 20 years older than him.

Seeing Brother Xiaojun coming, Li Pingan immediately understood what was going on.

Without any hesitation, he ran downstairs and opened the door.

Just as Brother Xiaojun walked to the door and was about to kneel down to announce the death, Li Pingan stepped forward and hurriedly grabbed him.

This scene instantly brought Li Ping'an's thoughts back to three years ago. At that time, under the leadership of his uncle, he also went from house to house to report the death with grief in his heart.

"Brother Xiaojun, I'm sorry."

Li Pingan said softly, his voice full of sympathy and comfort.

"You go back first, I'll bring my sister over in a while."

Li Xiaojun, absent-minded, just nodded numbly, his eyes were empty and lifeless, as if he had lost focus.

Then he slowly turned around, dragged his heavy steps away, and continued to the next house to deliver the sad news.

Looking at Brother Xiaojun's receding back, Li Pingan sighed deeply, with an inexplicable melancholy in his heart.

He turned around and went back to the second floor, slowly walked to his sister's door, and knocked gently.

"Leiya."

"Hey, brother, why are you calling me?" Li Ya's response came from the room.

After a while, Li Ya, who was wearing cotton pajamas, opened the door and a warm breeze blew on her face.

"Change your clothes. Brother Xiaojun's father passed away." Li Ping'an's tone was low and solemn.

"Ah?" Li Ya cried out in surprise when she heard the news.

"When I came back last time, I heard from Second Master that it was just diagnosed as cancer, right?"

"How... just..."

"Don't ask anymore, just change your clothes and come with me to help."

"When my parents passed away, it was all up to you all to take care of their funeral affairs. All these favors must be repaid." Li Ya nodded sensibly and said, "Brother, I understand. I'll change my clothes and come down right away."

"Well, let's talk about the homework later. If it doesn't work out, I'll tell your homeroom teacher."

Li Ping'an and his sister walked through the thick snow, taking deep steps and shallow steps, and hurried towards Brother Xiaojun's house.

When they arrived, they found that almost everyone had already arrived.

When everyone saw the brother and sister coming, they greeted them warmly.

Obviously, their timely appearance at this moment made the elders label them as sensible in their hearts.

When he walked into the huge living room, he saw at a glance that a set of coffins had been placed in place and the coffin lid had been closed. It was obvious that the coffin-entering ceremony had been completed before he and his sister arrived.

Li Pingan and his sister were not idle, but helped wherever they could and were never lazy.

The next day, the school notified us to resume classes as normal.

With Li Ping'an's repeated instructions, Li Ya, carrying her schoolbag and with her brother's concern, set out on the journey back to school alone.

At this time, the snow on the road had not melted yet and vehicles could not pass. Li Ya could only walk to school.

Fortunately, the distance is not too far and the hike only takes about an hour.

Two days later in the afternoon, the sky was clear and the sun was high in the sky, casting its bright light.

Although it was a sunny day, the weather was colder than the previous two days.

The biting cold wind whistled past like a sharp blade, cutting the air wantonly. People in it could not help but shiver.

As the funeral ceremony ended, people slowly carried the old man's coffin up the mountain and then gradually dispersed.

Except for the relatives of the deceased, who are immersed in grief and have sad faces.

In the past few days, relatives and friends have all been chatting and laughing, and no one cares about the death of Li Xiaojun's father.

Apart from one’s closest relatives, who would care about a person’s eternal departure?

In the next few days, Li Pingan seemed to be isolated from the world. He never left the house and devoted himself to the development and improvement of the basic interactive functions of artificial intelligence.

As for the human-computer interaction module, Li Ping'an spent a full ten days to "move" the code in his mind to the computer.

As the code was packaged and compiled successfully again, an irrepressible sense of uneasiness welled up in Li Ping'an's heart.

With his hands trembling slightly, he slowly typed a simple greeting in the black input box:
"Hello."

At this moment, Li Ping'an's eyes were fixed on the screen, his eyes full of nervousness and anticipation.

The cursor on the command line kept flashing like his violently beating heart, and every flash seemed to be striking at his soul.

After waiting for more than ten seconds, there were finally new changes on the command line.

The same word "Hello" came into view.

These seemingly short dozen seconds seemed like a long century to Li Pingan.

During these ten seconds, artificial intelligence analyzes data in the background and uses complex algorithms to conduct self-learning and deep thinking.

In order to further verify his inner guess, Li Pingan took a deep breath and typed again: "Hello."

This time, the moment he pressed the Enter key, there was a prompt response on the command line.

Still that simple “hello”.

In terms of speed, there is a world of difference!

"Good, good, good!" Li Ping'an was so excited that he could hardly control himself. He rubbed his hands excitedly, his face filled with the light of victory and joy.

(End of this chapter)