The divorce comeback system arrived right after I was born.

A computer room in the Yanyuan Startup Incubation Base.

Although not all of the dozens of A100 graphics cards have been installed yet, the heat generated by the few servers that are already running is already astonishing. The air conditioning has been set to 16 degrees Celsius, and each server is equipped with a fan.

However, these rudimentary cooling measures were still insufficient to keep the A100 running at full load.

"Boss, I can't live like this anymore."

Dai Dama put his coffee cup on the table, pointed to the pile of machines and complained, "We're using a 3090-based chassis to run the A100, and the cooling is simply not keeping up. Last night, machine number three almost shut down automatically due to overheating, and I had to keep an electric fan blowing on it all night."

Chen Zhi sat on a small stool to the side, and it was also very hot.

"Beat it up, Lao Dai." Chen Zhi wiped the sweat from his forehead. "It's just that we're limited by the conditions. Once our team is more established, we'll immediately move to a large, single-level apartment with central air conditioning."

"This isn't about whether the air conditioning is on or not!"

Dai Da-mai pointed to the mess of cables, "Our current cooling solution is complete rubbish. We're cramming an A100 CPU into an old server case that used to run a 3090, completely blocking the airflow. Two nodes just overheated and almost exploded!"

Dai Da-mai scratched his head, a few precious strands falling down. "And I'm severely understaffed right now. Data cleaning, parameter fine-tuning, model architecture optimization... all this work is on my shoulders. I'm sleeping less than four hours a day now. If this continues, before Moss even grows up, I'll be the one who collapses."

Chen Zhi touched his nose, feeling a little guilty.

Indeed, looking at Dai Dama's receding hairline these past few days, he also felt that he had been exploiting him a bit too much.

"Hire! Hire right now!" Chen Zhi waved his hand. "Senior, you've been in this industry for so many years, you must know a lot of big shots, right? Don't hold back, as long as they have solid skills, you can name your salary and give them stock options."

Dai Da-mai rolled his eyes: "I do know a few PhDs from the School of Information Science and Technology, and a few junior students interning at Microsoft Research Asia. Their technical skills are undeniable, it's just that..."

"What is it?"

"It's this environment we have here," Dai Da-mai pointed to the messy cardboard boxes and exposed wires around him, "People might think they've walked into an internet cafe. And, our project..."

He glanced nervously towards the door.

"This is against regulations, boss. I borrowed this lab from my advisor to do a small research project. But ever since we started using the A100, the power consumption has skyrocketed."

"My advisor passed by the other day, glanced at the electricity meter, and his face turned green. He asked me if I was conducting particle collision experiments in there, or if I had secretly connected a wire to sell electricity."

Chen Zhi laughed: "It's okay, we'll just pay the electricity bill."

"Is this about money?" Dai Da-mai asked anxiously, slapping his thigh.

Just then, there was a knock on the door.

Dai Dama quickly turned off the monitor screen.

"Please come in."

The door was pushed open, and a student wearing a red armband poked his head in, looked around the room, and then looked at the two people who were covered in sweat.

"Which one of you is Chen Zhi? Which one of you is Dai Dadong?"

"That's me," Chen Zhi stepped forward. "What's wrong, classmate?"

"The principal's office has notified you two to come over now."

It’s over.

What you fear most is what happens.

……

Principal's Office

Behind his desk, Peking University President Hao Ping was wearing reading glasses and looking at a thick report.

Hearing the two enter, Hao Ping put down the paper in her hand and looked up.

That gaze, how should I put it?

It's like an old farmer looking at two crooked and cracked gourds growing in his own field, feeling both heartache and anger.

"sit."

Hao Ping pointed to the chair opposite him.

Dai Dama sat down cautiously, while Chen Zhi sat down casually.

"Do you know why I called you here?" Hao Ping took off his glasses and rubbed his temples.

Just as Dai Dama was about to apologize, Chen Zhi kicked him under the table.

"I have a rough idea," Chen Zhi smiled. "It might be because our electricity consumption has been a bit unusual lately?"

"abnormal?"

Hao Ping sneered and threw the stack of reports in his hand onto the table.

"You call this a little unusual? Look at it yourselves!"

Hao Ping pointed to the numbers on the report, "Your lab used more electricity in the past month than the entire teaching building combined. The logistics staff initially thought it was a wiring leak, but after checking, they found it was all coming from your room."

"What kind of project could two students be working on that would use so much electricity?"

Hao Ping stared at Chen Zhi and Dai Dawei, his tone becoming stern, "Right now, Bitcoin is all the rage, and a lot of students are getting into trouble. Tell me honestly, are you mining in the school's computer lab?"

2021 was the year when virtual currencies were at their most rampant, and also the year when the government cracked down on them most severely.

It is not uncommon for college students to use the school's free electricity to mine cryptocurrency.

Dai Da-mai's face turned pale, and he hurriedly waved his hands: "Principal, I'm innocent! We really didn't mine! We were doing research..."

"Research?" Hao Ping was clearly skeptical. "What kind of research requires hundreds of graphics cards running day and night? Isn't the computing power provided by the university sufficient for your needs?"

Chen Zhi stopped Dai Dama, who was about to explain.

He took out a tablet computer and placed it on Hao Ping's desk.

"Principal, seeing is believing."

Chen Zhi swiped the screen and tapped a black icon. "We are indeed mining. But we're not mining Bitcoin; we're mining the key to the future."

Hao Ping frowned, his gaze falling on the tablet screen.

The screen displays a simple dialog box.

"What is this?"

"Moss," Chen Zhi introduced, "is a large-scale artificial intelligence model that we developed ourselves."

Hao Ping also has a science and engineering background, so he is no stranger to AI.

He shook his head: "I've seen current AI; it's mostly used for playing Go and doing facial recognition. Can this stuff really be that powerful?"

Chen Zhi began typing in the chat box, "President, have you been struggling with the speech you're scheduled to give at the Global University Presidents Forum next week on 'The Transformation of Higher Education in the Digital Age'?"

Principal Hao was taken aback: "How did you know?"

Only his secretary knew about this; the draft had been stuck for several days, and he felt it wasn't good enough.

"Not only do I know, I also know your general line of thought." Chen Zhi smiled and typed on the keyboard, "Moss, write a speech for President Hao of Peking University. Requirements: Use the concept of change from the I Ching and combine it with the uncertainty principle of quantum mechanics to discuss the positioning of university education in the AI ​​era. 3,000 words, with a grand and majestic style that is elegant yet sharp."

Press the Enter key.

On the screen, the text began to flow out.

The essence of change is transformation. The greatest virtue of Heaven and Earth is life; the greatest virtue of education is innovation…

In the microscopic world of quantum entanglement, determinism is a thing of the past; in the macroscopic future built on algorithms, what is the role of universities? ...

In just thirty seconds.

A well-researched, logically rigorous, and beautifully written speech was presented in its entirety on the screen.

Principal Hao's eyes widened, and his body involuntarily leaned forward.

As a scholar, he could immediately recognize the value of this article. It was by no means the kind of garbage cobbled together from search engines; its reflections on educational philosophy were even more profound than he had imagined.

"This..." Principal Hao pointed at the screen, his fingers trembling slightly, "Did it write this?"

"It's not over yet."

Chen Zhi continued to issue instructions, "Moss, generate a virtual speech video of Principal Hao from this speech. The background will be the shore of Weiming Lake."

The screen flickered.

A lifelike "Principal Hao" appears in the picture, with the shimmering Weiming Lake as the background. He begins to speak, and his voice and tone are imitated perfectly!

The lip movements were perfectly matched, and the expression was vivid and natural.

If it weren't for the fact that the person was in front of him, Principal Hao himself would have doubted whether he had secretly taken the photos.

"This is what we're doing."

Chen Zhi closed his laptop, his gaze fixed intently on Principal Hao. "This is the prototype of general artificial intelligence. It can understand, think, and create. We are teaching it to understand the world."

"And that electricity consumption is the heat it generates when it's thinking. We're trading electricity for the key to unlock the future."

Principal Hao took a deep breath, took off his glasses, rubbed his temples, and then put them back on.

His expression was more solemn than ever before.

Peking University is always new.

He knew better than anyone what it would mean if this technology had originated at Peking University.

"Did you make this?"

"We did it." Chen Zhi nodded. "The core architecture was built by me and Senior Dai. It's still just a baby version."

"A baby version?!"

Hao Ping gasped.

If this is an infant, then what are those so-called AI unicorns on the market? Paramecia?

"That's why we consume so much electricity."

Chen Zhi seized the opportunity to play the victim, "Principal, this kid eats way too much. We're in that little lab, dozens of cards are running so fast they're practically smoking, the cooling can't keep up, and it could crash at any moment. Senior Dai is practically living in a sauna there every day, and he's lost a lot of weight."

Dai Dama nodded in agreement, looking aggrieved.

Hao Ping slammed his hand on the table.

"Nonsense!"

This roar startled Dai Dama again.

"How can a project of this caliber be carried out in this kind of environment?!"

Hao Ping stood up and paced back and forth in the office, his face flushed with excitement.

"This is a crucial national asset, a technology that could change the world's landscape, and you're actually developing it in a tiny cubicle in some incubator?"

"This is utter nonsense!"

He turned around and pointed at Chen Zhihe and Dai Dama.

"What do you need? Tell us! We'll give you everything the school has!"

Chen Zhi's lips curled up slightly.

That's exactly what I've been waiting for.

"Well..." Chen Zhi rubbed his hands together, "First of all, there's the space. That small cubicle is really not enough to work in, and the power supply isn't sufficient either."

"Here you go!" Hao Ping waved his hand. "The basement of Science Building No. 1, that used to be the backup server room for the supercomputing center, has independent industrial circuits and precision air conditioning. Three hundred square meters, is that enough?"

Dai Dama's eyes widened instantly.

300 square meters! Dedicated server room! Precision air conditioning!

"Enough! That's more than enough!" Dai Dama was so excited he almost kowtowed to the principal.

"And computing power," Chen Zhi continued, making an outrageous demand. "We only have a few hundred A100 sheets right now, which is a drop in the ocean for training large models. Could the university provide some support?"

Hao Ping pondered for a moment.

"School funding also follows procedures, and large-scale procurement of hardware takes time."

"However..." Hao Ping gritted his teeth, "I can make a special approval to allocate some of the idle computing resources of the School of Information Science and Technology and the Mathematics Center to you. In addition, I will apply to the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Science and Technology for special funding to approve your project!"

"There are still people."

Chen Zhi pressed his advantage, "We need talent. Lots of interdisciplinary talent—mathematics, physics, neuroscience…"

"That's easy!"

Hao Ping smiled, "At Peking University, the last thing we lack is talent. I'll give you the green light to recruit interns from across the university, and you can even count them for academic credits. Graduate and doctoral students can join your research groups, as long as their advisors agree!"

This series of punches completely stunned Dai Dama.

Venue, computing power, funding, and talent.

The problem that had been troubling them for a month was instantly solved.

This is what they mean by "it's good to have a big tree to lean on!"

"However, I have one condition."

Hao Ping calmed down and looked at the two of them.

"Please speak."

"This project must remain at Peking University," Hao Ping said emphatically. "The core technology must be in our own hands. I don't want to see news in a couple of days saying that this project has been bought by foreign capital."

Chen Zhi stood up and nodded seriously.

"Don't worry, Principal."

"Deep Space Technology will always be a Chinese enterprise."

Hearing the answer he wanted, Hao Ping nodded in satisfaction.

"Just ask for anything the school has."

"Peking University should support young people who dare to think and act!"

-

I might be up two hours late every day.