You call this entrepreneurship?

Chapter 289 This liar!

Zhou Dao silently followed Xiong Xiaoge into the car. The driver started the car and drove steadily on the road.

Xiong Xiaoge leaned his head against the leather chair, staring at the ceiling of the car as if in a trance.

Zhou Dao glanced at his boss and asked cautiously, "Boss Xiong, are you planning to invest in this artificial intelligence project?"

"I plan to invest two million US dollars." Xiong Xiaoge said casually, his eyes still fixed on the carport.

"Huh?!" Zhou Dao was a little surprised, "It's decided just like that."

Xiong Xiaoge glanced at him and suddenly asked, "What do you think of this project?"

Zhou Dao considered his words carefully. "The intelligent image recognition system is functioning normally, with a very high recognition success rate and a fast response speed. It looks like it has taken shape."

"But..." Zhou Dao hesitated, wanting to say something but stopping himself.

"But what?" Xiong Xiaoge asked.

"Nothing." Zhou Dao thought for a while, "I just feel that this project doesn't feel right. President Qin is being secretive and doesn't seem to want us to know."

Xiong Xiaoge smiled and said, "There is indeed something going on here, but it has little to do with us."

Zhou Dao frowned, "What's the inside story? Is there something wrong with this project?"

Xiong Xiaoge did not give a direct answer. "Today's demonstration was very successful. Qin Shaoyan said that this was just a basic demo. He planned to use it to review pictures on the campus network and train AI at the same time."

"The development cycle of artificial intelligence is very long, and it may not come out in three to five years."

Zhou Dao was a little surprised, "Then why did you decide to invest in this project?"

"It's only two million dollars. We can make money in two years by just finding someone to take over." Xiong Xiaoge smiled. "I didn't invest in this project for profit. I just wanted to observe Qin Shaoyan."

Zhou Dao was stunned for a moment, "Boss Xiong, what did you see?"

"Qin Shaoyan." Xiong Xiaoge thought for a moment, "Well, I have to be more cautious when investing in his projects in the future."

"Ah?" Zhou Dao was stunned.

……

"Brother Chen, I have already sent you the materials." Qin Shaoyan smiled and held up the phone, "Thank you for your help, Brother Chen."

"We have no shortage of funds, but the main thing is the honor."

"Okay, Brother Chen, see you later."

After Qin Shaoyan hung up the phone, he picked up the red-headed document on the table, looked at it for a few seconds, and then laughed.

This document was the application that Chen Peng used to help Qin Shaoyan apply for participation in the National "863" Program.

It is mainly an application for funding for the project "Research on General Engine for Online Games and Development of Demonstration Products" under the topic of "Computer Software, Hardware and Human Interaction".

It sounds very high-sounding, but in fact it is just applying for subsidies from the government.

Xishanju started to participate in 2003 and received 500 million yuan in funding.

In 2004, the Beijing Science and Technology Commission provided a subsidy of 950 million yuan to the self-developed engine of the target software "Ao Shi OL".

Since then, major game companies have received subsidies from governments at all levels in the name of developing their own engines.

Qin Shaoyan doesn't care about the funds, nor is he interested in fleecing the country. He just wants to give his game engine a name so that it has a legitimate origin.

He is already considering launching a free youth mini version of the game engine at the appropriate time and giving it to other game companies for use.

Of course not now. Although the demo version of "Counter-Terrorism: Modern Warfare" has demonstrated the excellent performance of the game engine, it is not enough to shock peers.

I must achieve certain results so that my peers will take the initiative to use the game engine.

When Qin Shaoyan was planning his grand blueprint, Xing Wenqiang, director of the Artificial Intelligence Research Institute, knocked on the door and walked into the office.

"Mr. Qin." Xing Wenqiang stood opposite Qin Shaoyan, seeming a little conflicted.

"Is everything cleaned up?" Qin Shaoyan asked.

"It's cleaned up." Xing Wenqiang then asked, "What should we do after our project receives the funds?"

"Of course we should continue to do research and development." Qin Shaoyan said confidently, "The investors have given us money, so we have to work hard to be worthy of their money."

Xing Wenqiang frowned, hesitated for a moment and said, "Boss Qin, they have invested so much money. I am afraid I can't do it well. How can I explain it to the investors when the time comes?"

"The result is not important, the process is important." Qin Shaoyan said nonchalantly, "You just need to show the process of your hard work to the investors and give them emotional feedback."

"Ah?!" Xing Wenqiang was shocked, "Is this really possible?"

"I've already told them in advance that artificial intelligence generally won't be available for three to five years, and the research and development cycle will be very long." Qin Shaoyan comforted him, "They may not even remember three to five years."

"Even if the research and development doesn't go smoothly, we can still ask for more research and development funds." "If we can come up with something, then everyone will make money."

"It doesn't matter if I fail. Investing is risky and failure is common."

It was obvious that this was the first time Director Xing had come into contact with someone like Director Qin, and he stood there in a daze for a moment.

Qin Shaoyan said slowly: "Besides, with Director Xing's ability, it shouldn't be impossible for him to come up with anything."

Xing Wenqiang was shocked and immediately said, "I will work hard to develop the second-generation image recognition system as soon as possible."

"Keep going," Qin Shaoyan encouraged, "Remember to inform me as soon as you have any major achievements."

After sending Xing Wenqiang away, Qin Shaoyan then called Facebook CEO Fred Weisler.

"Hi, Fred." Qin Shaoyan said straight to the point, "Is Facebook's review mechanism still manual?"

"Of course." Fred sighed. He had a headache just talking about this. "We have now added more than 300 content reviewers to conduct risk review of website content."

"But the information on the website is increasing too fast, and our staff simply cannot keep up. The audit department is applying for new auditor positions every month."

"At this rate, our audit department will have 1,000 employees next year."

Qin Shaoyan was not surprised by this, as this was just the beginning.

More than a decade later, the number of Facebook reviewers had skyrocketed to 1.5.

Nowadays, the Internet is flooded with information, and few Internet companies will review the content on their websites.

In another time and space, Facebook did not establish the position of reviewer until 2009, and did not pay much attention to content review before that.

When Qin Shaoyan founded Facebook, he and Fred specifically emphasized the need to strictly review the images on the website.

There should be no content that exposes pornographic information, violates the law, or goes against public order and good morals. We should try our best to keep Facebook pure.

At the beginning, Facebook was still able to maintain its growth when it had few users. However, after Facebook was introduced to the world last year, the number of users skyrocketed.

What followed was a large amount of harmful information, such as the proliferation of bloody, violent, pornographic and other large-scale images that broke the bottom line.

Facebook had to urgently add more than 200 reviewers to review and block pictures uploaded by users.

The most direct problem brought about by the increase in the number of reviewers is the increase in costs. The reviewers initially hired by Facebook were all full-time employees. Although the salary of each reviewer was not high, the large number of reviewers could not support it.

"John, why are you asking this?" Fred asked back, "Do you have any good ideas?"

"I do have an emergency solution." Qin Shaoyan sighed, "We can outsource the review work. It's all done online anyway, so we don't necessarily need to hire American employees to do it."

"I have considered it, but this will lay off existing reviewers. Facebook's current large-scale layoffs are not a good thing." Fred complained, "The laid-off employees will spread rumors everywhere."

"Don't be too hasty about this matter. Let's implement a dual-track system first." Qin Shaoyan suggested, "The audit department of the US headquarters does not need to add any more employees. First, find outsourcing, and then gradually increase the outsourcing workload and slowly lay off local employees."

“Also, I think manual review is not the best solution.”

“I recently acquired a team that’s working on artificial intelligence.”

"They have developed an AI image recognition system that can be used to assist in reviewing images, and the approval rate can reach 99%."

"Oh my god!" Fred exclaimed, "Is this true? This is incredible!"

"You can send someone to take a look." Qin Shaoyan said confidently, "I am ready to connect this system to the campus network backend to assist in manual review work."

"Very good, I'll send someone to check out this system as soon as possible." Fred exclaimed, "With this system, we can save a lot of manpower and tens of millions of dollars every year."

"Tens of millions of dollars?!" Qin Shaoyan laughed. "In two years, when Facebook's user base expands to hundreds of millions, the audit expenses will probably reach hundreds of millions of dollars."

"This system can save you hundreds of millions of dollars."

"You're right. This system is indeed very valuable." Fred said sincerely, "I hope it can help Facebook as soon as possible."

"The potential of artificial intelligence is unlimited," Qin Shaoyan concluded.

After the two people made an agreement, Qin Shaoyan immediately sent a message to Xiong Xiaoge after hanging up the phone.

"Facebook wants to acquire intelligent image recognition system for $100 million."

At this time, Xiong Xiaoge was in a meeting with his VPs. After receiving the text message, his face became very interesting and he remained silent for a long time.

Zhou Dao next to him asked cautiously: "Boss Xiong, what's wrong? What happened?"

Xiong Xiaoge suddenly laughed and said, "Please help me make an appointment with Mr. Yan from Softbank tomorrow."

"Ah, oh." Zhou Dao was stunned for a moment before he reacted.

Xiong Xiaoge suddenly blurted out, "Qin Shaoyan, this liar, is still using this trick."

(End of this chapter)