For Robert Stephen, the strength of Qiao Ze lay in his understanding of mathematics. To be more specific, his grasp of partial differential equations and differential geometry was almost transcendent.
He didn't even know how to put into words just how inconceivable it was, given that Qiao Ze was only eighteen years old.
Mathematicians, even when they appear humble, have pride in their bones.
As for Robert himself, he was far prouder than Daniel or Roth Dugan.
This was probably also why he didn't like using public social media software much.
But at this moment, Qiao Ze truly shook him.
What made him regretful was, why did Qiao Ze have to be an Easterner?
Yes, Robert didn't like Asians, or, to put it bluntly, he didn't favor any ethnicity other than Westerners.
Of course, he would never voice such thoughts.
After reflecting for a moment, he still decided to call Daniel first.
"Ha, I knew you'd call me, Robert, didn't I tell you? That kid is incredible. His paper has the power to turn the decrepit into the divine!"
"Alright, what I want to know is whether your recruiting efforts worked. Has Qiao agreed to go to Princeton?"
"No, I haven't officially invited him yet, the bad news is, Lotte failed. But I can understand, I guess it will be very hard for him to come over here."
Robert perceived the pessimism in Daniel's tone and wondered, "Oh? Why? Does he not even consider Princeton worth his attention?"
"No no no, not for that reason. You've been poring over papers all day, right? So you definitely haven't heard the big news. Huaxia registered an account named Dou Dou on a social media app similar to our Twitter, managed by artificial intelligence. I can send you some videos, and you'll see just how powerful their artificial intelligence technology is."
"What do you mean? Artificial intelligence? We didn't seem to be discussing these things," said Robert, frowning slightly.
Robert didn't like artificial intelligence technology, regardless of which country developed it, including ChatGPT—Robert had expressed his staunch opposition.
Because he truly believed that if artificial intelligence technology really took off, humans would eventually be enslaved by the machines they had created themselves.
Of course, this kind of enslavement might not take the form of a robot revolt as depicted in movies where humans wage war against machines and ultimately fail. But there could be many forms of enslavement, for example, control over the psyche.
And in fact, it has already started to take shape.
Tik Tok uses their algorithms to trap countless people in information cocoons.
Just think, in a few short decades, human spiritual life has become inseparable from the internet. When artificial intelligence really develops, they can monopolize all the information flow on the internet, even technologies like smart video generation can consciously create news.
That day, everything people hear and see will no longer be under the control of free will, but under the sway of artificial intelligence. Machines could completely control human spiritual worlds through the internet, becoming the true rulers of the human world without shedding a drop of blood.
And poor humanity, enslaved, wouldn't even realize it.
It's just like in The Matrix, where those born from the pods can only live in a world filled with lies and deceit, slowly losing all creativity until civilization collapses.
"Yes, we didn't discuss artificial intelligence, but what if I told you that the very AI we mentioned was developed by that kid? Have you not read Qiao's earlier paper? The one about using Group Theory for causal decoupling?
I can only say the kid is a genius. He proposed a theory, and then in a very short time turned the framework he had built into reality. Just look and you'll understand, that's why I say it's very hard for Qiao to come over now. By choosing to release his achievement at this time, he's making a statement on his own."
At this, Daniel paused and sighed, "Yes, if he really had wanted to come to Princeton, he would have chosen to reveal his results after moving here. But he chose to put it out on the same day as my Facebook invitation and the publishing of his paper. Everyone thinks it's a direct conversation with Apple, but I know very well, he was just making it possible to decline without losing face."
Robert was silent, then said, "I'll have a look at this artificial intelligence you're talking about first."
"Okay, I'll send you the videos on Instagram."
After hanging up the phone, Robert quickly received several videos from Daniel on his computer.
Upon clicking, he could see messages in square characters, but thoughtfully, there was an English translation beside each one.
The exchanges were almost all question-and-answer in format, with many images interspersed throughout.
From the perspective of a large language model, Robert could tell that the artificial intelligence was very successful—even more humanized than ChatGPT 4.0. Its use of words and sentence construction was infinitely close to that of a human, and not just any human, but one with a unique sense of humor.
Its language was not dense, nor full of lengthy treatises, but gave the impression of being lively, cheerful, sunny, and even a little mischievous.
This gave Robert a sense of shock, as well as a deeper apprehension.
Actually, Robert Stephen had not read Qiao Ze's series of foundational papers on artificial intelligence.
Even when Qiao Ze's independently created paper watermarking technology had piqued the interest of half the world's mathematicians, Robert had merely heard about it and not participated himself.