Chapter 8: Qianlong Cup

Sitting before the computer, Su Xin activated Godspeed at double speed again, beginning his true objective—

Programming an Artificial Intelligence.

Of course, it was not the kind of Qiáng Réngōng Zhìhuì that possesses human intelligence from legends, but merely an ordinary smartphone assistant.

Given the current level of technology, such a Ruò Réngōng Zhìhuì is actually easier for people to accept and is the most suitable Artificial Intelligence product for the current market.

After all, mobile phones are almost an essential terminal product for everyone, and many manufacturers are vigorously researching and developing smartphone intelligent assistants, which have gained considerable popularity in the market.

It is equivalent to the major manufacturers having already built up the momentum, which has also, to a certain extent, stimulated user demand.

It is just that all the smartphone intelligent assistants currently on the market do not even count as Ruò Réngōng Zhìhuì; at most, they can barely recognize voice commands to perform basic operations on the phone, and they are not even very accurate.

They barely count as pseudo-Artificial Intelligence.

Therefore, in the eyes of most people, a smartphone assistant is a novel gadget, but not very useful.

At this time, as long as Su Xin develops a smartphone intelligent assistant that is clearly stronger and more practical than those of the major manufacturers, he can borrow the momentum of the major manufacturers to quickly become popular across the country and earn his first pot of gold.

And it would definitely be a quite large pot of gold.

The many books Su Xin read in the library yesterday, including software programming, informatics, neurology, advanced mathematics, and so on, were all preparatory work for developing the Artificial Intelligence program.

And now, it was time for practice.

While Su Xin's ten fingers flew, Teacher Zhang, who had been watching with great interest on the side, found after a while that his train of thought simply could not keep up with Su Xin's hand speed; he only felt that the lines of code constantly appearing and quickly disappearing at the top of the screen were as unfamiliar as meaningless garbled text piled together at random.

If he hadn't just witnessed Su Xin's level, he would definitely have thought the other party was just randomly pounding on the keyboard.

Staring blankly for a moment, Teacher Zhang suddenly remembered something and was just about to tell Su Xin, but as soon as he opened his mouth, he worried about interrupting Su Xin's train of thought.

In the end, he had no choice but to leave a note and then quietly left the room.

……

"Phew! Progress is good!"

After exiting the Godspeed state, Su Xin took a few deep breaths and smiled with satisfaction.

Through his unremitting efforts, although the general framework of the smartphone assistant hadn't even been built yet, he already had a clear train of thought and believed that he could successfully develop an initial version in less than a month.

Only then did he suddenly remember that this was Teacher Zhang's dormitory, and he didn't know how long he had been immersed in the world of code, having completely ignored the room's owner, Teacher Zhang.

Su Xin turned his head to look and discovered that Teacher Zhang had left the room at some point, and on the stool where he had originally sat, there was a note held down at one corner by a ballpoint pen.

Su Xin picked up the note and saw a few lines of crooked black text written on it—

"Su Xin, I have something to do and need to go out for a bit. I will bring you lunch back at twelve o'clock. You just study here with peace of mind."

"Signed, Zhang Dahai."

Su Xin looked at the time on the computer.

11:48.

Just in time.

The door lock turned, and then the door opened.

Teacher Zhang walked in carrying two fast-food boxes. Seeing that Su Xin had finished his work, he immediately smiled and said:

"You're done? Come, let's eat first."

Su Xin hurriedly stood up and waved his hand, saying: "Thank you, Teacher Zhang, but my mother makes lunch for me every day, waiting for me to go back and eat."

"But, I have already bought two portions."

Zhang Dahai lifted the fast-food boxes in his hands.

Su Xin hesitated for a split second.

He knew that if he insisted on refusing, it would not only make the atmosphere awkward, but this extra portion of food would also be wasted; it was better to accept it frankly.

Anyway, he had already decided to repay Teacher Zhang for the favor of lending him the computer in the future.

As for the food his mother made, Su Xin, who had awakened the Godspeed Ability, indicated that his physical exertion had been a bit high these past two days, and he could completely eat two portions of food.

"Then many thanks, Teacher Zhang."

Su Xin readily took the fast-food box and sat down at the table with Zhang Dahai.

Zhang Dahai looked at the computer desktop, gently closed it, pushed it to the corner of the table, and asked curiously: "What kind of software were you developing just now? Is it convenient to disclose it?"

"It is a smartphone assistant similar to Siri."

"A smartphone intelligent assistant?"

Zhang Dahai's face immediately showed surprise.

"That is a systematic, massive project; it is very complex. One person should not be able to develop it successfully, but you are still in the learning stage, so there is no problem with using it for practice."

As he spoke, Zhang Dahai suddenly patted his forehead.

"Right, there is one thing I almost forgot. Have you heard of the High School Student Programming Competition?"

Su Xin shook his head: "Never heard of it."

Zhang Dahai smiled: "Its full name is the 'Qianlong Cup' National High School Student Programming Competition. It is sponsored by the Longwei Group and jointly organized by the five top universities in the Long Country. It can be said to be the grandest programming competition for teenagers in the Long Country."

"With your level, I think you should have a very good chance of winning a good ranking."

Su Xin became a bit interested and asked: "How much is the championship prize money?"

Hearing that he only asked about the reward for the champion, Zhang Dahai could not help but laugh, and then said:

"The championship prize money is one million, plus special admission to the top five universities in the country, as well as a genius program offer from the Longwei Group."

"One million?!"

Su Xin was slightly startled.

After all, he was a child from a poor family, and the most money he had ever handled was three hundred yuan. Although he knew that with his own abilities, he would definitely be able to earn countless millions, at least for now, this amount still made him very tempted.

However, after thinking about it for a moment, he calmed down and asked: "Does the competition require developing software?"

"The final stage generally involves developing software."

"Then who does the ownership of the software belong to?"

"It belongs entirely to the contestant, and since the finals attract a high level of attention, software that appears and wins awards in the finals will enter the sights of many large companies; many large companies will scramble to acquire it, and it is even possible that Longwei Group might step forward to acquire it, and the price will definitely not be low."

Zhang Dahai said with a hint of excitement: "Therefore, whether it is for fame, for profit, or simply to hone yourself, it is very necessary to participate in this competition, and I suggest you look into it."

Su Xin nodded thoughtfully: "Listening to you say that, it is indeed quite good."

After the two finished their meal, they searched together on the computer for information related to this year's Programming Competition.

As it happened, perhaps because the topic of Artificial Intelligence has been hot these past two years, the theme of the Programming Competition was also set as Artificial Intelligence.

The rewards are good, and the development direction is just right.

Su Xin immediately stated: "Good, I also want to participate in the Programming Competition and bring back a championship!"

For Su Xin, this was indeed a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity—

Being able to both earn a million in prize money and use the heat of the competition to make a name for his first piece of software could be described as killing two birds with one stone.

As for whether he could win the championship, or whether the smartphone assistant could be successfully developed, these questions were not within the scope of Su Xin's considerations.

In his view, as long as it was a technical problem, then it was absolutely not a problem at all.