Living in a county town, starting as a stock market maker...

Chapter 99 Are you crazy?! Open source core code?

And then comes the annual Internet Summit...

Gu Ming sat in the first row of the guest seats.

One CEO after another, wearing turtleneck sweaters.

The words they utter are always the same few:

"Traffic", "Monetization", "Private Domain", "Lower-tier Market", "Ecological Synergy".

Gu Ming felt bored and yawned.

These people are just repackaging old businesses with new vocabulary.

Get a user base, and then figure out how to make money from them.

The vision is too narrow.

The founders, CEOs, and investors of those internet companies all sat very upright.

In Gu Ming's view, they are about to be eliminated by the times.

They were proud of the closed system they had built, but failed to see that a huge change was about to happen.

And I am the one who sparked this change.

His gaze finally settled on the center of the venue.

Shen Guodong.

Today he was wearing a Chinese-style jacket with frog buttons, holding a string of glossy sandalwood prayer beads in his hand, and wearing a calm smile on his face.

He didn't look at the stands, but his gaze occasionally swept over Gu Ming with scrutiny and inquiry.

When Chen Mo reported on his contact with the short video team, Gu Ming knew that this leader of Jingquan Capital had already regarded him, a somewhat interesting young man, as an opponent that needed to be taken seriously.

Good.

If your opponent is too stupid, then the game isn't very interesting.

"Now, let's give a warm round of applause to Mr. Gu Ming, the founder of Star Holdings, to come to the stage and share his insights!"

It's finally his turn.

Gu Ming straightened the hem of his suit jacket and walked onto the stage under the complex gazes of the crowd.

The flash went off instantly.

He walked directly to the center of the stage.

The screen behind him was black; there was no PowerPoint presentation.

There was some commotion in the audience.

What is this guy trying to do?

Gu Ming ignored him, picked up the microphone and spoke calmly, his voice carrying throughout the venue through the speakers.

Good afternoon, everyone.

"Before taking the stage, I listened to a lot of ideas about the future. People talked about traffic, business models, and how to make money faster."

"But I have a question."

His gaze swept across the entire room, carrying a hint of provocation.

"Have you ever thought about what we're really talking about when life itself can be digitized?"

The audience was very quiet.

Everyone was baffled by his grand question.

This is an internet summit, not a philosophy forum.

Just then, the screen behind Gu Ming lit up.

A pair of eyes appeared on the screen.

Those eyes revealed curiosity, but also a hint of timidity and stubbornness.

Then, the camera zooms out.

A girl appeared on the screen. She was wearing a white T-shirt and jeans, and had delicate features. Every movement and expression of hers was fluid and natural.

It is "zero".

Everyone at the scene recognized her; she was the one who revolutionized the virtual idol industry.

"Is this truly 'zero'? This rendering precision..."

"Look at her hair, every single strand is moving!"

"No, this isn't pre-recorded video; it's real-time processing!"

The technicians in the audience were shocked.

Their proud technology is far behind when faced with "zero".

This is technology from a completely different era.

Gu Ming smiled as he looked at the reactions from the audience.

He gave instructions to the screen.

"Zero, the topic of that gentleman's speech was 'Consumption Upgrade in Lower-Tier Markets.' Did you understand it? Summarize it in your own words, and then offer a rebuttal from the perspective of a user in Hegang."

crazy!

This guy's gone mad!

How can a virtual human perform semantic understanding, logical analysis, role-playing, and opinion output in a real-world setting?

This is something AI cannot do.

Under the silent gaze of the entire audience, "Zero" on the screen blinked.

She did not answer immediately.

Her eyes first looked confused, then thoughtful, and finally she gave a human-like purse.

That was Wang Min's signature micro-expression, conveying disdain.

Then she spoke.

The voice was crisp and clear, with a youthful quality, but the content was sharp.

"I understand. What that uncle meant was that he wanted us people from small towns to spend more money on things we don't need, and to make us feel like it's high-class."

The entire audience erupted in uproar.

"As for rebuttals..." Zero tilted his head, his eyes turning cunning. "We Hegang people live on a few hundred yuan per square meter. We have more money and time to figure out how to make ourselves happy, rather than how to look like city people. So, uncle, I'm sorry, we don't buy your 'upgrade'."

After saying that, she playfully stuck out her tongue.

boom!

The entire venue erupted in commotion.

This wisdom and spirituality, this seemingly independent personality-like response, changed everyone's perception of artificial intelligence.

Their proud "intelligent customer service" and "AI assistant" appear extremely backward in the face of "zero".

Gu Ming's gaze fell on Shen Guodong again.

The smile on his face vanished. He stared at the "zero" on the screen, his eyes revealing horror for the first time.

He finally realized that he might not be facing a business rival, but a being he could not comprehend, a being about to usher in a new species.

While everyone was still in shock, Gu Ming announced the second thing.

"I know what everyone is thinking right now."

"People are thinking about how to get this technology. Or, how to destroy it."

His voice was calm.

"But my answer may disappoint you."

"Starting today, Starry Sky Holdings will gradually open up the underlying core code of the 'Soul Engine' to the entire industry."

What?

If the previous demonstration was shocking, then this one is revolutionary.

This is a completely counterintuitive business practice.

Opening up the core code? That's tantamount to giving up your most valuable asset.

This isn't business; this is suicide.

"Gu Ming has gone mad! He's trying to destroy the entire industry's existing model, including his own!" an investor shouted in a fit of rage.

Su Qingying and Shen Lian were also stunned. They knew Gu Ming would make a big move, but they didn't expect it to be like this.

"At the same time," Gu Ming continued, ignoring the commotion below the stage, "I propose that the Internet Society of China take the lead in establishing a 'Digital Life Ethics and Security Convention.' All companies using our open-source code must sign and abide by this convention."

"The core of the convention is only one: technology must be used for good. Any use of digital life technology for fraud, manipulation, or privacy violations will be permanently banned from the entire industry."

The entire room was quiet.

Everyone looked at Gu Ming with puzzled expressions.

But gradually, the eyes of some smart people changed.

Their shock turned into fear.

They finally understood Gu Ming's intention.

He wasn't committing suicide; he was setting the rules for the entire industry.

He gave up immediate profits and a monopoly on technology in exchange for the right to define the future direction of the industry.

What he wants to do is be a rule-maker.

"Now it's time for the Q&A session," Gu Ming said calmly.

A hand was raised.

It's Shen Guodong.

All eyes were on this veteran capitalist.

Everyone knows that this is the old era openly questioning the new era.

Shen Guodong took the microphone, his voice steady yet carrying a sense of pressure: "President Gu, your idealism is admirable. But business is not charity. By releasing core assets to the open source, you are essentially giving up the company's competitive advantage. How will you explain this to the shareholders? And how can you guarantee that this technology won't create risks you can't control?"

This is a sharp and potentially fatal problem.

It directly addresses the core business logic and ethical risks of Gu Ming's plan.

However, Gu Ming just smiled.

That smile carried a hint of pity.

"Mr. Shen, your question reveals that your thinking is still stuck in the previous era."

"You think my strength is in coding? You're wrong."

"My strength lies in my standards."

"When the entire industry starts using my 'soul engine' and building products on my technical standards, who can do without me?"

"You think preventing wrongdoing relies on locking up technology? You're wrong."

"The best way to prevent wrongdoing is to ensure that everyone has access to technology, and at the same time, agree that anyone who abuses technology will be subject to joint sanctions by everyone. That is the significance of my proposal to establish an industry convention."

Gu Ming stepped forward, his gaze sharp, staring directly at Shen Guodong, his voice powerful, his words hitting the nail on the head.

"Mr. Shen, your generation of entrepreneurs are thinking about how to profit through monopoly in a fixed market. This is called 'factionalism'."

"Our generation is thinking about how to create a larger market, by opening up technology to allow more people to participate and grow the market together. This is called 'ecological thinking'."

"While you're still thinking about how to make money by selling tools, I've already started building the infrastructure for the entire industry."

"So, Mr. Shen, you're asking me where my value lies?"

Gu Ming's voice rose, resounding throughout the entire venue.

"Value lies not in what I possess, but in what I define."

"From today onwards, I will set the rules."

……

Shen Guodong slowly sat down.

He couldn't say a word.

His calm face showed a slight twitching of muscles.

He lost.

He didn't lose because of capital or strategy, but because of an era.

The entire room fell silent for a few seconds.