Musk's conspiracy?

Lin Yuan was lost in thought, for as he became successful, he lost his freedom.

Originally, it was only for the welfare of the food delivery industry practitioners, but Lin Yuan got into trouble because of it. He now felt like he was on a table and couldn't get off.

He became a thorn in the side of foreign capital, so he had to cling to the authorities of his own country, otherwise his personal safety would be at risk.

But after clinging to the authorities, he worried that he would get more and more involved in disputes.

Lin Yuan really wanted to know how long this protected state would last. He even asked Musk about it, and the other party's answer was: unless Lin Yuan compensated those people for their losses.

Compensate?

That was hundreds of billions of US dollars, although it was only market value, Lin Yuan's Tesla stock market value was only about one billion dollars.

Musk finally gave him a suggestion: join in. Since there was no avoiding it, he might as well become one of them, truly become a chess player, and there were rules among chess players.

Lin Yuan retorted, "Didn't your boss almost get shot in the head before?"

Musk said indifferently, "Cost. Once you become a chess player, their cost to deal with you will be much higher, and you will be much safer. And I can introduce my security team to you."

Lin Yuan understood what Musk meant. The other party still wanted him to join his team and work with him.

Musk even repeatedly stated that he could arrange a position for Lin Yuan in the efficiency department he managed, such as a special assistant to the minister or something. This meant he could bring Lin Yuan into Eagle Country politics.

Lin Yuan realized that Musk was not joking, but Lin Yuan obviously had no such intention. He had no interest in even joining his own country's political scene, let alone going across The Other Shore to engage in politics.

But Musk repeatedly advised, "There are many opportunities here. Technology is the future of mankind, and only here can technology be transformed into power most quickly."

Lin Yuan pondered for a moment, and what Musk said was indeed correct.

The Other Shore was truly a paradise for the strong. Every technological revolution would give birth to a group of new elites. Then, these new elites could influence the direction of Eagle Country's political scene through their influence and the money in their hands, through fan-based elections.

But Lin Yuan still refused. He even joked with Musk, "I don't want to have to visit Auschwitz one day..."

Lin Yuan was naturally referring to Musk's previous visit to the Auschwitz concentration camp. In the eyes of discerning people, this was clearly not a simple anti-war activity, but a statement, a statement to certain groups.

So even Musk had to compromise at certain times, and Lin Yuan instinctively sensed the complexity of The Other Shore's deep state.

Musk merely stated: everything takes a process. A decade ago, the Old Boy at Mar-a-Lago was eagerly seeking cooperation with some big businessmen from Dragon Country, but what about now? Some have fallen from grace, while others have become the president of the world's number one superpower.

Lin Yuan didn't want to delve deeper into this topic, so he changed the subject to the future layout of OpenAI.

Musk immediately excitedly told Lin Yuan, "OpenAI finally has hope of returning to being open. Damn it, it almost got out of my control. Bill Gates, that devil, only knows how to sell software licenses. His mind is still stuck in the last century.

I told him we had to be open source, and guess how he responded? He said we could condone piracy. Condone piracy could also gain market share.

Come on! AI is not an operating system. An operating system seems complex, but its functionality is actually very singular, so a large company only needs enough manpower to manage it. But AI is a general tool, a general-purpose tool for the future. How can you expect such a thing... to use your Dragon Country's words, you can't expect to build a car behind closed doors."

Lin Yuan understood the other party well, because AI is a general tool, so the problem arises, because of its generality, AI must adapt to various industries and various usage scenarios. Simply put, AI is a future-oriented tool, and the ultimate value of a tool is reflected in its use.

So the final question became: how can the tool be used correctly?

Currently, large AI language models are most used in natural language processing, machine translation, content creation, and also in healthcare, finance, law, and so on. In short, it involves scenarios of text information conversion, as well as information retrieval and analysis.

Anyone with a discerning eye can see that these scenarios involve so many large industries, and under these large industries, there are countless different application scenarios. So how can one expect a single company to cover all these scenarios?

So Musk's strategy is very simple -- build a general platform, open it to the world, lower the entry barrier for large AI language models, and then let more people and organizations participate, thereby expanding the application scope of this large AI platform. This is equivalent to using openness to absorb the strength of the whole world to contribute to the OpenAI open platform.

Originally, everything was indeed developing this way, but after Microsoft, these former tech companies, which are now de facto old money, joined in, everything changed.

Analyzing Musk's original words, Bill Gates' idea was clearly path dependence, gaining market by condoning piracy, which was a successful path taken during the PC software era.

But the world has long since changed. Piracy did help PC software dominate the market. To this day, Eagle Country's various large-scale basic software and industrial software still firmly occupy the top market, and their position is unshakeable.

But still, the same old saying: AI needs openness, and the moat of large AI language models is usability and adaptability.

In the current era of rapid AI technology iteration, Musk does not believe that Eagle Country's R&D efficiency can still lead in global competition, so using an open stance to freely leverage the power of the world is the right path. Moreover, this can also earn a good reputation for openness and inclusivity.

As for the issue of profitability, that will happen naturally. Profitability in the AI field truly follows the logic of 'flowers bloom, butterflies come naturally'.

Musk had originally wanted to withdraw from OpenAI and start anew, but Lin Yuan's open-source action now gave him new hope.

Lin Yuan's forced open-sourcing did cause immediate losses for OpenAI, of course, these were what Bill Gates and others considered losses. Musk could then take over the current mess under the guise of reducing losses, and then find a reason—since it's already open-sourced, and can't be reversed, let's just go back to being open, and say we tacitly approved Lin Yuan's open-sourcing.

Musk's logic is very simple: since the algorithm has been open-sourced, then simply create an open-source branch for the food delivery algorithm, using the slogan of benefiting the world, promote the open-source development of this branch, and then gain reputation, regain confidence in the stock market, and the stock price will naturally rise.

Lin Yuan strongly agreed with Musk's logic.

If the open-source battle for the food delivery algorithm branch succeeds, then wouldn't Musk be able to promote the successful experience and push OpenAI back to its original intention—returning to its original purpose when it was founded, truly open, and not the currently heavily criticized CloseAI?

Lin Yuan suddenly felt that he seemed to have done something for Musk that the other party wanted to do but dared not.

Musk had obviously wanted to completely open-source OpenAI for a long time, but he obviously couldn't do that, because his position didn't allow him to be reckless. No wonder he supported Lin Yuan's open-source action.

Suddenly, Lin Yuan realized something—Musk wouldn't have deliberately instigated him to open source, would he?

Because Lin Yuan believed that with Musk's experience, it was impossible for him not to know how much impact Tesla's open-sourcing of the food delivery system would cause, so why didn't the other party warn him in advance, not even a hint?

If he were a good friend, even if he thought what the other person was doing was right, when that matter would lead to great trouble, shouldn't he remind him?

And in fact, Musk supported Lin Yuan's open-sourcing from beginning to end, and did not warn Lin Yuan a single word beforehand.

A conjecture couldn't help but surface in Lin Yuan's mind—Musk just wanted him to force the open-sourcing. Damn it, he might have been used as a pawn by the other party.