Looking for partners1

The simplest way to slap OpenAI is to create a large language model that is more powerful than it.

As long as it's proven that OpenAI is just a small fry, its myth will naturally be shattered.

Lin Yuan summoned the computing power system panel and glanced at it, believing that as long as he injected enough computing power, the system would definitely complete this task.

He could just live a life of asceticism, and for a while, he and Zhang Yan could treat each other with respect. He would devote all his energy to the computing power system, and then shock the world with an incredibly powerful large language model.

And then... Lin Yuan imagined it, he would most likely be taken in for detailed questioning.

"Where did your large language model come from?"

How would Lin Yuan answer that question at the time?

He couldn't just say, "I made it all by myself."

With AI developing to this day, any AI model is inseparable from computing power support. This level of computing power requirement cannot be supported by just a few H100 computing cards; it would require computing cards in the 'thousands'.

Then the authorities would definitely check Lin Yuan's computing card purchase records, and in the end, they would at most find that he only had a few H100s.

He beat OpenAI with just a few H100s? OpenAI spent 20 billion US dollars and used tens of thousands of computing cards to create ChatGPT.

If Lin Yuan really did that, what awaited him would not be the treatment of a hero, but rather a demand to honestly explain, "You are not an alien" or "Where are you hiding the alien?".

Lin Yuan even wondered if he would be taken for DNA sampling and research.

This thought alone was terrifying.

So Lin Yuan absolutely couldn't tinker with it himself; he had to find a partner and then, through the partner's hands, launch a powerful large language model.

Such a partner must also be professional, not some half-baked company that hasn't played with AI models, otherwise, it would be difficult to cover up the lie later.

Lin Yuan thus began his search.

For ease of communication and to keep the benefits within the family, he definitely needed to find a domestic enterprise. If he found a foreign enterprise, it might be interpreted as: the other party adopted OpenAI's technology.

Due to the US's blockade of China in high-tech fields, it would be more convincing for a domestic company to produce a large language model that surpasses OpenAI.

Lin Yuan pondered in his mind, which domestic companies are good at AI?

Dudu? Lili? Juhua? Tiaotiao?

After thinking about it, it seemed to be just these few.

This time, Lin Yuan was too lazy to play the behind-the-scenes game; he directly used his personal connections to get the contact information of the technical leads of these companies, and then began to recommend himself.

He first contacted Dudu, because Dudu's family started doing AI the earliest.

Once, Dudu's family gathered the most powerful AI big shots in the Chinese community, and their momentum was unparalleled for a time, but then...

Then it seemed there was no 'then'.

However, Lin Yuan still decided to contact Dudu first, at least after ChatGPT burst onto the scene, Dudu's family also launched a corresponding product. Lin Yuan felt it was decent after using it, at least it indeed improved the efficiency of search engines significantly at the search level.

But then again, Dudu's product still couldn't change its habit of constantly pushing ads.

Lin Yuan quickly got in touch with Dudu's CTO.

After some opening pleasantries, Lin Yuan went straight to the point.

"I want to use my experience in AI applications for Tesla Takeout to help you improve the performance of your large language model. I wonder if there's a possibility for cooperation between us." Lin Yuan chose to volunteer his services.

Dudu's CTO was somewhat flattered by Lin Yuan's sudden move. Perhaps it was because Dudu's company's business was too singular, with nothing much to offer besides search, so it had been going downhill in recent years, belonging to the type that fails at everything it tries.

Therefore, the other party was very puzzled as to why a tech new rich like Lin Yuan would choose a company like theirs.

"Mr. Lin, forgive my bluntness, but why would you choose our company? To be honest, I think you have better opportunities to showcase your talents."

Lin Yuan's answer was also very direct, "I'm not looking to join your company. I saw your efforts in large language models, and I'm interested in this area, so I wanted to try seeking cooperation with you in this regard."

"Mr. Lin, how exactly do you want to cooperate, in what way, and to achieve what goal?"

"I want to create a large language model that rivals OpenAI, or even surpasses it. To make your... that Yiyan surpass ChatGPT4, and even surpass the performance of its latest version."

After Lin Yuan finished speaking, the other side fell silent.

Out of politeness, Lin Yuan waited for a moment.

After more than ten seconds, there was still no sound, so Lin Yuan had to ask, "Hello, hello, can you hear me?"

"I'm listening, Mr. Lin. You... why do you have such an idea?"

"For change. I've already achieved financial freedom through this Tesla Takeout venture, and I want to create something innovative and groundbreaking again. So this time, I'm targeting large language models."

"Just because of that?"

"Yes."

The other side was silent for a moment again.

"I almost forgot Mr. Lin's age. I really envy Mr. Lin; at such a young age, he has reached a height that people like us can never achieve in a lifetime."

Ever since the success of Tesla Takeout, Lin Yuan earned the nickname "Musk's Son." Now that he is being jointly sued by OpenAI and Tesla, he has earned the nickname "Musk's Rebellious Son."

Because in the eyes of the public, Lin Yuan open-sourced the algorithm of Tesla Takeout in one go, a move that caused Tesla and OpenAI to lose a future listed company with a market value of hundreds of billions of dollars. In the eyes of the onlookers, wasn't he just a rebellious son of a wealthy family?

But no matter what, in the eyes of onlookers worldwide, Lin Yuan is de facto Musk's successor in the tech field. At least both of them act wildly.

Lin Yuan certainly doesn't see it that way. Because he and Musk are peers, he's not going to be anyone's son; whoever wants to be one can be one.

So, Dudu's CTO naturally assumed that this was Lin Yuan's youthful impulsiveness, wanting to mess around again.

"Our company certainly hopes to cooperate with Mr. Lin, but our current situation is to prioritize preserving our traditional business. And our traditional business is search; in fact, we do AI mainly to expand the boundaries of search and to not fall behind in the future tide."

Lin Yuan clearly understood that AI's large language models are inherently strongly related to search, so Dudu, whose main business is search, would definitely invest in large language models.

"Isn't that perfect? You can't give up large language models, and I happen to want to do this, so aren't we hitting it off?"

"However, we hope to conduct business around search. From your meaning, Mr. Lin, it seems your focus is more on the large language model itself."

Lin Yuan thought for a moment, "I don't think these two contradict each other."

"Mr. Lin might be more focused on technical issues and may not be very familiar with enterprise operations. The investment in general AI large language models is at the billion-dollar level, and our company's current strategy is generally to contract, not wanting to over-invest in such general technologies.

Our strategy is limited investment, leaning more towards exploring the application of AI large language models in the search domain.

Mr. Lin, you should understand what I mean. We are currently a company that does applications, not a company that does research."

How could Lin Yuan not understand? Because Dudu's big boss had just publicly stated that it was impossible for a company to emerge in China that could rival OpenAI, so they had already decided to abandon the AI track.

Dudu, this company. It's always like this, getting up early but arriving late. It's always the first to enter, then falls before dawn. AI is like this, autonomous driving is like this, and even takeout is like this.

If Lin Yuan hadn't seen that the application of large language models concerned the life and death of this company, he wouldn't have bothered to volunteer his services and seek them out.

"What if... I have a way to reduce the R&D investment in large language models? We don't need to invest billions; perhaps tens of millions of dollars. This amount of R&D funding shouldn't be a big problem for your company."

"Mr. Lin, if you are truly willing to help us iterate search, let alone ten million, even if we invested a full billion, I think our boss would agree. But for research into general large language models, any amount of money thrown in is futile.

Moreover, our big boss has already strategically halted R&D investment in this area. So..."

"I understand." Since the other party had already brought up the big boss, Lin Yuan had nothing more to say. Because Dudu's company strategy had already abandoned general large language models, Lin Yuan could not change the strategic direction of a large listed company with just a few words.

To put it bluntly, Dudu, this company, has chickened out.