199: I'll dislocate your arm.

Professor Cheng Wenfei had been in a very good mood lately. Just yesterday, he had done something unprecedented: he accepted an interview with CCTV. If this were in the past, wanting him to accept an interview? Keep dreaming.

"Um, Little Zhao, has the latest version of little star been pushed?"

The young man named Little Zhao looked up and, seeing it was Cheng Wenfei, hurriedly stood up. "Professor Cheng, it has been pushed, and there are currently no bugs."

"This is the first experiment for our small model, so we must constantly monitor user feedback and the backend situation," Cheng Wenfei said, patting Little Zhao on the shoulder.

"Don't worry, Professor Cheng, I've been keeping an eye on it."

Looking around the entire office area, most of the people were young. Cheng Wenfei looked at this group of young people and nodded.

They were spirited, full of vitality, and full of ideas. This reminded him of when he had graduated and gone to the USA; he had been just like them, equally full of longing for the future.

Now, the Red Star Artificial Intelligence Laboratory was a large team of fully 300 people, occupying two floors of this small five-story building.

When he had first arrived at Red Star, it was essentially destitute, with only a lonely sign hanging at the entrance. Back then, Lu Weiqi hadn't even fully staffed him with interns.

But now? Not only were there software engineering and large model talents, but he also had a core team of members he had personally trained.

They were primarily responsible for the little star large model running within Xingtian, and they had already achieved initial results.

In Cheng Wenfei's words, the little star model now possessed a brain, and it needed to find a suitable "body" to fulfill its function.

The first person Cheng Wenfei thought of was Professor Tang from the Harbin Institute of Technology group; the robotic arm module they were researching was an excellent carrier.

In terms of industrial automation applications, pairing it with the little star AI should yield good results.

"Say, Old Tang, haven't you finished it yet after all this time?"

"Are you guys capable or not?" Cheng Wenfei swiped his badge to open the first security gate, then pressed his fingerprint to open the second, finally entering the robotic arm laboratory.

"Come on, come on, if you're so capable, you do it."

"It's easy for you to stand there and talk."

"This is a brand-new structural design; how could it produce results in such a short time?" Professor Tang said irritably.

The two were about the same age, had similar personalities, and were classmates during their undergraduate years, so after Professor Tang joined Red Star, they naturally became "good friends."

Cheng Wenfei looked at the various robotic arms of different shapes in the laboratory, reached out to touch one, and ended up with oil all over his hand. "Old Tang, can't you wipe this down? Look at the oil on this thing, it's literally dripping down, damn it."

Professor Tang glared at him. "Don't touch things randomly. Can you afford to pay if you break it?"

"Watch out, or I'll have you locked up."

"Fine, fine, I won't touch it, I won't touch it." After saying that, he poked a soft-material robotic arm with his finger.

"Touch it again?"

"Touch it again and I'll dismantle your arm and replace it with this robotic arm."

The few young people in the laboratory looked like they wanted to laugh but didn't dare; they seemed to be holding it in quite hard.

"You few, if you laugh again, I'll dismantle all your arms!"

"Come on, come on, dismantle them. Do it now. I never expected that at fifty or sixty, I, Cheng Wenfei, would get to experience the cyberpunk life of you young people." Having said that, he made a gesture to take off his clothes.

"Professor Cheng, don't, don't, don't. Our mentor is just talking."

"Ever since we finished this rigid-structure small robotic arm a few days ago, our mentor tells everyone he's going to dismantle their arms." These young people were Professor Tang's students, the ones Lu Weiqi and Chen Chen had mentioned last time—a big shot poached from the Harbin Institute of Technology, and one who "brought his own cubs" at that.

"Old Tang, let's talk business. When will you be able to finish this soft-material robotic arm? Hurry up; I'm waiting for you to build this thing so I can make a little robot to play with," Professor Cheng said.

"Let me tell you, Old Cheng, this President Chen is really not a human being. Such a big project, and he just handed it to my small team. Originally, there was Dr. Zhou to help out, but now Old Zhou has gone back to the mobile phone development department, leaving just me and my few students."

"Damn it, he wants to work me, Old Tang, to death. If he doesn't give me more people, I'm quitting."

"Quitting?" Cheng Wenfei glanced at him. "Quit right now if you want. I want to see if you can bear to. Even if you go back to Harbin Institute of Technology, could you have conditions as relaxed as these?"

"Do you believe I'll call President Chen in a minute?"

"Or you can leave now; I'll tell President Chen to count it as a voluntary resignation."

Hearing Cheng Wenfei say this, Professor Tang deflated. Harbin Institute of Technology had its benefits, and Red Star had its advantages.

Although the laboratory conditions weren't as good as those at Harbin Institute of Technology, he really liked the atmosphere here.

Everyone had their own things to do, and everyone had their own projects. As for funding, President Chen was incredibly generous; he authorized five or six hundred million for this project without even batting an eye.

He just let him do the project well without worrying about funds.

The most important thing was that there was no "backstabbing" here.

Moreover, this technology at the Red Star laboratory was more advanced than his own project at Harbin Institute of Technology.

Wasn't that the very reason he had come to Red Star in the first place—because he couldn't stand the infighting among the so-called "academic factions," and because he was attracted by this technology?

"Old Tang, my little star has already undergone massive data learning. If your hardware can keep up, I want to use little star as the intelligent core for a smart robot and make a little robot to play with."

"Maybe it could even be a robot that can think, help people with their lives, or even have emotions."

Others didn't know about the changes in little star, but Professor Cheng knew them clearly. Although Chen Chen had timely reclaimed some of the abilities granted by the Xiao Ai system, Professor Cheng knew that little star in Xingtian had always been there.

Professor Cheng even felt that as long as he was released, he would be able to complete iterative upgrades again very quickly.

Becoming a true artificial intelligence.

Professor Tang's expression changed drastically. Harbin Institute of Technology had also been conducting research in this area, just in a different direction.

Harbin Institute of Technology, well, everyone understands.

What does this Cheng Wenfei want to do?

Still hasn't forgotten about his digital immortality?

Looking at the drastically changed expression of Professor Tang, Cheng Wenfei sighed and continued, "Alright, I won't lie to you. Actually, I just want to build a few robots to play with."

"The robot battle, mecha battle kind."

"If we can break through brain-computer interfaces or human-computer interaction next, and let humans control robots to fight in boxing matches without latency, wouldn't that be fun?" After saying this, he even made a punching motion.

What the hell?

Let robots play in boxing matches?

I don't believe a word you say.

Professor Tang looked at the friend in front of him, who once had a happy family, with an expression that said, "You're just messing with me."