Chapter 283 Li Xiao's AI

The Data Center was brightly lit.

Li Xiao had been sitting there for six hours, the four screens in front of her densely packed with code. Her coffee cup had been emptied and refilled, refilled and emptied, and she didn't even remember how many cups she had drunk.

"Sister Xiao, are you still not heading back?" Xiao Zhou, who was on the night shift, poked his head over. "It's already two in the morning."

"Soon, soon." Li Xiao didn't even look back, her fingers tapping rapidly on the keyboard. "I'll leave as soon as I finish debugging this bug."

Xiao Zhou leaned in for a look, the screen full of Python code making his eyes spin. "What are you writing?"

"An auxiliary system for the mecha AI." Li Xiao finally stopped and rubbed her eyes. "President Chen's side is working on the Mars exploration plan, so I have to build the mecha's 'brain' first."

Xiao Zhou's eyes lit up. "The mecha from the National Day parade? Can it really go to Mars?"

"Theoretically, yes." Li Xiao took a sip of her cold coffee. "But a bunch of problems need to be solved—environmental perception, path planning, autonomous obstacle avoidance, emergency response... In that environment on the Martian surface, communication delay is at least twenty minutes. If the pilot encounters a sudden situation, ground instructions simply won't arrive in time."

"So the mecha needs to be able to think for itself?"

"Exactly." Li Xiao pointed at the screen. "This AI system can analyze environmental data in real-time to assist the pilot's operations, and in certain extreme cases, it can even respond automatically. For example, if it suddenly falls into a pit or encounters a landslide, the machine must react before the human can."

Xiao Zhou listened intently. "That's so awesome."

"Awesome? It's practically killing me." Li Xiao closed a window. "The core of this system is a Reinforcement Learning model, which needs to be trained with a massive amount of simulation data. I've adjusted data from twenty-three high-risk modes of the sky ladder project and added simulation parameters for Martian terrain, but I still feel it's not enough."

"Then get some rest early and work on it tomorrow," Xiao Zhou urged.

"Alright, alright, you go ahead and get busy." Li Xiao waved him off. Once Xiao Zhou left, she opened a new code window.

At four in the morning, Li Xiao fell asleep at her desk.

When she woke up, there was a jacket over her.

She lifted her head dazed and saw Lin Mo sitting at the opposite workstation, frowning at a screen.

"Mas—President Lin?" Li Xiao almost said the wrong thing and quickly corrected herself. "Why are you here?"

Lin Mo looked at his watch. "Six-thirty. I came to see when you'd wake up."

Li Xiao blushed and handed the jacket back. "Is this yours?"

"Yes." Lin Mo didn't take it. "Keep it on; the air conditioning is cold."

Only then did Li Xiao realize that she and Lin Mo were the only two people in the entire Data Center. Outside the window, the sky was just starting to brighten, and the sound of the Canteen starting work came from afar.

"I..." Li Xiao wanted to explain something.

"I've looked at the code," Lin Mo interrupted. "Between three and four-thirty this morning, I went through the core modules you wrote."

Li Xiao's heart tightened. "Are there bugs?"

"Not bugs." Lin Mo offered a rare smile. "It's a surprise. Your reward function design for this Reinforcement Learning is very good, especially that dynamic weight adjustment—you realized that the mecha should have different decision priorities in different environments."

Li Xiao was stunned.

She had imagined Lin Mo's reaction—he might point out problems, suggest modifications, or even directly scrap it and start over. But the one thing she hadn't expected was for Lin Mo to praise her.

"However," Lin Mo's tone shifted, and Li Xiao's heart rose again. "Your environmental perception module uses too much Sensor Fusion. There's a lot of dust on the Martian surface; visual sensors might fail, and radar could be jammed. Have you considered a single-sensor failure scenario?"

Li Xiao immediately opened her notebook. "I'll take a note."

"Also," Lin Mo continued, "in your automatic response logic, the priority for emergency hazard avoidance is too high. If the mecha is performing a critical exploration mission and encounters a medium risk, it should consult the pilot first instead of taking initiative. There's a twenty-minute communication delay on Mars, but if the mecha decides to turn around and run on its own, the pilot can only watch helplessly."

Li Xiao recorded quickly. "Priority layering, human-machine responsibility boundaries..."

"Yes." Lin Mo nodded. "The machine is always just an assistant; the final decision-making power must remain in human hands. This AI can react faster than a human, but it cannot be 'smarter' than a human—in an unknown environment, human intuition and experience are sometimes more reliable than algorithms."

Li Xiao stopped writing and looked up at Lin Mo.

"What's wrong?" Lin Mo asked.

"Nothing." Li Xiao smiled. "I just think you're right."

Lin Mo stood up. "The code is written very well, more mature than I expected. Over the next month, refine this system to the point where it can undergo on-machine testing. If you have any problems, find me anytime."

"Okay," Li Xiao responded, then remembered something. "President Lin, did you stay up all night?"

Lin Mo didn't answer and walked toward the door.

"President Lin!" Li Xiao called out to him, handing over the jacket. "Wear this; it's cold outside."

Lin Mo took the jacket and was silent for two seconds. "Li Xiao, you've grown up."

Li Xiao was taken aback.

Lin Mo had already pushed the door and left.

At ten that morning, an insulated container appeared at Li Xiao's workstation.

She opened it to find Master Liu's braised pork, still steaming. A note was stuck to the lid in a familiar handwriting: "Eat before you write."

Li Xiao stared at the note for a long time.

Her eyes felt a bit warm.

Over the next week, Li Xiao practically lived in the Data Center.

She digested Lin Mo's suggestions one by one, redesigned the Sensor Fusion algorithm, and added a fault-tolerance mechanism for single-sensor failure. She also had three video meetings with Chen Xueming to discuss typical scenarios on the Martian surface—how to avoid craters, how to climb slopes, and how to respond to dust storms.

"The two of you are working together more and more in sync," Lin Mo said after a meeting.

"Of course." Chen Xueming laughed on the other end of the video. "Li Xiao is our data brain now; my plan wouldn't even function without her."

Li Xiao was embarrassed by the praise. "Don't talk nonsense, President Chen. I'm just doing the work."

"Nonsense?" Chen Xueming became serious. "If this AI system of yours can really be used on Mars, you'll be the creator of humanity's first Martian mecha AI. What do you call that? That's history."

Li Xiao looked at Lin Mo.

Lin Mo nodded slightly.

On the seventh night, Li Xiao completed the first version of the full system.

She sat in front of the screen, took a deep breath, and clicked the "Simulation Test" button.

On the screen, a virtual mecha appeared in a simulated Martian terrain—an ochre-red surface covered in gravel, with a massive crater in the distance.

The mecha began to move.

The AI analyzed the terrain ahead in real-time—gravel area, bypass suggested; 15-degree slope, passable in track mode; depression ahead, suspected soft soil, avoidance suggested.

Pilot command input: "Enter the crater's edge, sample."

The AI calculated the path, planning three optional routes and marking their respective risk coefficients. The pilot selected Route 1, and the mecha began its advance.

Suddenly, a simulated dust storm struck.

Visual sensors failed instantly. Radar signals were severely jammed. The mecha fell into a brief "blindness."

But in less than 0.3 seconds, the AI switched to backup mode—using Inertial Navigation and the last moments of terrain data to calculate the current position, guiding the mecha to slow down, lower its center of gravity, and find cover.

The dust storm passed, and the sensors recovered. The mecha continued forward, successfully reaching the edge of the crater.

The test ended.

A report popped up on the screen: "Test passed. Autonomous responses: 2; Pilot confirmations: 7; Emergency hazard avoidance success rate: 100%."

Li Xiao stared at that "100%" and suddenly felt like crying.

Applause sounded from behind her.

She whipped around and saw Chen Xueming standing at the door, followed by Zhao Gang and several technicians.

"When did you... all get here?" Li Xiao stood up.

"We've been here for a while." Chen Xueming walked over, looking at the report on the screen. "We saw you were testing and didn't want to disturb you."

Zhao Gang also leaned in. "This is that mecha AI? It can drive itself?"

"Assisted driving," Li Xiao explained. "Most of the time, it's still human-operated; it only responds automatically in emergencies."

"That dust storm just now, the automatic response was quite good," Zhao Gang praised, a rare occurrence. "In that situation, a human might have frozen up."

Chen Xueming nodded. "Li Xiao, when can this system undergo on-machine testing?"

"Theoretically, right now," Li Xiao said. "But we need to do thorough validation on the ground first. It would be best to set up a site that simulates the Martian environment and run several hundred hours of actual machine testing."

"I'll coordinate the site," Zhao Gang decided immediately. "There's an Abandoned Mining Area to the west with complex enough terrain. It can be used after some modifications."

Chen Xueming looked at Li Xiao, his eyes full of emotion. "This one week of yours is equivalent to three months of work for others."

Li Xiao was embarrassed by his gaze. "It's not that exaggerated..."

"It is," Chen Xueming said seriously. "Old Lin was right; you've grown up."

That phrase again.

Li Xiao suddenly remembered seven years ago when she first came to the lab. She couldn't even organize experimental data properly and had been scolded to tears by Chen Xueming several times. Back then, she felt she would never catch up to these "geniuses."

But now, she stood here, having just completed a system sufficient to change history.

"Alright, enough with the sentimentality." Zhao Gang broke the atmosphere. "Li Xiao, you haven't slept much this week, have you? Now that the test has passed, go back and rest. Starting tomorrow, we'll prepare for the actual machine testing."

"Okay," Li Xiao responded, then looked at Chen Xueming. "President Chen, when will the Mars exploration plan be ready?"

"Soon," Chen Xueming said. "Once your AI version is finalized, my plan will be just about ready too. Let's aim to report to Old Lin together by the end of next month."

Li Xiao nodded.

When she walked out of the Data Center, it was already dark outside.

Standing at the door, she looked at the brightly lit Mecha Workshop in the distance and suddenly remembered what Lin Mo had said early that morning: "Li Xiao, you've grown up."

She hadn't understood what it meant at the time.

Now she understood.

It wasn't the increase in age, nor the progress in technology, but that she had finally transformed from an "executor" into a "person" capable of independent thought and independent creation.

She could stand before Lin Mo and discuss the pros and cons of code with him.

She could stand side-by-side with Chen Xueming, contributing her wisdom to Mars exploration.

She could support a piece of the sky for this team.

"Li Xiao!"

Someone shouted from behind.

She turned around and saw Xiao Zhou running over, holding an insulated container.

"Master Liu told me to bring this to you!" Xiao Zhou was out of breath. "He said you've been working too hard this week and need to nourish yourself."

Li Xiao took the container and opened it; it was braised pork again.

A note was stuck to the lid as usual.

This time, it wasn't Lin Mo's handwriting.

It was written by Master Liu himself, in a few crooked characters:

"Child, eat more."

Li Xiao's eyes finally turned red.

Holding the insulated container, she stood in the night, looking toward the Mecha Workshop.

There were Chen Xueming, Engineer Shen, and countless others fighting for Mars exploration.

Behind her was the Data Center, Master Liu's braised pork, and those comrades who silently supported her.

Above her was the starry sky and a slightly reddish planet, waiting for humanity's arrival.

She suddenly smiled.

"Mars," she said softly. "We'll be there soon."

The braised pork in the insulated container was still hot.