Test Results
"Is there any chance the machine itself will freeze up if the installation goes wrong?"
"No, none at all. You don't need to worry."
Professor Shin Dongjin kept staring at Seo Jeongwon with a look that never quite left his face. The graduate students standing behind him wore the same expression, and Seo Jeongwon noticed the lukewarm, relentless scrutiny as well.
Still, he forced himself to stay calm, remembering the far harsher stage where Kim Siwon had once delivered a presentation.
"Yes. The installation is complete. If you drop a DICOM file here, the analysis starts immediately."
"It can't analyze extensions like JPEG, right?"
"Th-that... should be right. No, it is right."
"If there are any new techniques we need to learn, show us now."
"There isn't anything special you need to learn. Really, you just have to drop the file here."
"Hmm."
Seo Jeongwon was so tense his hands were trembling. That only made Professor Shin doubt him even more.
"All right. You've worked hard. Head home safely."
Even so, everyone there wanted to run the AI right away. Its UX and UI were so much cleaner than the one they had built with an outside vendor that it stood out instantly.
"This looks like it's about three years ahead of ours."
"Exactly."
"Do you think the performance will be that good too?"
"Didn't it say AUROC 0.92? Something like that?"
"It looks so engineering-studentish that I kind of trust it."
"If it really has that kind of diagnostic accuracy, isn't this huge?"
As soon as Seo Jeongwon disappeared, the graduate students began murmuring in awe. Professor Shin Dongjin thought the same thing, but he kept his face carefully neutral. He wanted to stay as objective as possible.
"Where are the files we use for samples?"
"I'll run it with those files, Professor."
And so, in front of everyone, Kim Siwon's AI was launched.
"Whoa. It worked."
"Already?"
Analyzing a DICOM X-ray image took less than five seconds, so everyone could see the result immediately.
"Oh. It got it right—lung cancer."
"It even nailed the location pretty closely."
"Should we test it with something a little harder this time?"
The excited students' eyes were shining when they turned to Professor Shin and asked their question.
"Run it on the hardest case among the ones our AI has interpreted."
"Oh! It got it right again, Professor."
"Then run three more of the difficult cases and three normal ones too."
Kim Siwon's AI analyzed the cases with complete ease. Even after a few more runs, the results stayed the same.
"It handles everything."
The graduate student holding the mouse stared at Professor Shin, unable to hide his amazement. By then, it had become much harder for Professor Shin to keep his expression under control as well.
"Then let's run the cases our AI failed to diagnose."
"Yes. I'll load those files too."
That was when the test suddenly became more difficult.
"If it can do this too, doesn't that mean our AI is really stupid? We trained it on way more data."
"They said the people who built this are computer engineering elites. They must've done something right."
The graduate students behind them waited for the results with growing curiosity. Professor Shin pretended not to hear their faint chatter and kept his expression serious.
"Huh? It diagnosed it correctly!"
"Really?!"
Then, when Kim Siwon's AI succeeded in diagnosing cases their own AI had failed to interpret, Professor Shin lost his composure.
"Then run the other files quickly."
Diagnosis succeeded. Success. Success. A string of successes.
"Good grief. At this rate, are we really going to break AUROC 0.9?"
Only after running more than twenty cases did Professor Shin finally admit it: Kim Siwon's club had built an astonishing AI.
And that was when Professor Shin made his decision.
"Wouldn't it be fine to write some papers using this?"
A decision that would end up tormenting everyone present.
"Honestly, do you know how intimidated I was, going alone to handle the installation?"
"I can imagine without you telling me, man."
"Didn't you run it right away? How was it?"
"They told me I could go home, so I left right away."
"What?! Aren't you even curious about how our AI performed?"
"If you had been there, do you think it would've felt like the kind of atmosphere where I could just casually suggest we keep testing it together?"
The day after Seo Jeongwon finished installing our AI at Professor Shin's place, our Club Room was buzzing.
The only one among us whose schedule had matched the professor's was Seo Jeongwon, and he was rehashing the installation day like some kind of war hero telling battle stories.
It was almost funny how excited everyone got over something that, in another context, would have been no more than, "I installed it and came back."
Was that kind of tension possible because this was a Capstone Design project for college students, not a startup with people's livelihoods on the line?
I wasn't sure, but from my perspective—having only ever seen these kids downcast in my previous life—the sight of the club members this energized was always a pleasure.
"Kim Siwon, what are you still doing on the computer?"
"Work. I'll wrap it up before the food gets here."
To be exact, I wasn't really working.
I was just staring at my laptop because Badugi on the screen looked like it was deep in thought.
Kim Siwon: Why? Another problem?
Badugi: What problem? I'm just busy thinking about what kind of proposal to put on the table.
Unable to hold back my curiosity, I opened a memo and asked Badugi a question.
Fortunately, Badugi shook its head.
"What problem? I'm just busy thinking about what kind of proposal to put on the table."
"A proposal?"
Buzz. Buzz.
Right after I sent the question to Badugi, my phone rang.
It was Professor Shin Dongjin.
Professor Shin Dongjin: Ah, Kim Siwon. Is this a good time to talk?
Kim Siwon: Yes, Professor. Of course.
Professor Shin Dongjin: I wanted to talk about the AI your students built. We've been running it ourselves right up until now.
Professor Shin Dongjin: It really catches lesions well. If you got approval and released it to market in this state, the market may be small, but its performance would absolutely be recognized.
Kim Siwon: Thank you.
Professor Shin Dongjin: You said you'd keep training it with data through Your Paw, right?
Kim Siwon: Yes, that's correct.
Professor Shin Dongjin: Then how about we do something with my lab first? That's the plan you had in mind anyway, assuming I would connect you with Your Paw.
Kim Siwon: Thank you for the suggestion. Would it be all right if I came by in person and we discussed the details?
Professor Shin Dongjin: That would be great. Are you free today as well? I only have one class a little later, and after that I'm free.
Kim Siwon: Then I'll come by in an hour and thirty minutes.
Professor Shin Dongjin: All right. Sorry I doubted the performance before~
Kim Siwon: Not at all! Thank you!
As soon as the call ended, the club members all let out cheers.
"Waaah!!"
"I couldn't hear everything, but we're going to discuss something again, right?!"
"Professor's voice got way softer than before!!"
"So we're connecting with Your Paw right away?"
"Wouldn't that be the case?!"
High on excitement, the club members kept voicing their happy guesses out loud.
"What could we even do with Professor Shin's lab?"
"Wouldn't they write papers with our product?"
"Then we'll already have users, won't we?"
But I needed to calm them down first.
Badugi had already shown me a message.
"First, we need to prepare a few things before we go."
"Good afternoon, Professor."
"Welcome~"
Professor Shin was far warmer this time than he had been on our last visit. By now, Kim Siwon's club was no longer an object to be tested or pushed around in a battle of wills, but a collaborator. Of course, there was also the obvious intent to steer the negotiation in his favor by keeping up a friendly image.
"You didn't get to meet the people in our lab last time, did you? I thought it would be better if we properly introduced ourselves before we started talking."
"Yes. Then we'll each introduce ourselves and the roles we handle."
"Good. First, I'm Professor Shin Dongjin. You all probably know that already, so I'll skip myself quickly. Next, Minsu, you go first."
And so, the graduate students and Kim Siwon's club members went through a long, awkward round of introductions.
Everyone introduced themselves with great seriousness, but the truth was, none of it really reached my ears. My mind was already too busy imagining what would happen after the introductions ended.
"I'll start with the most important point. We'd like to pursue research on this AI. Would that be all right?"
"Yes. What exactly would you need?"
"Please let us use this AI for academic purposes."
"Yes, I'll help you install the trial version right away."
"Is it all right if the AI's name appears in the paper?"
"That seems like it would depend on the research results."
"If we don't like that, can we publish it anonymously? Like Product A, that sort of thing."
"Yes, that should be fine."
The first agenda was settled smoothly. It made sense, since both sides stood to gain clear benefits from it.
"What's the company called? Have you registered the business yet?"
"I think we'll register after we've taken advantage of some of the benefits for preliminary founders first."
"Don't people usually do all that in January or February? That's too late."
But from the next agenda onward, the conversation gradually began to stretch out.
"If you don't mind me asking, by when would you prefer that we register the business?"
"How about by the first half of the year? A chance for the Korea University Veterinary Medicine Department to cover it in a paper is far more valuable, isn't it?"
"Yes. We'll do that. I'll send over the contract for research use later this week."
Even so, neither Kim Siwon nor Professor Shin lost the relaxed look on their faces. Everything they were discussing fell well within the range of what everyone had already expected. The next thing Professor Shin said, however, surprised a lot of people.
"You don't have any plans to sell this AI you developed or take investment, do you?"
As soon as he said it, Professor Shin's eyes began to shine with unusual seriousness. It was the look of someone whose gaze had locked onto something he wanted.
The club members standing behind Kim Siwon all looked stunned and glanced at one another, but Kim Siwon alone kept the same easy composure, meeting Professor Shin's eyes without the slightest wavering.
"I'd like to hear your proposal first, Professor."
Already fully prepared, Kim Siwon was in no way an easy negotiation partner.