AI (6)
JH Research.
As on any other day, I sat in the CEO's office and looked over the Nano World.
Watching the Nano World.
There was a real pleasure in it.
Ever since I had installed the big-screen TV, I found myself lingering longer and longer over the view.
Seeing Illys's face was always a delight, of course, but touring the territory itself had its own charm.
The castle, the roads, the mines, the forests, the villages, the semiconductor complex…
Every piece of it felt alive and in motion.
I took up the smartphone.
The phone linked to the Nano World—and linked, in turn, to the big TV.
"Up, down, up, up, up."
Swipe, swipe.
I guided the phone with the finest touch of my fingers.
"This is basically a controller."
The smartphone had become a joystick.
It felt like piloting a virtual drone through the phone.
I kept up the delicate taps and swipes.
"Virtual drone—go!"
Whoosh.
In my mind's eye, a camera-mounted drone took to the sky.
Shuuuuk.
High altitude.
It was the view from a drone—or an airplane—looking down.
Mountains stretched away below.
Flying on, I spotted the walls raised from nano-blocks.
Castle of the Creator.
The view from high above the clouds.
Inner bailey, outer bailey, and farthest out of all, the outermost wall built of nano-blocks.
The castle glittered in a riot of colors—beautiful.
Of course it was also an impregnable fortress no ordinary enemy would dare assault.
"I could use this as a wallpaper."
A place without a single Earth-built structure would make the perfect desktop background.
"Zoom in."
Whoosh.
I zoomed the display and dropped closer.
Here and there.
"There are more stone tablets."
The stone tablets Illys had made.
They were tools for conversing with the AI.
It was not hard to find people carrying tablets through the villages and along the roads.
The conversations the nano-people held with the tablets were relayed through Illys's Holy Relic, passed through my smartphone, and flowed on into the data center.
In the end, they were training our company's AI.
Under the shade of a great tree, several people had gathered.
Like a study group.
A white-bearded old man held a tablet and went on speaking.
Ahem. Our Baby Constellation has not yet fully learned to speak. So when we talk, we must make clear and precise what we are saying to that little one.
How so?
For example—when there is a fire, do not simply cry "Fire!" Tell it, "A fire has broken out in the middle of the village. A fire that burns hot because the wood is burning. That fire is blazing high." Explain it in detail, like that.
Ah. I see.
It looked exactly like a university lecture.
A smile rose to my face without my noticing.
If they taught the AI this diligently, its abilities would climb by leaps and bounds.
I watched the lesson for a while, then turned my view.
My gaze swung toward the semiconductor complex.
"Whoa. The whole atmosphere has changed."
The Castle of the Creator had once been a pastoral, agriculture-centered place; now it had transformed into an industrial complex the likes of which you would rarely see even on Earth.
Calling it a mere factory would not do justice to the scale.
Whoosh.
The view climbed high into the sky and framed the semiconductor district.
Buildings laid out like a checkerboard.
Seen from above, the sight was magnificent.
"Incredible."
I rotated the view toward the central command building of the complex.
Inside the semiconductor command center, a class was underway.
Today we will practice circuit sense. Feel the flow of current through your fingertips. Not with your eyes—with your senses.
You mean feel the breath of the current, sir?
Exactly. Current flows like a living thing. Whether we keep it alive or kill it is in our hands.
Ohhh, it's warm.
I'm getting a vibration.
A lesson in feeling the flow of current with the body.
…Wasn't that just electrocution?
Now. Report what you learned today to the Baby Constellation through the tablets. Begin.
Yes, sir!
Here, too, the tablets were being used for AI training.
People said speaking aloud was the best way to learn—and the nano-people were learning by teaching what they knew to the AI on the tablets.
"They're doing well."
I lifted the view into the sky again.
Where to next?
"I should take a look at Rodriguez as well."
Rodriguez was the castle where Illys had first been. A castle of ten thousand people.
Ten thousand had once seemed like a great many, but now, overshadowed by the Castle of the Creator and its hundred thousand, it was a place where the lord no longer resided, managed instead by an appointed steward.
Whoosh.
Far off on the display, Rodriguez Castle came into view.
Another beautiful castle.
I worked the phone and lowered the camera's angle a little.
People, small now. I zoomed further.
"Huh? Why are they carrying weapons?"
On the Rodriguez side, soldiers were under arms.
Looking closer, roughly a hundred soldiers stood almost fully equipped.
I moved in nearer.
A captain of a hundred shouted.
Our great Constellation requires mithril!
Oh! The Constellation!
Fortunately, mithril is found in the western mountains. We have already opened a mine there. But a few days ago, monsters were discovered in those mountains. Therefore our soldiers must clear them out. Can you do it?
Yes! We can!
Good. A person of Rodriguez does not flinch at mountain monsters. Move out!
Let's goooo!
Ah.
Because of me.
Coating semiconductors with mithril improved their performance dramatically.
Mithril was, on Earth, practically a room-temperature superconductor.
A superconductor meant zero resistance—electricity conducting with astonishing efficiency.
On Earth there were materials that became resistanceless under extreme cold—liquid nitrogen at −196°C.
But while such low-temperature superconductors already existed, nothing yet showed superconducting behavior at ordinary everyday temperatures.
Zero electrical resistance sounded wonderful, until you remembered you had to keep pouring liquid nitrogen at −196°C—which made practical use impossible.
A few years earlier, Korea University had announced LK999, a claimed room-temperature superconductor, and stunned the world.
Unfortunately, it was not a room-temperature superconductor after all.
Superconductors also levitate above magnets; the LK999 fragment only lifted a little at one corner.
Even so, people had made a tremendous fuss about hunting for whatever superconducting fraction might be inside LK999.
"But mithril actually has that superconducting property."
Room-temperature electrical resistance: zero.
Of course, mithril was a precious metal even in the Nano World, so hauling it away in bulk was impossible.
The best we could do was apply a thin coating.
And that precious metal was being mined at Rodriguez—this was a real jackpot.
I could not afford to neglect Rodriguez just because its population was smaller.
The soldiers' commander shouted.
"All units—move out!"
I was curious about Rodriguez's Mithril Mine, and curious about the monster hunt as well.
I followed the soldiers.
Tramp, tramp.
They headed west.
After a long march, the soldiers reached a place at the foot of the mountains.
Scattered rock, a deeply cut floor.
This looked like the mine.
As the commander approached, a mine sentry saluted.
"Loyalty!"
"Good work. Is the mithril coming well?"
"Yes, sir. We found another new vein yesterday. We don't know how much yet, but it is definitely producing."
"Excellent. Then keep at it. We will clear the monsters around the mine."
"Hard work to you, sir. Loyalty."
I looked over the mine.
A deep hole driven into the mountainside.
Around the entrance lay large rocks marked with black-and-white stripes.
Wondering which of them was mithril, I scanned the area and found two miners appraising a rock.
I moved closer.
The miners held a stone and studied it carefully.
"This is good stuff, isn't it?"
"Right? The vein we found yesterday is excellent. Handled well, this could be a mid-grade mithril mine."
"Whoa. A mid-grade mithril mine—that's huge."
"No kidding. With this, we'll make the kind of profit we did back when mining was booming."
"All thanks to our lord and the Constellation."
"Absolutely. In my whole life I've never eaten and slept this well while working."
Oh-ho.
The mithril mine seemed to be in quite good spirits.
Once they extracted the mithril, it would go to the Castle of the Creator, then into the semiconductors, and finally be sent to JH.
I would have to tell Illys to ship more delicious food over to the Rodriguez side.
Swipe.
I worked the phone and drew near the rock the miners were examining.
Among the black-and-white striped stone, a little silver mineral glittered.
Judging by the atmosphere, that was the mithril ore.
How would they use such tiny flecks of mineral?
Looking around, I saw equipment for crushing rock and a small furnace ready and waiting.
Crush the rock, pick out the mithril, melt it, and cast mithril ingots—that seemed to be the mine's whole job.
I lingered around the mine a little longer, then followed after the party that had gone to clear the monsters.
How far had they gotten?
I could switch freely between a high sky view and a near-ground view, so finding the force that had left first was easy.
About a hundred soldiers up ahead.
They climbed the mountain with familiar ease.
One soldier spoke low.
"Monster tracks. Stay sharp!"
The soldiers tensed.
A moment later, green flashed out of the underbrush.
"Goblins!"
Ten goblins.
Not ordinary ones—a mutant type that spat poison needles.
The goblins gathered saliva in their mouths.
Churrrrr.
Pew! Pew! Pew!
"Poison needles!"
Shield-bearers blocked in front while the elite spearmen in the rear put power into their throws.
"Javelins!"
"Hah!"
Thwack! The flying spears punched clean through goblin throats.
"One down!"
"They're running that way!"
"After them!"
"Throw!"
"Block!"
The soldiers were practiced.
Block, thrust, pin, pursue.
A hundred men moved as one body and hunted the goblins with seamless coordination.
"Ten goblins eliminated."
The forest fell quiet again.
Perhaps because this was mountain territory, the soldiers looked at home on the slopes and showed no hesitation in hunting goblins.
I was sincerely impressed.
"Wow. These aren't ordinary soldiers—they're practically ranger-class."
Troops specialized for mountain terrain; calling them rangers would not be wrong.
After a brief patrol of the woods, the soldiers took a rest.
They posted sentries carefully and ate in rotating shifts.
"All right—mealtime."
"Heheh, tasty food again today!"
"Everyone—attention! Prayer to the Constellation!"
"Constellation, thank you for granting us such delicious food again today."
Mm, right.
And that prayer of thanks to the Constellation is being watched in real time, you know.
The senior soldier called out.
"Begin the meal!"
Munch, munch.
Nom, nom.
I checked what the soldiers were eating in the mountains: nuts, cheese, jerky, hardtack, and water.
For field rations, it was a fairly well-balanced spread.
They seemed to be eating well enough.
Still, after watching them fight monsters, I felt we ought to send better field rations as well.
"Hey, hand me a tablet."
"Yes, sir. Here."
A tablet?
The same stone tablets I knew.
I had thought they only trained the AI with tablets at the Castle of the Creator, but apparently the tablets had reached Rodriguez as well.
The soldier bowed toward the tablet.
"Baby Constellation, please accept a deep bow first."
The tablet answered.
"Oh my, of course. Teaching the Baby Constellation about the world is one of our duties."
"This is the western mountains of Rodriguez."
"We're clearing the monsters around the mine."
"Yes. Just worthless pests that do the world no good at all."
"That's right. Things you have to cut down by the neck whenever you find them."
"Aha! Curious about how to take a head, are you? Any man of Rodriguez knows the proper way to take a monster's head. First of all, there are several tools."
The soldier proudly drew a sword, a spear, and a dagger before the tablet.
"With this—slash across the nape!"
"With the dagger—diagonal, like so!"
"If you've got a spear—just jam it straight in!"
"Yep. After how to take a head, shall I teach you how to skin them?"
"Oh, I figured you'd be interested in this too. First, there's skinning them alive and skinning them after they're dead. Personally I like knocking them out best—because if you do it alive they thrash and ruin the hide, and once they're dead, rigor sets in."
"That's right. It varies by monster, but generally a hard strike to the back of the head knocks them out. When that happens…"
The soldier sprayed spit as he explained with passionate thoroughness to the AI.
What soldiers did best.
And what Rodriguez soldiers—men of a mountainous land—did better than anyone else was monster hunting.
Still, I was not entirely sure we needed to be teaching the AI how to take a monster's head.
But they were teaching with such earnest enthusiasm that I decided to leave them to it.
I turned my eyes from the TV screen to the computer on the CEO's desk.
The computer linked to the data center.
On the monitor, the AI's current status scrolled up line by line.
AI understanding has increased.
AI Understanding: 75%
AI Understanding: 80%
AI Understanding: 85%
…
The AI's understanding climbed and climbed.
A satisfied smile came unbidden.
On Earth and in the Nano World, a great many people were training the AI.
Knock, knock.
A knock at the door.
I disconnected the big TV and the smartphone that had been showing Rodriguez in the Nano World.
"Come in."
It was Manager Jang.
"Reports for your review, sir."
"Go ahead."
I opened the decision folder.
Once again, a list of things I had to decide.
At least the contents had been distilled into a few items.
— Budget disbursement for AI training programs issued to various universities.
— Osung's DRAM purchase request.
— Hi Electronics' DRAM purchase request.
— TSNC's LPU production status report.
…
— AI Performance Competition.
The report was never just one matter.
I asked Manager Jang.
"What's this AI Performance Competition?"
"Apparently it's a debate battle between AIs."
"A debate battle?"
"AI versus AI in conversation. They evaluate the accuracy and logic of the dialogue and rank them."
I had not even known such a competition existed.
I thought for a moment.
Could we enter?
Could we place?
"Do you have something in mind, sir?"
"If our AI competes, where would it stand against the others?"
"According to the AI team, understanding has passed eighty-five percent. That means—aside from the open AI's chat AI—there is no AI that can match ours."
"Ohh. Already world number one or two?"
"That's correct."
I thought of all the people who had been training our AI so diligently.
At universities across Korea.
And in the Nano World.
Countless people were teaching our AI.
With so many working so hard for the AI, I wanted to see the results for myself.
I looked at Manager Jang and said,
"All right. Let's enter that competition."