The Wild National Assembly
The ultimate goal at the very beginning of the game-war regression, when the master plan was followed to the letter, had been to cultivate oneself, regulate the family, govern the state, and bring peace to the world. It was an impossibly grand ambition, yet not an impossible one. Even now, without being strictly bound by the master plan, Yoo Jae-won had already reached a level where governing the state was well within reach.
The method Yoo Jae-won chose for governing the state was capital and technology. He would build an unassailable force with overwhelming financial power and then use superior technology to expose the gaps in the legal system, pushing them toward legislation. In reality, South Korea had made no preparations whatsoever for autonomous driving and artificial intelligence. When Yoo Jae-won revealed the technology, the government had been nothing short of shocked. Of course, the flood of reports praising the proud Korean Yoo Jae-won for developing world-leading AI and autonomous-driving technology was an added bonus.
In the old Korea, such matters would have ended with nothing more than a taste of national pride before fading away. Now, however, bills concerning artificial intelligence, autonomous driving, and the big data that underpinned these technologies were preparing to pass through the National Assembly—thanks to the coalition between the Tongil National Party and the Democratic Party.
The Tongil National Party was the legacy left to him by Grandfather Jeon Myeong-heon. It had proven to be a far more useful tool than expected. All Yoo Jae-won needed to do was pass a few keywords through Director Kim Kwang-il. The lawmakers and their aides would then study diligently and craft laws suited to reality. Since the technology was unfamiliar, ID Group naturally provided explanations and support as well. Thanks to this, preparations for enacting or revising laws related to artificial intelligence, autonomous driving, and big data were already complete. The Tongil National Party had agreed to support the Democratic Party’s private-school law amendment, while the Democratic Party had agreed to support the Tongil National Party’s AI and autonomous-driving legislation.
“It will pass, won’t it?”
At Yoo Jae-won’s question, Vice Chairman Choi Kang-wook could not readily agree.
“I think we’ll have to see how the National Assembly situation develops.”
At this point, Yoo Jae-won wore an expression of disbelief. After all, the Democratic Party’s internal faction was set to leave, and the Tongil National Party had already seen Lee In-je’s faction split off, yet they still held a stable majority. Yet Choi was saying they needed to watch the situation.
“It seems the opposition will physically block the session from proceeding.”
Physical obstruction? It was a possibility he had never considered. Yoo Jae-won had only begun paying attention to politics after entering society in earnest in his previous life. He had never watched the National Assembly with burning eyes; he had merely voted for parties that benefited his business and offered some support. Consequently, he had little idea just how chaotic the Assembly could become.
“Hold on a moment.”
Yoo Jae-won immediately opened his iWorks laptop and searched for newspaper articles. Keywords: National Assembly paralysis, physical obstruction, and so on. A flood of related documents appeared. Articles of this level no longer needed to be stored in his memory repository; they could simply be searched on Nextcom or Google.
By the 2020s, something called the National Assembly Advancement Act would be enacted, making it impossible to disrupt the Assembly schedule through physical force. Using violence would lead to immediate expulsion from office, so everyone had no choice but to tread carefully. Right now, however, physical force could still be used to block proceedings. It was truly a wild National Assembly.
Yoo Jae-won decided to watch for now and see what the opposition would do. The general election was in April next year—only six months away. If the opposition used physical force to block legislation and the ruling side forced its way through, the public would see them as no different from each other. Therefore, if the opposition came out strong, it was necessary to observe first.
“Hmm. For now, let’s frame it as the opposition holding the country back by the ankles. We’ll decide on our next move after watching how they act.”
That did not mean he intended to simply watch. He planned to set an inescapable trap labeled “opposition holding the country back by the ankles.”
“Ah! ‘Opposition holding the country back by the ankles’—I can’t think of a more fitting phrase for the current situation.”
Vice Chairman Choi Kang-wook immediately agreed. After all, the phrase “opposition holding the country back by the ankles” had disappeared from newspapers and television at some point. If he traced his memory, it had begun when President Kim Dae-jung took office and continued even now, with President Roh in the Blue House. Their common point was that they were progressive forces. It seemed as though the media had internalized the notion that only progressive forces stood in the way of national development. Yet the ones truly holding the country back were those who paralyzed the National Assembly for their own private interests.
Autonomous-driving technology and artificial intelligence were something no one could catch up to ID Group. Although competitors and top universities worldwide had begun jumping in after Yoo Jae-won published his machine-learning algorithm in a paper, surpassing AI Gold was impossible. It was true now, and it would remain true in the future. He had begun learning a full ten years earlier and used a model on an entirely different level from the one disclosed in the paper. No matter what latest supercomputer competitors used for machine learning, Yoo Jae-won was certain they could never surpass Gold’s intelligence.
Leaving such an excellent technology idle was an enormous waste. There was not enough time to quickly establish laws and systems and begin sales, yet paralyzing the National Assembly for personal gain was the very definition of the opposition holding the country back by the ankles.
Afterward, Yoo Jae-won received reports from Vice Chairman Choi Kang-wook on everything from the operation of Baekho Fund to the current state of ID Group’s East Asia region. As expected, the hot item in East Asia was the Android S3. It had been a sensation in Korea as well, but it was selling well even in China, Thailand, and Vietnam. Despite those countries having far lower income levels than developed nations, it had become a trend for people to save several months’ wages to buy an Android S3. The exception was Japan. There, the iPhone outsold Android smartphones. The flow was exactly the same as in his previous life, so he merely nodded. Still, Android smartphones were not an absolute minority in Japan either, holding a market share in the mid-thirties.
The same was true in China. Android-compatible phones made by companies like Huawei and Xiaomi were selling well, yet people still preferred the Android S3 above all. In particular, the Ruby Red color was said to be so popular that it could not be obtained even at a premium, apparently because Chinese people had a special fondness for the color red. For Yoo Jae-won, who was happy whether compatible phones or Android smartphones sold, it was simply a pleasant story.
After finishing the briefing on current issues and sharing lunch with Choi Kang-wook, Yoo Jae-won and his party moved on to their next schedule: the ever-comfortable Deokjin-ri house.
“Ah, before that, could we stop by Yeoju City for a moment?”
It was something Yoo Jae-won said to Kim Dae-seok, who had been planning their nonstop itinerary.
“Oh my, Chairman!”
Yeong-sik’s mother was at a loss upon seeing Yoo Jae-won. Even though he had come not as the chairman of ID Group but simply to visit a friend’s mother, the attitude ingrained in her body did not change. From the very first address, she called him “Chairman.” It would have been nice if Yeong-sik had come along as well, but he had said work came first and that he would visit Korea once he officially took leave. Of course, while some gifts had been prepared separately by Yoo Jae-won, Yeong-sik had also prepared some of his own.
“You don’t need to worry about voice phishing anymore.”
“Even without you saying so, Yeong-sik already contacted me and said you handled it well, Chairman.”
The reason Yoo Jae-won had deliberately sought out Yeong-sik’s mother was because of the voice phishing incident. Although more than a month had passed since she received that call, he had heard from Yeong-sik that his mother was still anxious. Fortunately, when Yoo Jae-won personally visited and confirmed that everything had been resolved, her expression showed genuine relief. At the same time, Yoo Jae-won took additional measures. He installed an anti-phishing app on Yeong-sik’s mother’s smartphone. The anti-phishing app was something Yeong-sik had begun developing to prevent innocent victims like himself and his mother from appearing. Since a somewhat functional version of the app had been completed, it was only natural that it was installed first on Yeong-sik’s mother’s phone.
The next day, Yoo Jae-won left Deokjin-ri and headed down to Daejeon. The biggest purpose of this visit to Korea was the ID Electronics Semiconductor Research Institute in Daejeon.
Completion of the 90nm process!
Having received information from Yoo Jae-won, Dr. Lisa Su’s team had leaped straight from the original target of 100nm all the way to 90nm. Compared to the 120nm process, precision increased by 25 percent, while actual performance improvement reached 30 to 40 percent. As circuit integration density rose, higher operating speeds could be achieved with less power. In addition, more transistors could be integrated into the same area, maximizing the chip’s overall performance. However, the circuit design had to be done efficiently; simply shrinking the existing circuit diagram would not lead to proper performance gains. Fortunately, Dr. Lisa Su’s design ability was the best of her generation. She had always been a talent with great potential. After meeting Yoo Jae-won, she had absorbed the latest technology and know-how, and with ID Electronics’ full support, that potential had blossomed—bringing forth abilities that should have appeared around 2020 right now.
“Is this the M5AI?”
Yoo Jae-won asked as he held up the chip Dr. Lisa Su had handed him. The packaged chip looked almost artistic. Its top surface was covered in chrome, gleaming with polish, and the ID Group logo was laser-engraved in small letters. In contrast, the chip’s name, M5AI, was engraved largely. On the bottom surface, silver-bead-like solder balls were densely packed. It was clear that the data bus width connecting the CPU to the board had increased. After all, since mobile application processors integrated CDMA modems and GPUs into a single chip, the volume of transmitted data had grown, making the data bus design more complex and resulting in a far more intricate structure on the CPU’s underside.
“Yes! It’s an A-step, but it shows 36 percent improved performance over the existing M4. That’s the power of the 90nm process!”
Dr. Lisa Su’s voice was filled with pride. Yoo Jae-won found the sight deeply satisfying. Although ID Electronics’ equipment was already world-class, the fact that they had been able to produce a chip that operated this quickly was thanks to the capabilities of the semiconductor team led by Dr. Lisa Su. However, upon hearing the words “A-step,” Yoo Jae-won did not ask about yield. While the meaning varied by company, at ID Technology an A-step referred to the stage where yield was below 30 percent. B was 50 percent, and C was 70 percent. Only at B-step could mass production begin, and only from C-step onward could proper profits be made. In the case of the M4A1, it had reached D-step and maintained a stable yield above 90 percent.
What was interesting was the “AI” suffix attached to the M5’s naming. It was usually added when additional functions were incorporated or design changes were made. Hadn’t the M4 been named M4A1 after adding tensor cores for AI computation acceleration? Yet something amusing had occurred here. Yoo Jae-won had named it after the M4A1, the standard weapon given in FPS games, but developers and users had read it as the abbreviation for artificial intelligence—AI. The M5 was equipped with 16 tensor core units, four times more than the M4, which accelerated the processing speed of AI-related apps by ten times. The speeds of Face Key, AI Eyes’ text conversion, image definition, and so on had all improved significantly. Since artificial intelligence was the hottest topic in global issues at the moment, the performance improvement of the M5 was something worth boasting about. That was why the “AI” suffix had naturally been attached from the very beginning of its release.
The next-generation Android smartphone equipped with the M5AI chip was expected to show far superior performance compared to its predecessor.
“This must be what the Chairman wanted to see, right?”
After finishing her briefing on the M5AI chip, Dr. Lisa Su took out a new chip. It was packaged much larger than the M5AI. If the M5AI was the size of a 500-won coin, the chip Dr. Lisa Su now presented was about the size of a business card, and the die exposed on the top of the package was larger than a thumbnail. It was the next-generation GPU produced with the 90nm process. Not one, but two of them—ATI’s Radeon and NVIDIA’s GeForce. Yoo Jae-won’s eyes, as he gazed at the two chips, were sweet enough to drip honey.