Chapter 467: What Is Comrade Trying To Do?
“I think this kind of cooperation is very interesting. Harmony Intelligence itself cannot be sold to you, because it is a social experiment full of the future of artificial intelligence and humanity coexisting.
We cannot specially extract some artificial intelligence from this second world to make car girls.
First, we won’t do that, and it would interfere with our plan.
Some AI only have virtual images without physical bodies, while others surprisingly have physical bodies like cars. I can hardly imagine what flavor such a virtual society would produce.”
Lin Ran’s face showed an indescribable expression. He was curious about the world he described, but rationally, he absolutely could not make such human interference.
Yu Dong was the same.
Lin Ran continued, “Second, because Harmony Intelligence is just a general term. Harmony Intelligence does not describe virtual images, but the virtual society we built, this second world.
Imagine, in pure virtual dialogue, AI can casually lose its temper, suddenly disappear, or even reverse PUA the user.
Because it bears no physical consequences, it engages in emotional communication.
But as a car, as a product with such high safety requirements, you can only add a series of strict rules to ensure user safety.
This completely violates the principle of emotional expression that Harmony Intelligence has.
The essence of emotion is randomness and imperfection.
The essence of safety is certainty and perfection.
There is a fundamental contradictory conflict between them.
Even if you use two sets of rules, with A artificial intelligence responsible for driving and B artificial intelligence responsible for emotional communication with the user, to ensure safety and provide sufficient emotional value.
But this still cannot solve the fragmented feeling in user experience.
Imagine a scenario where the user will find that when arguing about whether to overtake, A refuses with action, while B says of course, I’ll overtake right now.
The user will immediately realize that their car girl is a machine.”
After Lin Ran finished speaking, the excitement on Yu Dong’s face was replaced by thinking. He realized that Lin Ran was right; this was an insurmountable distance between technology and humanity. Perfection and safety precisely killed the possibility of emotion’s existence.
At the same time, he also realized that Lin Ran’s demands were too high; his own demands were far lower than Lin Ran’s.
“General Manager Lin, I think your demands are too high. I understand your technology purism and pursuit of perfection.
You want to create a car girl with 80% realism for users, giving them a real feeling of falling in love, as if they are dating an artificial intelligence girlfriend with a car body.
Afraid that this fragmented feeling will cause user experience disillusionment.
In fact, our users don’t have such high demands at all. Our artificial intelligence just needs to perform better than competitors to be enough.
Why is Ideal classmate considered easy to use? Not because it scores full marks, but because it has better interaction fluency, recognition accuracy, and feedback immediacy than competitors’ systems.
By the same logic, even if our car girl only scores eighty in emotional expression and drops to sixty in occasional scenarios with fragmentation, our competitors score twenty in this aspect.
The experience we bring to users is already far ahead.
This is already an uncrossable generational gap.”
Lin Ran thought for a moment and nodded, “I understand. You convinced me. From a business competition perspective, your judgment should be correct.
However, Harmony Intelligence cannot be given to you, but technology framework based on Harmony Intelligence can be licensed. You can use it to train the artificial intelligence model you want.
You can even build your own world.
Like a world filled with car girls, where users purchasing your product are summoning a car girl unique to themselves.
The code for this technology cannot be delivered, but the technology itself can be delivered to you.”
Flames instantly ignited in Yu Dong’s eyes; he knew the value in this.
Because it means infinite customization and monopoly.
Yu Dong suddenly stood up, extended his hand, and shook hands with Lin Ran: “General Manager Lin, this is too perfect! This is true ecosystem-level cooperation! With Harmony Intelligence’s technology framework, we are no longer simply selling cars; we are selling an exclusive relationship and ultimate companionship!
In the past, we always faced a dilemma: Harmony Intelligence car manufacturing users skew older, and compared to Xiaomi Car, it’s hard for us to capture young users’ hearts.
Even online, there’s constant joking that our products are for old timers, specifically sold to middle-aged wealthy old timers, right?
This time, I’ll max out the emotional value for them.”
Yu Dong told Lin Ran the commercial blueprint he had prepared long ago: “I plan to position this autonomous driving robot as an emotional luxury good.
Pricing must be high, making users feel it’s not just a car, but a ticket to the virtual world.
Our current preliminary plan is to name the product Star Track Companion Star; it is the satellite that forever accompanies you, with precise navigation and eternal companionship.
The slogan is: To the creator of the world, you deserve a soul driver who understands you.
Targeting the high-net-worth, high-pressure, high-loneliness elite male market.
We won’t provide preset templates!
We want every user to have a unique, non-replicable AI companion.
My idea is to base it on your artificial intelligence, and upon first activation, generate a user-exclusive AI through questionnaire surveys, voice, and driving habits data.
Then, this car girl will learn, evolve in every trip, and even develop emotional fluctuations and emotional evolution based on user habits.
It will be like a human, with memory, preferences, and temper.”
This generation of youth rarely hasn’t watched Japan anime at all.
Lin Ran is naturally no exception; during his youth, he had more or less exposure to mainstream anime, and even some 2D mobile games.
After listening, Lin Ran added: “President Yu, your design is still not 2D enough, not fun enough.
It shouldn’t be a questionnaire survey. Now, for new energy vehicles, isn’t there a waiting period from placing an order to delivery?
During this time, users should dialogue with the backend artificial intelligence.
This artificial intelligence can be called Harmony Intelligence Spirit. The user’s dialogue with Harmony Intelligence Spirit will determine what kind of car girl they summon.
Questionnaires are so dull. You’re selling luxury cars, so the emotional value for clients must be maxed out.
Young people who buy this car want ceremony and uniqueness.
Users aren’t doing a questionnaire survey; they are communicating with Harmony Intelligence Spirit to determine the personality of the car girl that Harmony Intelligence Spirit gives them.
Harmony Intelligence Spirit is the mother intelligence of the car girl world, representing infinite possibilities.
Users think they are chatting, but actually, they are personally setting the underlying personality weights and image preferences for their own car girl.
At final delivery, use 3D naked-eye laser at your delivery center for a summoning ceremony: Master, I am your XXX unit girl; please name me.
This way, what users buy is not a product, but a life with epic sense.
This is truly unique.
This ultimate emotional value and participation will absolutely pierce the client’s psychological defenses.
This is already emotional connection; why bother with questionnaire surveys or driving habits? Those are too cliché.”
After Lin Ran described the vision of Harmony Intelligence Spirit and the summoning ceremony, Yu Dong’s excitement could no longer be contained.
He realized the value contained within, which had long surpassed single product sales volume.
Yu Dong clenched his fist: “General Manager Lin, what you said is truly master-level marketing! I’m still lacking too much in this aspect.
With one sentence, you pulled us from traditional car marketing thinking into the new field of emotional life creators.
When I go back, I will definitely reconvene the youngest and most creative internal team to reshape the entire user experience process, from order placement covenant to delivery summoning.”
Yu Dong continued: “I have a premonition that this product’s appearance will completely reshape Harmony Intelligence’s brand image.
It will no longer be a traditional luxury car, but a symbol of future emotional technology.
The targets it can aim at are not just elites, but all young males.
They may not afford it, but they will enjoy the emotional value this product brings through short video dissemination.
Every delivery ceremony is a viral spread of brand assets.
Users no longer just pick up the car and leave; they record their summoning and naming ceremonies.
Every time a user satisfactorily records, it brings immeasurable dissemination effects on short video platforms.
These young users who can’t afford it will at least turn their gaze to models under Huawei when buying cars, giving one more choice, which is most important to us.
I expect it to directly pull our target users down twenty years.
In the past, Xiaomi Car maxed out emotional value for users, but their model is based on the founder’s personal charm and high cost-performance.
We don’t want to learn that model, nor is it easy to learn.
But General Manager Lin, you pointed out a brand-new direction for us: we can rely on the entrance to the second world, on unique life, to bring users brand-new, irreplaceable emotional value.
Although this product’s user base is small—those who can afford it and accept 2D narrative have a narrow crowd—the long-tail effect is huge.
I firmly believe its role for the brand, the marketing effects it brings, and its appeal to youth are beyond imagination.
Young people can’t afford it, but they will see it on short video platforms, discuss it, and dream of owning a car that can summon a soul companion.”
When Yu Dong summarized, excitement shone in his eyes.
“General Manager Lin, you’re not just providing technology; this is providing monopoly-level ecosystem.”
Yu Dong’s words carried a probing tone.
Lin Ran instantly understood the subtext in Yu Dong’s words.
In the fast-changing technology market, exclusivity is the true moat.
He replied: “Of course it can be licensed exclusively to Huawei, but”
No need to finish; the other party understood: gotta pay more.
Crimson Technology, as a pure technology company, has clear principles: technology can be shared, but exclusive licensing requires a premium.
The good thing about Crimson Technology is that as long as you’re willing to spend, they never play monopoly; they generously license the technology to you.
Yu Dong immediately said: “Don’t worry about this; we will definitely offer a price that satisfies you enough.”
Lin Ran nodded: “Discuss this with our vice president; I won’t interfere with pricing rules.
But I need to remind you: technology leadership has a time limit. In the short term, our emotional artificial intelligence model definitely has an advantage, but everyone knows about left-right brain architecture. Intel is also doing right brain chip, Nvidia too.
Everyone is on this crowded track. Other manufacturers can’t buy from us, but that doesn’t mean they can’t buy from others.
Including Moore Threads’ right brain chip, it won’t only sell to Crimson Technology; others like Alibaba, ByteDance can also buy.
Harmony Intelligence’s leading advantage in the emotional dimension, I estimate two to three years.
Once competitors overcome key communication protocols and emotional model algorithms, our technical barrier will be weakened.”
Lin Ran continued to remind: “But no big problem.
Because Harmony Intelligence’s advantage lies in building worlds; that is your true moat.
The emotional data and user behavior data accumulated in the Harmony Intelligence world you build will be your greatest advantage and lead.
In the past, the tech world talked about ecosystem as device interconnection.
Now, we talk about world.
Whoever can build a world where AI can autonomously grow, accumulate data, and generate emotional stickiness will achieve true monopoly in the next era.
This is your true advantage.
So I remind you: best not to license car girls only to this one model. Your high-end models can provide this configuration as needed. The richer the world it builds, the deeper your moat.
After other automakers’ artificial intelligence emotional models are launched, the already built world is its true future value.”
“Sister Xiao Man, help me schedule a meeting with Valentin from Far East Aerospace Technology Co., Ltd.”
One week later, one morning, Lin Ran said.
This Valentin is not that Valentin; this one is not the Valentin who succeeded Korolev after his death in the 1960s, but the 2020 Russia Aviation deputy director, also chairman of Far East Aerospace Technology Co., Ltd.
And this company often appears in international media, the evidence often cited in accusations against Apollo Technology for cooperating with Russia.
Li Xiaoman had already stood in front of Lin Ran’s desk and replied: “Okay, but I’m not sure if Valentin is in Shanghai. He is usually in Moscow and might come to Shanghai only once a quarter.”
Lin Ran thought and continued: “No problem, other executives from their company are fine too. Remember to tell him it needs sufficiently credible executives.”
Li Xiaoman nodded. Lin Ran noticed the documents in her arms were the strategic cooperation agreement with Huawei around Harmony Intelligence. He asked: “How’s the talk with Huawei?”
Li Xiaoman said: “They are very tight-lipped, preferring to pay 5 billion in technology licensing fees upfront rather than adopt per-car licensing payment mode.
Plus, after chatting with President Yu, I don’t think they can really convince Yanjing to open autonomous driving.
To be precise, Huawei’s statements have no influence on the tower’s decision making.
He wants to gauge government will with business logic and psychology; that’s naive in itself.”
Lin Ran knew what Li Xiaoman meant; the other party referred to whether Yanjing would agree to opening autonomous driving robots.
He was shocked at how rapidly Li Xiaoman’s understanding of China had progressed; terms like tower came naturally.
Lin Ran said faintly: “Yes, it’s not that he’s naive; this is just his stance in front of us.
Would Huawei really use this reason in reality?
Does Huawei really need this reason?
Yanjing’s decision mechanism is simple and absolute; if it can find reasons to agree, it can also find reasons to refuse.
If official wants to agree, it supports domestic technology giants in frontier exploration in AI field, seizing future intelligent driving and robot tracks.
If not, this product blurs ethical boundaries between humans and robots, suspected of vulgarity, against public morals.
He came to us purely wanting cooperation, to build exclusive moat based on this technology, to fight competitors.
New energy vehicle competition is too intense; he absolutely doesn’t want to miss a trump card like Harmony Intelligence.
Simply making it an option based on this technology, priced at thirty to fifty thousand, is easy for Harmony Intelligence’s scale; ultimate cost still passed to clients? Precisely because he wants volume, he rejects per-car licensing pricing mode.”
Li Xiaoman said helplessly: “Looks like I have a lot to learn. If every car has this function as an option, it’s not cool at all.”
Lin Ran explained: “For enterprises, coolness isn’t most important; survival and expansion are.
In front of me, he boasted to the skies about pulling brand potential users down twenty years; I dare say his truest thought is to reinforce invincible technology, number one intelligent driving brand image this way.”
Many times, what the other party says isn’t necessarily the truth; what they say they will do in front of you doesn’t mean they really will.
It might just be a disguise to achieve their real purpose.
When Valentin from distant Far East received this information, he was equally baffled, unable to figure out the real purpose of the comrade far away in Shanghai.
Because it was just too strange.
