The Pros and Cons of the Unmanned Market

Chen Zhi coughed dryly, his gaze drifting out the floor-to-ceiling windows. Haha, the weather is pretty nice today. Look at how great the sun is. Oh, by the way, what did you have for lunch? Takeout isn't nutritious enough. I'll treat you to a big meal tonight.

Pei Ningxue wasn't buying it at all. She just stared at him with quiet resentment.

Feeling utterly uncomfortable under her gaze, Chen Zhi simply pulled over a chair and sat down opposite her.

Alright, alright, I was wrong, okay? I shouldn't have run back to my dorm as soon as I returned; I should have come straight to the company to pay my respects to you. Chen Zhi raised his hands in surrender. Okay, how do you want me to make it up to you? As long as it's within my power, I won't refuse.

Pei Ningxue's tone was somewhat aggrieved. For the next few days, you have to come back to Wanliu Courtyard with me.

Chen Zhi calculated the time in his head. If he didn't go back to the dorm for several days in a row, how would he explain it when Lin Wanwan checked up on him? And he had also promised Li Zhiyi that he would visit her every day.

What? Is that a problem? Pei Ningxue raised an eyebrow. Or are your two little girlfriends unable to live without you?

Nothing of the sort, Chen Zhi flatly denied. I just meant that there's so much going on at the company these next couple of days, and Wanliu Courtyard is too far. The commute back and forth will waste a lot of time.

I'm not going to do anything to you, Pei Ningxue cut off his excuse directly, her voice softening a bit. I just want to hold you while I sleep. Being all alone in that big house is too lonely.

The word lonely struck right at Chen Zhi's weak spot.

Looking at Pei Ningxue's slightly tired face, the guilt in Chen Zhi's heart bubbled up again. He opened his arms and pulled her into his embrace. I'll stay with you for the rest of my life.

Leaning against his chest, Pei Ningxue muttered, Scumbag.

Knock, knock, knock.

Three knocks suddenly came from outside the office door.

Pei Ningxue pushed Chen Zhi away, quickly straightened her clothes, and cleared her throat. Come in.

Dai Damai pushed the door open and walked in, holding a few reports. He first glanced at the two people standing very close to each other, acutely sensing the subtle atmosphere in the office. As a top-tier straight guy out of the School of Information Science and Technology, Dai Damai might not understand romance, but he knew perfectly well that it was best to play blind in moments like this.

He quickly lowered his head. Mr. Chen, Ms. Pei.

What is it? Pei Ningxue swiftly regained her female CEO demeanor.

Dai Damai handed over the reports. This is the budget for next month's hardware upgrade. API call volumes have surged recently, putting too much pressure on our current server clusters. We urgently need to purchase a batch of storage equipment and expand our network bandwidth. The finance department needs Ms. Pei's signature.

Pei Ningxue took the reports, flipped them open to look at the numbers, and frowned slightly. This much?

Chen Zhi had been worrying about not having an excuse to slip away, so he immediately grabbed another document from Dai Damai's hand. Perfect timing. I was just looking for you to discuss our upcoming technical direction. Let's go, we'll talk in your office.

With that, Chen Zhi waved at Pei Ningxue and dragged the bewildered Dai Damai out the door.

Why are you running? I haven't finished reviewing the budget yet! Pei Ningxue called out from behind.

Work comes first! You look it over, and I'll come pick you up after work tonight! Chen Zhi slipped out of the office without looking back, shutting the door behind him.

Arriving at the CTO's office, Chen Zhi closed the door behind him, pulled out a chair, and sat down.

He gave Dai Damai a detailed rundown of the strategic direction he had just agreed upon with Pei Ningxue.

After listening, Dai Damai paced back and forth in front of the whiteboard. Mr. Chen, opening up Moss's underlying capabilities to autonomous driving and logistics dispatch is completely feasible from a technical standpoint. Processing these visual and logical tasks with our multimodal models is like bringing a gun to a knife fight; the existing algorithms out there are nothing compared to ours.

But... Dai Damai stopped pacing, his expression growing somewhat solemn. The robotaxis, unmanned takeout delivery, and unmanned express delivery you mentioned involve far too broad a scope. There are tens of millions of ride-hailing drivers and delivery riders in the country. If these jobs are replaced by AI on a massive scale, it will trigger huge social problems. Deep Space Technology would become a public target.

Chen Zhi bent his finger and tapped the desk. Damai, you are a pure tech guy. You think about things too idealistically.

Dai Damai pushed up his glasses, looking thoroughly puzzled. Isn't that the reality? Technological advancement inevitably comes with growing pains, but we can't just go and shatter the livelihoods of tens of millions of people.

Of course I understand the stakes involved here. Chen Zhi interlaced his fingers and rested them on the desk. That's why this project of ours will ultimately only be able to run as small-scale trials in designated areas within a few economically developed, top-tier cities.

Small-scale trials? Dai Damai was stunned. Then how do we achieve what you said about seizing a multi-billion dollar market?

Our main goal is to hype up the concept of AI empowering traditional industries. We never intended to replace tens of millions of jobs, Chen Zhi explained patiently. Do you think those capitalists really care if we can immediately replace all delivery drivers with robots? What they want is a story, an expectation, a pie-in-the-sky vision of potentially monopolizing the entire dispatch system in the future.

This was exactly why Baidu's Apollo Go had been operating for so many years but was still limited to running in just a few cities. Meituan's drone delivery was also restricted to a few commercial districts in Shenzhen. It was because even though the technology was ready, the social tolerance and infrastructure did not yet allow for a full-scale rollout.

Chen Zhi stood up and patted Dai Damai on the shoulder. What we need to do is produce the top-tier AI suite to set an example for those traditional automakers and logistics giants.

Make them see that if they don't use Deep Space Technology's system, they will lose their competitiveness in the future and be crushed by their rivals. When that time comes, just selling licenses and taking a cut will be enough for us to rake in massive profits.

Dai Damai suddenly saw the light, his hand trembling slightly as he pushed up his glasses. Boss, you are an absolute genius. You're using technology to force the entire capital market to fork over money to us.

What do you mean force? This is called driving industrial upgrading, Chen Zhi corrected him. Alright, hurry up and implement the technical side of things. Pull together a small team first to build the visual logic framework for autonomous driving. If you need more people, go poach them. Go to Ms. Pei for budget approval.

No problem, leave it to me. Fired up, Dai Damai was already starting to draw an architecture diagram on the whiteboard.

I have some things to take care of, so I'll head out first. Chen Zhi looked at his watch. It was getting late, and he needed to hurry to Renmin University to report in.

Chen Zhi left the World Trade Center and stood by the road to hail a taxi.

Driver, to Renmin University, Chen Zhi said as he opened the car door and got into the back seat.

The taxi merged into the traffic flow on the East Third Ring Road.

Actually, many people would be curious. Deep Space Technology under Chen Zhi's name was now valued at nearly fifteen billion US dollars. He was a bona fide super-rich tycoon, so why did he still take taxis everywhere every day, not even buying a car of his own?

Chen Zhi himself had carefully considered this question.

Was it easy to buy a car? Too easy. Let alone buying one, even buying a whole fleet to drive in rotation would be a piece of cake.

But the problem was, how many girlfriends was he dating right now?

Three!

If he actually bought his own car, Lin Wanwan would be sitting in the passenger seat today, Li Zhiyi tomorrow, and Pei Ningxue the day after.

Girls are incredibly sensitive to scents. Lin Wanwan's perfume, Li Zhiyi's natural body scent, and Pei Ningxue's high-end bespoke fragrance—if these three scents mixed inside the car, it would trigger an absolute disaster.

Not to mention the risk of someone leaving a long strand of hair on the seat, or Lin Wanwan deciding on a whim to hang a plush toy from the rearview mirror, or Li Zhiyi stuffing a pack of wet wipes into the storage compartment.

With even the slightest slip-up, his facade as a master juggler of women would be instantly shattered, plunging him straight into a nightmarish joint interrogation.

Therefore, he absolutely could not buy a car.

Taking taxis was so much better. Every ride was a different car with a different smell, leaving no clues for anyone to find.

If he ever ran into a business situation where he really needed to keep up appearances, he could just hitch a ride in Pei Ningxue's Rolls-Royce. Her family's driver was on standby twenty-four hours a day anyway.

...

I am taking a day off today. Just to keep my daily update streak going, I am posting a two-thousand-word chapter.