Chapter 2121 - 692: Ding Yao’s Invitation
In the laboratory.
Watching Professor Jiang’s excited figure hurriedly leaving, Qian Lele blinked in confusion but didn’t think much of it.
Just as she was about to immerse herself in her work again.
"Buzz buzz buzz—" The phone on the table vibrated.
[Ding Yao: "(ﾉ>ω<)ﾉ Lele! I’m back at school today! Are you busy? Let’s have lunch together?" ]
Upon seeing this message.
Qian Lele quickly replied, "Sure, I should be free around 11:30, I’ll call you then."
[Ding Yao: "Great~ See you later! Mwa~" ]
Putting down her phone, a light smile appeared on Qian Lele’s serious face.
Ding Yao is a year ahead of her, and after the start of school, she’ll be a senior in the Arts College.
Ever since the grand birthday party during the summer break.
As a music performance major, Ding Yao used her family connections to get an internship at a well-known entertainment company in Imperial City, starting to strive for her future star dreams.
Counting carefully, it’s been almost three months since Qian Lele last saw her best friend.
She truly misses her in her heart.
There are many things she wants to tell her.
Then, Qian Lele stood up.
She approached the group of graduate students discussing together.
Tapping a female student’s shoulder gently, she softly said, "Senior Sister Shanshan, I’ve got plans to have lunch with a classmate, so you don’t need to order lunch for me."
One additional benefit of joining this lab group was the lunch.
This perk came after the collaboration with [Yunting Essence], supposedly specially provided for the project group.
For the extremely frugal Qian Lele.
This saving of a dozen bucks on lunch every day has been one of her recent small joys.
"Okay," Wang Shanshan made an OK gesture, then immediately joined the heated discussion again.
Qian Lele didn’t leave immediately but stood quietly listening beside them.
"I attended a lecture last week about ’The Impact of AI Big Models on the Programming Industry.’ For us doing front-end visuals, if we don’t shift towards algorithms and AI interdisciplinary fields soon, we’ll be obsolete."
"It’s so tough, look at our lab’s computing equipment, still using GTG graphics cards from four or five years ago, it’s a pain even running small models."
"Ah, if we could join those top groups at places like Tsinghua or Peking, it’d be great. I hear they directly collaborate with large tech companies, with no shortage of equipment, data, or funding. Here... we don’t even have a decent corporate collaboration interface."
"Enough, Shanshan, stop daydreaming. Now that Professor Jiang has managed to get us the [Yunting Essence] project, it’s quite amazing already, be content."
...
"Hey, Lele, you’re in your third year now, soon you’ll have to deal with exams, do you have any goals? With your grades, you could try aiming for the Top 10 universities," Senior Sister Shanshan asked with concern.
"Not yet..." Qian Lele shook her head.
The excitement of seeing her friend soon slowly faded away.
A deep anxiety filled her.
With the emergence of AI big models like ChatGPT-4 and Lime 3.0.
Now programming is entering the era of AI assistance.
On Tang Song’s recommendation, she’s started using Lime 3.0 to code front-end pages, and the efficiency and code quality are astonishing to her.
She feels that AI-written code is much better than what she can think of.
The algorithms are more concise and elegant.
Just as the seniors were discussing.
By the time her cohort graduates, the entire programming field might undergo a massive transformation.
In the future, low-level coders might all be replaced by AI.
For Qian Lele, this is an imminent survival crisis.
Although she doesn’t actually want to pursue further studies if possible.
Because it would delay her valuable three years of earning time.
But with the current situation.
Without further education, it’s very hard to truly engage with the cutting-edge AI technology that can change the future.
Even as strong as Professor Jiang’s lab, despite getting significant research funding through the [Yunting Essence] project.
It’s still just a drop in the ocean against the endless investment needed for AI research.
At most, they could just add a few more state-of-the-art computing GPUs.
At that moment.
The wooden door of the lab was pushed open with a "bang."
Somewhat hurried high-heeled footsteps clicked briskly on the tiles.
Everyone instinctively looked towards the sound.
And saw Professor Jiang Yourong, face flushed, striding in.
"Clap clap—"
The crisp sound of clapping echoed.
"Everyone, stop what you’re doing for a moment!" Jiang Yourong’s voice was tremulous with extreme excitement, "I have something to reveal to you all ahead of time!"
Qian Lele, who was preparing to leave, paused in her steps and stood still.
The eyes of all the students in the lab were curiously fixed on their instructor.
They had never seen Professor Jiang show such a radiance.
As everyone knows, this young associate professor has always been "Buddha-like":
Gentle, non-contentious, easygoing with assignments, and low demands, students privately dubbed her "Goddess Jiang."
But now, she seemed to be glowing.
Jiang Yourong scanned this group of students, her eyes burning, as if striving to repress inner joy.
She took a deep breath and slowly said:
"Just now, I received an official invitation."