Chapter 73: Jade Emperor
In the Earth Era, people often ran into a problem when training AI.
The quality of the data was too low, and at the same time, the total amount of data was too small.
For example, if you wanted to train an industrial AI, it would obviously need massive amounts of real data from the factory front lines.
But this data was difficult to obtain. Why would a factory hand its data over to you?
Even if they did, how could you confirm that the data was authentic?
And that was the best-case scenario. The worst-case scenario involved AI training that required data to be collected directly from the internet.
The internet was a chaotic mess of good and bad data, most of which could be considered garbage. How could you possibly train a highly intelligent AI on a pile of trash?
But for Li Qingsong, none of this was an obstacle.
’The data I’m using to train this industrial AI is all self-produced, all from the front lines of real factories. I can guarantee every single piece of it is one hundred percent authentic.’
’Too small a dataset?’
’What a joke. With tens of thousands of factories and bases covering nearly every industrial sector, I have any data I want, in any quantity I want.’
’I even have more than a dozen chip factories with an annual output of over 500 million chips. Is that enough for training?’
’Not enough? Then I’ll just build more. I need to increase chip production anyway.’
Compared to his former human counterparts on Earth—though all current evidence suggested that Human Civilization had never existed and that it was all just a delusion of his, Li Qingsong stubbornly believed it had to be some kind of conspiracy, that humanity must have existed—his current data, in terms of both quantity and quality, was overwhelmingly superior.
Fed a diet of sufficient and high-quality "food," this suite of industrial AIs grew at a tremendous rate.
While the training was underway, Li Qingsong also began the next phase of his work.
The fiber optic upgrade.
He replaced all the digital communication cables connecting the different bases and chips with fiber optic cables. As a result, not only did signal stability improve dramatically, but communication speeds also increased more than tenfold.
After completing the fiber optic upgrade, Li Qingsong also built five more supercomputers and began training different categories of industrial AI simultaneously.
According to Li Qingsong’s plan, he would train a total of about 100 AI systems, each adapted for different industrial scenarios. These would be deployed across various industrial systems to achieve a massive boost in production efficiency and a drastic reduction in the need for manpower.
With manpower needs reduced and production efficiency increased, the output of a single Clone would naturally multiply.
This would allow him to once again massively increase his overall productivity without increasing the number of Clones.
In addition to these 100 sector-specific industrial AIs, Li Qingsong also planned to train a master AI. This master AI would manage and coordinate its 100 subordinate AIs.
The reason for this setup was to account for building sub-bases on different planets.
Due to communication delays, Li Qingsong couldn’t control the Clones on other planets in real time, making industrial production impossible.
If that were the case, how could he develop other planets?
With AI technology, all these problems would be readily solved.
When the time came, he could delegate all the basic, high-real-time-demand tasks to the AI. The Clones he deployed there would only be responsible for inputting his decisions.
Take Enemy God Star, which Li Qingsong was currently planning to develop, for example. His plan for it followed this exact model.
For instance, if there were 100 excavators, he would only need to make the decision, "Dig a large pit five hours from now," and have a Clone input the relevant command into the AI.
The AI would then control the excavators to complete the task at the designated time.
Since these decisions didn’t have high real-time requirements, any communication delay wouldn’t matter.
At most, efficiency would drop slightly, but that was fine. He could just build a few more factories to compensate.
This was why Li Qingsong placed such a high value on AI technology.
Now, with one supercomputer after another being built, the fiber optic upgrade completed, and the intelligent automation of every factory finished, the industrial AIs could finally be put into use.
The first factory to test this intelligent operation was a steel mill.
Under the control of the steel industry AI, Li Qingsong handed over all positions with high real-time requirements to the AI.
And so, without any human involvement, ore was automatically sent to the crushing workshop, then screened, separated, and cleaned, before being fed into the smelting furnace...
The Clones’ roles shifted from producers to decision-makers, supervisors, and maintenance personnel.
They supervised and maintained the system’s operation, handling unexpected incidents and repairing damaged components. Through their conscious connection to Li Qingsong, they received his latest decisions and carried them out.
The current steel industry AI was not yet fully mature. After all, chip performance was still somewhat limited, and the industrial algorithms weren’t advanced enough.
But that was fine. All of this could be gradually improved and optimized over time.
Most importantly, even this imperfect AI had reduced the number of Clones needed to run the steel mill from 4,000 down to just 2,500!
The enormous potential of AI technology was on full display before Li Qingsong.
"Excellent, excellent."
Overjoyed, Li Qingsong immediately followed this model and began the intelligent automation of his other metallurgical factories.
Meanwhile, AIs for other sectors were also undergoing accelerated training.
A farming AI, a livestock AI, a chemical industry AI, a transportation AI...
And most importantly, the master AI that Li Qingsong envisioned—the one that would manage and coordinate all the other sector-specific AIs—was running on a new, even larger supercomputer, constantly being fed data and trained.
Li Qingsong gave this master AI a particularly resonant name.
In human mythology, the Jade Emperor is the ruler of the Celestial Court, and the Celestial Court presides over everything in the mortal world.
Therefore, this master AI would be named... the Jade Emperor!
Of course, the Jade Emperor was still very weak, imperfect, and had limited functionality. But that was fine. As long as he continued to feed it data and train it, it would eventually grow strong.
Having laid the groundwork for his chip and AI technologies, Li Qingsong turned his attention to another technology essential for developing Enemy God Star.
More efficient interstellar propulsion technology!
In an equally massive propulsion technology research base, tens of thousands of Clones toiled day and night, simultaneously conducting research on everything from basic chemical fuel ratios and material science properties to overall engine structure, hull construction, and layout.