Tech Hammer

Tim Cook spent about half an hour and made four phone calls. He never mentioned the fax he had just received, but he could feel that friends and businessmen had not received similar faxes yet. This should be regarded as coming from Sincerity in artificial intelligence.

Of course, this is just a feeling. Maybe friends and businessmen have also received sincerity from China Artificial Intelligence, but they can act very naturally. But no matter what, now Tim Cook needs to make a choice. This choice may determine the rise or fall of Apple. He does not feel that he can really bear the pressure and responsibility that comes with it.

So after hanging up the phone, Tim Cook picked up the landline phone on his desk and issued an instruction: "Ellie, inform all board members that the online board meeting will be held in half an hour, and no one will be absent. "

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Half an hour later, nine directors of Apple, including the chairman, collectively fell silent after reading all the contents of the faxed document.

Apple's equity is extremely dispersed, and Tim Cook has been in charge of Apple for many years. Although he has been widely criticized for technological innovation, he can be said to have done an extremely perfect job in creating profits for the company. Apple has The profits earned exceeded even the expectations of many shareholders.

Therefore, among many high-tech companies in the United States, Tim Cook can definitely be regarded as a super CEO, extremely powerful. The so-called board of directors' presence in Apple is really not high. At this time, Tim Cook put this cooperation invitation in front of everyone. All the board members actually understood what it meant.

If it weren't for the content of this fax, it would be inconvenient to disclose it to the outside world before the company's senior management makes substantive decisions. The board members are already thinking of convening a shareholders' meeting to discuss it.

The more people make decisions, the less responsibility is assigned to each person, especially when there is a strong CEO in front of him. Even if the higher-level board is laid down, Tim Cook is still there to carry it. Directors who have little presence in the company will be fine as long as they can guarantee profits from dividends every year.

Unfortunately, it is obvious that Tim Cook also thinks so. In the online board of directors, everyone's opinions will be completely recorded and can be reviewed at any time, so no one is really willing to express their position at this time.

Fortunately, Tim Cook had already anticipated this situation, and there was no surprise. He said directly: "Does anyone want to express their opinion on the invitation you just saw? Everyone has five minutes to elaborate. You can choose to express your own opinions, or give up these five minutes. Does anyone want to say something now?"

Everyone was sitting upright, but no one decided to take a stand. Tim Cook waited for about a minute, then nodded and said: "I probably understand, so let's be simple, I will ask questions, and then everyone will raise their hands whether Is it okay to express your approval or objection in this way?"

Soon, everyone nodded and approved Tim Cook’s proposal.

"The first question is whether board members recognize that the strong artificial intelligence platform launched by China is extremely important to Apple's strategic layout at this stage. Please raise your hands if you agree with this view."

No one hesitated at all, and almost all the directors in the video raised their hands at the same time.

"The second question is whether board members recognize that the strong artificial intelligence launched by China is also extremely important to Apple's competitors in various fields at this stage. These competitors include both our traditional competitors at home and abroad, as well as those in our strategy. We are about to encounter new competitors in the layout process.”

Very simply, everyone raised their hands again.

"The third question is, do board members recognize that in addition to competition, Apple and Huawei also have complementarity in industrial technology and patent licensing?"

This time many hesitated, and in the end only five of the nine directors in attendance raised their hands.

Tim Cook nodded and continued to ask: "The fourth question, do you agree that if Apple refuses to cooperate with Huawei, including Google, Microsoft, Tesla, Intel, Samsung, and other Chinese mobile phone manufacturers? If we choose to cooperate with Huawei, Apple will lose all the advantages it currently has and may lose the market share that should belong to us in future market competition."

This time it was neat, almost without hesitation, and nine people raised their hands at the same time again.

"Last question, do you think that friends including Google, Microsoft, Intel, IBM, Tesla, Samsung, etc. who advocate the establishment of intelligent alliances are worthy of our trust in this issue? Assuming that there is no higher-level external force Under the interference of others, will they choose to refuse firmly when faced with the same invitation? Even if it is an exclusive invitation."

The hesitation lasted longer this time. Some people raised their hands hesitantly, but seeing that most of the others had no intention of raising their hands, they struggled and shook twice, and finally gave up.

So when faced with the last question, no one raised their hands. This probably also shows that no one dares to trust their allies 100%. In fact, if you think about it deeply, this is probably an alternative version - love ultimately lost to reality.

"Okay, I have asked all the questions, so I will send a senior consultant negotiation team to contact Huawei. Does anyone object?"

Theoretically speaking, this is nonsense. When everyone chooses not to trust their allies on the last question, if they object to contact with Huawei, their IQ is probably not enough to serve as a director of Apple Group, so no one objects.

"Then it's decided. Thank you very much for your valuable opinions. Of course, before we reach a formal agreement with Huawei, I hope that everyone will strictly abide by our confidentiality policy. The meeting... Well, Mr. Lane, you still have What's the problem?" Tim Cook asked, looking at one of the directors who raised his hand.

"Tim, I want to know if we decide to contact Huawei, do we still need to continue to negotiate with other companies on a series of matters to establish an alliance." Mike Ryan asked.

"Of course, all previously established strategies will not change before a final agreement is reached. We will keep in touch with the members of the intended alliance and discuss various codes together." Tim Cook said without changing his face.

"So when we are in contact with Huawei, what is our bottom line? Do we accept or ask for anything the Chinese people ask for?"

This question made Tim Cook silent for a moment before he said: "I don't know where our bottom line is yet. If I have to express my position, my bottom line is to ensure the overall and long-term interests of you and all shareholders." I have to make the most responsible concessions under the premise and ensure that the Apple brand will not be dimmed in my hands. Of course, this is also the responsibility I need to bear as the CEO of Apple. Are there any questions?"

No one said anything, which meant that the board meeting was officially over.

An hour later, an official letter was also delivered to the Huawei headquarters in Shenzhen through encrypted channels and entered the mailbox of Huawei executives. Of course, these contacts between the two parties have no impact on the outside world. If there is any impact, it is probably because the Huawei video began to spread rapidly on Facebook after being subtitled. Countless foreign netizens have a deep sense of Huawei's plans for the upcoming future.

"Oh my God, who can tell me whether Huawei's Hongmeng system can support Google's architecture? Even if it can't support it, it doesn't matter. If having a mobile phone can help me deal with that woman who chats on WhatsApp every day, then I have already made money. ."

"Have you noticed? The cat in the video wrote a program, which gave me a bold idea. If the program can also be programmed, of course it can also be used for animation special effects, right? If so, maybe My work can be streamlined a lot!”

"Hey, the brother upstairs, now the question is, use your brain to think about it, when you prove that the program can be used to do animation special effects, do you think your boss will also notice this? ? And then you think he will be stupid enough to pay you thousands of dollars a month to do work that only requires one procedure? Don’t be stupid!"

"God! All programmers should delete this video quickly. Please be careful not to let the bosses notice these details. I think this function must be removed. Hey, have you noticed it? In fact, that paragraph The program was copied from the forum. I have to say that if the video is real, it is enough to prove that its search capabilities are very strong. I guess Google should be very worried now. Obviously the kitten is unlikely to use the search provided by Google. engine."

"Is this the kitten that became popular on the Chinese Internet two days ago? It's so cute! I can't believe that someone actually said that this kitten might destroy the world in the future! But seeing that it was Bill who said this, I roughly understand that if this cat belongs to Microsoft, then it will be a blessing to the whole world. If not, then it will definitely destroy the world. Do you think I am right?"

"Damn, I don't care if a cat can destroy the world, I care if this thing can roll onto my phone immediately, immediately. I like it to answer my questions, but of course I don't want to use it to Looking for the other half, but if it can deal with my dear mother like it deals with women, that will definitely be the most wonderful thing in the world. I will no longer have to endure the never-ending nagging from my mother..."

“After I watched this video, I immediately logged into Apple’s official website. I was surprised to find that the great Apple company had no expression at all. So they don’t want their Siri to become a cat, right? Of course, this is not the case. Important, it doesn’t matter whether it’s a cat or a dog, but Mr. Cook, as an Apple fan who has always supported Apple, I very much hope that the next generation iPhone can also allow me to experience the same fun and feeling of using a smartphone as in this video. , otherwise you will lose an old user who has been using Apple faithfully for twenty years and has never missed any generation of Apple products."

"It must be fake! I have never seen such a fake video. It is impossible for the Chinese to create such a smart program? Even in my motherland, India, which is already at the forefront of the world in related technology, It is still impossible to achieve these. And India’s software strength is well known. I suspect that the Chinese have even deceived large companies like Google and Microsoft! But let’s put it this way, this is very Chinese!”

…

I have to say that whether it is in China or abroad, whether it is for or against, people's heated discussions have begun to occupy all the pages. At night, even the actors of well-known foreign talk shows have begun to make fun of artificial intelligence. .

"Have you all seen the hotly discussed content on the Internet today? Yes, that's right, the Chinese sent a virtual cat, and then we collectively surrendered! There was no way not to surrender. For example, I knew very well that when When my opponent is a cat, it has already won! Yes, please imagine when a cat stands next to me, raises its paws and greets you, saying 'hi man, I am a cat. I can speak not only English, but also Chinese.” I can only surrender, because you know, I don’t understand the beautiful Chinese language. So I might be being humiliated or even threatened by a kitten giving it a thumbs up and saying 'thank you, you're so beautiful'. "

The exaggerated expressions and exaggerated intonations won bursts of applause from the audience, and also made more people pay attention to Hua Xia's sultry kitten.

…

Under such circumstances, many big names stared at the U.S. stock market and spent a thrilling day.

Really, many people are glad that Ning Wei did not take advantage of this moment to post randomly on Weibo, which made the US stock market perform very smoothly today. Even many technology stocks, especially gaming stocks, began to rebound due to the news of the artificial intelligence revolution, especially Chinese concept stocks took advantage of the spring breeze in March to experience a surge. Penguin Group, which had the strongest rise that day, even soared by 12%.

The reasons given by market analysts are very simple and consistent with everyone's cognitive logic. As we all know, games account for a large proportion of Penguin Group’s revenue, and the launch of strong artificial intelligence is simply a shot in the arm for the entire gaming industry. Can you imagine what it will be like when NPCs in future games have the most basic IQ? The same conversations will become a thing of the past, and players can even experience the fun of chatting with NPCs in the game.

In addition, artificial intelligence will be able to add more mission systems to the game, which will greatly increase people's expectations for games in the intelligent era. The logic why Penguin leads the rise instead of other more famous game companies is clearer. After all, Penguin Group is a Chinese enterprise, and this artificial intelligence technology is also in China. It is natural for the two parties to cooperate in this direction. No one believes that Penguin Group cannot see the huge value in this and cannot grasp the expectations of the public.

As for established and powerful technology companies such as Apple, Google, Microsoft, etc., everyone is still waiting to see whether the establishment of the alliance will be beneficial or whether it will go in a direction that investors do not want to see. What will happen specifically, who knows?

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