CIATB Chapter 76 A mother who wants to help her son? Is that enough to betray state secrets?
Chapter 76 A mother who wants to help her son? Is that enough to betray state secrets?
"That's a good question from the reporter. I'll answer it for Kevin."
Kevin took a half step back and gestured for him to proceed.
Lin Yu stood on the stage, facing 1,200 pairs of eyes.
"Kevin said that technological isolation would harm the progress of civilization. Is that true? Yes."
No one spoke.
"But he left out half a sentence."
Lin Yu turned and glanced at Kevin.
There are two kinds of technological closure. One is that I don't show it to you. The other is that you don't let me build it.
He walked up to the big screen and pointed to the world map.
"This image shows open-source contributions. Kevin used it to illustrate that China is not open. But he didn't include another image."
He reached into his pocket, took out his phone, scrolled through it a couple of times, and handed it to the staff member next to him.
"Put it up for me."
The staff member hesitated for a second, looked at the host, and the host nodded.
Switch to large screen.
A new world map has emerged. Instead of listing the number of papers published, it displays a list of technology export controls.
The red markings are densely packed, all concentrated in one direction—pointing from the west towards China.
Embargoes on chip manufacturing equipment, high-end lithography machines, specific frequency band communication technologies, and certain dedicated accelerator cards for AI training.
This image is called the Entity List.
Lin Yu's voice wasn't loud, but every word landed squarely on the ground.
"You keep talking about opening up, but then you weld the door shut. Then you turn around and point at me, saying, 'Why don't you come out?'"
The lecture hall was so quiet you could hear the air conditioning humming.
Kevin's smile remained unchanged.
But he put down the coffee cup he was holding.
"Lin, these are two different issues—"
"No."
Lin Yu interrupted him, "It's the same question."
He looked into Kevin's eyes.
"You're standing on this stage today talking about open source, magnanimity, and the wisdom of all humanity. But the GPU you use in your lab is unavailable in China. The server you use to run your model is inaccessible to China. And the journal you publish in has a three times higher rejection rate for Chinese manuscripts compared to others."
"You take all the tools, make something, and then say to someone who has nothing—'Come on, open up, share your work with me.'"
He handed the microphone to Kevin.
"Is this what you call openness?"
Without waiting for Kevin's reply, Lin Yu turned and walked off the stage.
The entire venue fell silent for three seconds.
Then, a burst of applause erupted from the Chinese delegation's side. It wasn't a sparse applause; it was the kind of applause that had been building up for a long time and finally found an outlet.
Kevin stood on the stage, holding a microphone in his hand.
He wasn't angry. He wasn't even surprised.
He merely watched Lin Yu walk back to his seat in the guest area, and his expression changed slightly.
It's not anger.
It is a reassessment.
After the forum ended, in the corridor.
Kevin stopped Lin Yu.
"What you just said on stage will make the headlines."
"I know."
"You don't care?"
"What do you care about?"
Kevin looked at him for two seconds.
"If your technology is truly cutting-edge, why are you afraid of it being open-sourced?"
Lin Yu stopped in his tracks.
He turned his head and looked at Kevin.
"I'm not afraid of open source."
"and you--"
"What I fear is that I open-source it, you take it, and then tell the whole world that you invented it."
The corridor fell silent.
Kevin's smile finally cracked slightly.
Lin Yu didn't look at him again.
He pushed open the door at the end of the corridor and stepped into the sunlight outside.
The phone rang.
Zhou Weiguo.
"Qian Huifang retrieved a document from the archives center this morning."
Lin Yu didn't stop walking.
Which one?
"It's the one we switched."
Lin Yu hung up the phone.
The fish has taken the bait.
Lin Yu did not see Kevin off on the day he left Beijing.
He was in the base's main control center, staring at a new AI output on the screen.
This is the 1,347th inference generated by Tianyan in the past 72 hours.
The first 1,346 entries are the same as before—analyzing images, judging emotions, and deducing cause and effect.
Article 1347 is different.
This time, the AI did not analyze any images.
It is analyzing itself.
The text on the screen is very short.
[System Self-Check Report - Anomaly: During the execution of Task 1296, the system allocated 37% more computing power than the standard allocation to the detail that the shelf position shifted by 12 centimeters when the character returned the goods. Reason: This detail is not directly related to the core objective of the task (determining the character's behavior) and should not consume additional resources.]
[Question: Why would I allocate extra attention to a trivial detail?]
Xia Zijing stood behind Lin Yu, looking at the words.
The two remained silent for a long time.
"It's asking itself why it's curious," Xia Zijing said in a low voice.
Lin Yu didn't say anything.
He stared at the words on the screen like a child who had just learned to look in a mirror.
All previous breakthroughs—identifying cause and effect, questioning images, and understanding lies—are all examples of AI's understanding of the external world.
But with this one, it began to understand itself.
Wang Lei walked in carrying two bowls of noodles. Seeing the expressions on their faces, he silently placed the noodles in the corner.
"Has something big happened again?"
No one answered him.
He leaned over and glanced at the screen, then frowned and looked at it three times.
"Well... it felt it shouldn't be curious, but it was curious nonetheless, and then it asked itself why it was curious?"
"right."
"Isn't this just like reflecting on why you were daydreaming in class?"
Lin Yu turned to look at him.
"Your summary is very accurate."
"Is this really that amazing?"
Do you think a dog would ever reflect on why it chases its tail?
Wang Lei opened his mouth, but swallowed the words that were about to come out.
He went back to the corner, picked up the noodles, and ate them bite by bite.
But the chopsticks were trembling.
Zhou Weiguo walked in at three o'clock in the afternoon.
He held a report in his hand, a thin page.
"The document that Qian Huifang accessed was copied last night. The copier's usage log shows the time as 1:14 AM."
Lin Yu took it.
"Where did the photocopy go?"
"I don't know. But at 7:23 this morning, Qian Huifang's son received an email in his MIT mailbox. The email came from an encrypted proxy server, and the content could not be intercepted. But the email size was 4.7MB."
What is the size of a scanned copy of a technical document?
"Normal size is between 3 and 5 MB."
Lin Yu placed the report on the table.
"Her methods are unprofessional."
"She's not a professional."
Zhou Weiguo said, "She was just a mother who wanted to help her son. Kevin's people gave her an encrypted email address and a simple operating procedure, which she followed. That's all."
Lin Yu leaned back in his chair.
"I was still too lenient with her. Wanting to help her son's mother? That justifies betraying state secrets?"
"Does someone like that even deserve it?"
"Arrest him! I find it hard to believe that the descendants of this kind of person won't cause trouble!"