Chapter 384: The Most Perfect Sugar Daddy

"Ah, we've finally arrived."
Downstairs at Fanghuan Investment, Nick Altman, CEO of Close AI, gazed at the towering skyscraper before him and uttered a complex sigh.
He had long wanted to visit China, but hadn't found the right opportunity. The biggest obstacle was the global pandemic of the past two years; back then, even leaving the country was difficult, let alone going abroad.
Now, with the widespread availability of vaccines, international travel restrictions had finally eased, and he had finally set foot on this land that held so much mystery for him.
"It's really amazing," he chuckled. "The biggest driving force behind the vaccine that has unlocked the world's shackles is actually our 'boss'... Haha, what a small world."
Boss.
From a shareholding structure perspective, this term was perfectly accurate.
Close AI's largest shareholder was Fanghuan Investment.
Initially, Fanghuan only held 45% of the shares, but every time Close AI requested additional investment, no matter how expensive, the funds arrived without hesitation.
Through these back and forth, Fanghuan Investment now holds a whopping 70% stake in Close AI, making it the absolute controlling shareholder.
“Honestly, I still find it unbelievable.
We made financing requests that we ourselves considered excessive countless times, and they didn't even bother with a routine audit; they just handed over the money. Isn't that amazing?” an executive murmured.
This is practically a fairy tale in the investment world.
Normally, investors who invest money will have people closely monitoring it to ensure every penny is spent wisely.
But Fanghuan Investment, from beginning to end, had zero interference.
"Rumors say this company is ruthless and infamous, but what we're experiencing... is completely different?"
"Heh, their 'notoriety' isn't from exploiting the companies they invest in.
Those Wall Street wolves fear them because they don't play by the rules.
On the contrary, for the companies Fang Huan has invested in, they're practically the perfect sugar daddy in the world."
Ultraman corrected, "Their notoriety is for their enemies."
As long as Fang Huan, this bigwig, is backing them up, they'll never have to worry about a broken cash flow, nor will they fear malicious suppression from competitors.
Because those competitors who foolishly tried to challenge Fang Huan are probably long dead.
"However, it's about time we met. We need to pay our respects; we can't keep playing dumb."
As the largest shareholder with over two-thirds of the shares, Fang Huan Investment has the right to change the company's entire strategic direction at any time.
Now everything's calm, but who knows when Fang Huan might suddenly decide to interfere in the company's management?
Therefore, they had to figure out where this mysterious Eastern "boss" wanted Close AI to go.
"Um... Boss, we're not going to get 'dealt with' without anyone noticing just because we said the wrong thing, are we?
I've heard that these people can cause a country's economy to collapse if they're unhappy..."
The young assistant's palms were sweating with nervousness.
“…”
Silence fell upon those words.
Indeed, driving to Fanghuan Investment felt to them no different than a hero sneaking into a demon king's castle.
***
“Welcome everyone, is this our first formal meeting?”
“Yes, Chairman Su, thank you very much for your hospitality.”
Today, Fanghuan Investment welcomed a group of special guests:
Close AI's CEO, Nick Altman, and several of his core executives.
They were all dressed in suits, sitting upright, their expressions clearly showing tension.
“We originally wanted to go directly to Fanghuan Group's headquarters, but the people there directed us here, saying that all truly important decisions are made here by you…”
Su Hao could sense their restraint, partly due to being new to a foreign country, and partly, probably due to the invisible pressure from him, the largest shareholder.
"Chairman Su, we've come here specifically because we're about to announce a project.
We believe this project could be a turning point for our company, and even for the global technology industry.
Such a significant matter would be insincere to report via video conference, so we've decided we must report to you in person."
Close AI has been consistently receiving investment from Fang Huan.
And Su Hao, for all their funding applications, has always approved the funds without even asking questions.
After all, that amount of money is negligible for Fang Huan at this point.
"Oh? What kind of project is it?"
"You should remember that we announced the GPT-3 model to the public earlier this year."
Su Hao recalled GPT-3, which Ultraman mentioned.
However, although GPT-3 was publicly released, the response was lukewarm, failing to make a significant impact.
"It wasn't born for applause. More accurately, it was just a test product.
Our goal is to collect massive amounts of data, gather various feedback, and then, based on that, create a truly 'complete' version."
"So, the 'complete' version is finished?" Su Hao's interest was piqued.
"Yes. It is—GPT-4."
Ultraman didn't say much, directly demonstrating GPT-4's powerful capabilities to Su Hao.
"…!"
To be honest, Su Hao hadn't had high expectations.
However, when he witnessed firsthand the AI ​​model's extraordinary comprehension, rigorous reasoning ability, creative text generation, instant solution to complex math problems, automatic code writing, and even its ability to understand and analyze images and engage in fluent voice conversations…
He was utterly stunned.
This far exceeded his expectations, even his understanding of the technology of this era!
"…Is this really artificial intelligence?" Su Hao couldn't help but swear.
"One hundred percent, without a doubt." Ultraman's face was filled with undisguised pride.
Indeed, Su Hao was absolutely certain that once this thing was made public, it would definitely cause a huge uproar around the world.
Su Hao knew AI technology would eventually explode, but he never dreamed that day would come so quickly and so dramatically!
“But now is not the best time to release it to the public.
We plan to release a version 3.5 first, using it to acquire even more massive amounts of data, paving the way for the eventual debut of GPT-4.”
“A paid model?”
“Yes. Free users will have usage restrictions, while paid subscriptions will unlock all features.
Of course, this requires extremely large server resources to support it.”
With this performance alone, Su Hao would be willing to give up not just servers, but a mountain of gold.
Suddenly, he remembered a conversation he had long ago with the “Martian madman” Elon Musk.
“If this thing is released… competitors like Google probably won’t sit idly by, right?”