Chapter 345 Please, Vote!

"Brother-in-law"

Zhuang Zicheng has the best relationship with Yang Huan, and he calls him brother-in-law affectionately as soon as he enters the door.

Even though you are engaged, you are not married yet?

Isn't it too early to call me brother-in-law now?

Yang Huan found it funny in his heart when he heard this. This guy must be here to ask for money.

Otherwise, why is your mouth so sweet?

"Master Huan"

Compared to Zhuang Zicheng's enthusiasm, Palmer Larch seems more reserved.

The two of them did not look tired at all after staying up all night to fly from China to London. Instead, they looked very energetic.

Sun Yue and Zhao Yuanfang followed them in and shouted "Young Master Huan" in unison.

"Come, let me introduce you"

Yang introduced Demis Hassabis with a smile.

Zhuang Zicheng and Palmer Luckey came here just for Jamies Hassabis.

Zhao Yuanfang is Yang Huan's investment consultant. He had been to London before and had met with Demis Hassabis several times.

It was precisely because of the review by Zhao Yuanfang and Cash Harris that Jamies Hassabis was able to meet Yang Huan.

Otherwise, he would have been eliminated long ago.

"Jamis, could you please tell us about your research first?" Zhao Yuanfang said.

Demis Hassabis smiled slightly, took out a stack of documents from his briefcase, and handed them to Yang Huan and others one by one, one copy per person.

The document lists the research results of him and several of his colleagues.

"As you all know, during my time at University College London, I mainly studied the human brain, with a focus on the hippocampus."

"I found that amnesiacs have difficulty planning for the future because their hippocampus is damaged, and in the past, we usually thought that the hippocampus was only related to memory, but it is obviously not."

"It is important to note that the hippocampus is critical for sense of direction, memory retrieval, and the imagination of future events"

"One of my colleagues did a study that showed that London taxi drivers have larger hippocampi than the average person."

Jamies Hassabis's words attracted the attention of everyone present, except Long Wu who was secretly playing games in the corner.

Zhuang Zicheng and Palmer Larch were looking at the documents in their hands very attentively.

The hippocampus determines a person's sense of direction, which is crucial to their research on virtual reality helmets.

Because it may be the key to solving the dizziness that occurs after wearing a virtual reality helmet

"I want to ask, Dr. Hassabis, artificial intelligence algorithms are very popular. Google, Facebook, Apple, Microsoft, IHM, etc. are all researching this area. What do you think are the advantages of your research?"

This was the question that Yang Huan was most concerned about, so he asked directly.

Hassabis nodded at him.

"This is not a life-and-death battle. The more people invest in this research, the more helpful it will be for us, because the more people invest in this research, the more it can broaden our thinking. I think this is a good thing."

After hearing this, everyone nodded in approval.

"In addition, I would like to say that this is a very, very large system. No one person or any organization can research all of it. Many other so-called artificial intelligence algorithms actually rely on programmers to pre-code and then calculate through the code. I don't think this is artificial intelligence.

"What do you do?" Zhuang Zicheng asked immediately.

Hassabis seemed very calm and composed, without any nervousness at all.

"I study the human brain, especially the hippocampus. I study how the hippocampus stores and analyzes our memories and how it affects our imagination of the future. So my idea is to study how brain cells interact with each other."

"I hope to develop an algorithm that mimics the working mode of the human brain, just like the hippocampus, which can store and analyze memories, that is, the vast ocean of data on the Internet. On the other hand, by storing and analyzing this data, the algorithm can imagine future events and be accurate."

Everyone present was surprised, including Zhuang Zicheng and Palmer Larch.

This is indeed very interesting research.

The recognition of Hassabis' research by authoritative scientific journals proves that his research on the hippocampus is worthy of recognition.

His research on the hippocampus and his desire to develop such an algorithm is also very promising.

Everyone's next step can be traced and is influenced by memory.

Strictly speaking, this cannot be considered artificial intelligence, because at its core it is just a set of algorithms and does not have human consciousness.

But if it is really possible to accurately predict the future based on memory as Hassabis said, it would be a revolutionary innovation.

Zhuang Zicheng and Palmer Larch were already filled with excitement when they heard this.

They both looked at Yang Huan, their eyes seemed to be saying, please, vote, Master Huan

Yang Huan remained calm and looked at Zhao Yuanfang, who understood what he meant.

"Dr. Hassabis, frankly, you outlined a very interesting vision and future, but we would also like to know how you plan to build your research team?"

Demis Hassabis still didn't look panicked at all.

He gives people the feeling that he is sure of success in everything he does.

Perhaps, people with a high IQ will give people this feeling.

"It depends on the investors' wishes. In my opinion, my team should be divided into two parts. One part is to conduct the most basic research, continuously conduct in-depth research, and continuously improve this set of algorithms."

"The other part is to engage in applied research, which is to transform our basic research results into practical applications."

Hassabis's words revealed that he is indeed a smart man.

At least he knows how to find a balance between scientific research and practical application.

As an investor, of course you want to see the benefits.

Who would do a business that doesn’t make money?

"As for the size of the team, I currently have only three people, all of whom are professional researchers in related fields. But if I have sufficient funds, I hope to start with about 30 people and then gradually expand. It is expected that by the end of the year, the number of people will reach 150, of which 75% will be engaged in basic research and the rest will be in applied research."

Yang Huan and others didn't expect that he had even thought of this.

"Can we recruit so many researchers?" Yang Huan asked with concern.

Hassabis nodded confidently, "Sure, if the conditions are right, I can even poach people from the research institutes of big companies like Microsoft, Google, and IHM."

The research strength of Microsoft and IHNR is world-renowned, and all of them are outstanding experts and scholars.

If you want to poach people from here, you can't do it just by having money.

Perhaps worried that he would be misunderstood as bragging, Hassabis gave another explanation.

"In fact, Microsoft, Google and IHK have met me, and many people in their research institutes are interested in my research."

"Then why didn't you go?" Sun Yue asked curiously.

Hassabis thought about it this time, but quickly replied, "I don't like joining a big company. I hope to have the power to conduct independent research. If I go to a big company like Microsoft, they will definitely ask our research to serve their products first."

Yang Huan was delighted when he heard this. "We will definitely ask you to provide services for our products first. Isn't it the same?"

Hassabis smiled without saying anything, but his meaning was vaguely revealed.

Compared with Microsoft, Google and IH, your scale is too small.

You know

"Can I ask you a question?" Zhuang Zicheng finally couldn't help but asked.

"Excuse me..." Hassabis had already noticed Zhuang Zicheng.

"We are researching a virtual reality helmet, but we found that after wearing this wearable device for a long time, we will feel dizzy. Is there a way to solve this problem?"

Hassabis thought about it for a moment and shook his head, "No way."

This made Zhuang Zicheng and Palmer Luckey feel a little regretful.

"The reason you feel dizzy is because your vision tells your brain that you are moving at high speed, but at the same time, your body tells your brain that you are not moving at all, so your brain feels dizzy. This is the same as motion sickness."

"If you want to solve it completely, there is really no way, unless you don't wear it, but maybe you can find a way to alleviate the dizziness."

Zhuang Zicheng and Palmer Luckey looked at each other and both felt that Hassabis's words were very pertinent.

They have also invested a lot of research energy in this area, but have never been able to make effective progress.

They had previously acquired an American startup company and paid over $100 million for it.

But the effect is also very obvious.

The company has a number of patents, one of the most interesting of which is digital light field technology.

Nowadays, many virtual reality and augmented reality technologies require wearing glasses to focus the vision forward and prevent it from moving, so the eye muscles are extremely prone to fatigue and dizziness.

However, this digital light field technology directly imitates the real light field information of the real world and projects it into the eyes, allowing the eyes to rotate and focus at will just like seeing the real world, and full depth of field can be achieved at any angle and distance.

This has basically solved the problem of eye fatigue.

But the dizziness problem cannot be completely eradicated.

Maybe this is a problem that cannot be solved

"By the way, Dr. Hassabis, we are also researching gesture control and voice control recently. Is there any way to use your algorithm to accumulate user data and make the control more accurate or even more precise?"

This time Hassabis nodded without hesitation, "Yes"

Then he added, "Besides, it's not difficult."

This immediately made Zhuang Zicheng and Palmer Luckey very excited.

The best ways to interact with wearable devices are gestures and voice, but accuracy is a problem.

If the device can learn by itself and become more and more accurate based on the user's habits, it would be exciting news and would solve this big problem.

At present, Zhuang Zicheng and Palmer Luckey's research direction is no longer virtual reality or augmented reality.

WeChat Research Institute possesses both of these technologies and is integrating them to form a brand new technology.

In addition, the research and development of wearable devices has not been left behind.

Yang Huan was very unimpressed by the previous virtual reality helmets that were as big as bricks.

After acquiring several companies, it has become possible to go smaller and thinner.

Yang Huan was not in a hurry. He continued to spend money on research and to bring in experts. He wanted to launch the product into the market only after both the software and hardware were mature.

Why has the iPhone achieved such revolutionary success?

It's not just because they sell mobile phones, but because they have an entire complete supporting ecosystem.

It is this combination of software and hardware that has made Apple a huge success, and has also made it impossible for followers such as Android and Microsoft to catch up with them, let alone surpass them.

Therefore, Yang Huan asked Zhuang Zicheng and Palmer Lage to continue to refine and perfect their products.

Anyway, there is still a lot of time, don't rush, take your time

This meeting has come to an end, and there is actually no need to say anything more.

Yang Huan has decided to invest in Hassabis's project.

So, soon, Yang Huan stood up and expressed his opinion.

Old rules: give money if you need it, give people if you need them.

Hassabis requested that the institute be located in London, and he agreed.

He also agreed to an initial £10 million research and development fund.

Even in terms of personnel recruitment and project development, Hassabis demanded a high degree of autonomy, and Yang Huan agreed.

Anyway, Yang Huan himself knows nothing. How can an outsider lead experts?

It's better to let them deal with it and just take care of the money.

Yang Huan is well-known for his strong possessiveness, but now he is so generous in giving up his power. It is rare.

Therefore, Zhuang Zicheng, Sun Yue, Zhao Yuanfang and others were inevitably a little surprised.

Is Young Master Huan so optimistic about this project?