Zhang Yida did not directly answer Lu Qi's question, but asked Lu Qi: "I heard that Microsoft Xiaoice has made efforts in the financial field, and the new generation of products can capture all the announcements issued by listed companies and automatically generate a summary?"

Lu Qi thought about it for a moment before replying, "This version has not been officially released yet, how do you know?"

Zhang Yida smiled, "Microsoft is the industry leader, so we naturally need to pay more attention to it." Some Microsoft executives mentioned a few words in some meetings, and we came up with some conclusions. ”

That's right, the new generation version does have this feature, and some of Microsoft's top executives have mentioned it in some public meetings. ”

Microsoft has already made public the information, and Lu Qi feels that it is not a big problem to talk about it.

As a former executive of Microsoft, he signed a confidentiality agreement with Microsoft, and he cannot disclose Microsoft's trade secrets in public or private, otherwise he will be held legally responsible.

But Zhang Yida's questions are obviously not among them, they are all semi-public, and they are not confidential.

"Reading announcements, making summaries, in fact, this work human can also do.

The advantage of Microsoft Xiaoice is that I heard that this work can be done in 20 seconds?"

Seeing that Lu Qi didn't talk, Zhang Yida knew that he had scruples, so he continued: "For financial practitioners who are "racing against time", it is a great advantage to get refined first-hand information in 20 seconds.

When the opponent is still manually flipping through the announcement, users of Microsoft Xiaoice can carry out relevant financial operations.

If it were me, I would definitely use Xiaoice's services. ”

"Mr. Zhang, do you expect Ruixiang's artificial intelligence application to reach this point?" Lu Qi asked.

Zhang Yida shook his head, "This is just the most basic text recognition, and it is a "dead thing" like our current AI anti-fraud application.

ShakeVision's AI moderation system can automatically identify illegal and prohibited images and videos.

These belong to the first stage of Microsoft's three-stage AI standard: basic AI interaction, that is, having one or more interaction methods.

What we want to do is to be a "living thing", adding senses to artificial intelligence, so that "she" can hear, see, speak, think and learn.

This requires certain research results in the fields of speech recognition, visual recognition, dialogue engines, natural language processing, and machine deep learning, and the "integration" of these functions.

Otherwise, the artificial intelligence made is also a cripple, dumb, blind, deaf, mentally retarded child......"

Lu Qi smiled, "Your analogy is very appropriate, but what you said is already the third stage of artificial intelligence classified by Microsoft, with "advanced senses".

To do this, in addition to the massive amount of data to support it, it is also necessary to join almost all natural and social science professionals, including computer science, psychology, philosophy and linguistics.

Microsoft's AI R&D team currently has 5,000 people, and that number will expand to 8,000 next year. ”

It's terrifying!

The average monthly salary in the domestic artificial intelligence segment is 20,000 plus, and the team of 5,000 people will pay more than 100 million yuan a month, which is more than 100 million a year.

And that's just the salary, not the investment in lab equipment, counting those that are even more terrifying.

And this thing can't produce results in a short time, and if it does, it may not be able to make money immediately.

A company that doesn't have some strength can't be brought at all.

However, Zhang Yida thought about it, Zhu Zhubao had to pay 1 billion yuan a month's salary.

In addition to a Microsoft Research Asia, Microsoft also has many jobs in the United States.

The talents who lead the American knife are real bulls, with an annual salary of one million, and they are still American knives.

However, if Zhang Yida wants to poach these people to China, I am afraid that he will not only have to come up with a salary equal to Microsoft's, but even a cut higher.

If you don't have money, you can only cheat people with options.

"Mr. Zhang, how is it?

Lu Qi saw that Zhang Yida didn't speak for a long time, and kept thinking silently, thinking that he was retreating, so he joked.

"It's okay, it's not too stressful!"

Zhang Yida behaved calmly, "Among my current companies, Ruixiang has an artificial intelligence team, and there is also a visual action, and then ...... Other companies have not been involved in this business for the time being, and they have not recruited talents in related fields.

If the two companies get together, it should still be possible to get a team of 500 people.

In addition, I have also invested in a large number of image recognition companies such as Shangchao Technology and Megvii Technology in China, and in terms of voice recognition, iFLYTEK is doing well in China, and I can also carry out some cooperation with them.

We only need to focus our efforts on a few areas such as conversation engines, natural language processing, and deep learning. ”

After Lu Qi said "yes", he continued: "In addition to talent and funding, there is another thing that is very important, and that is data.

Data needs AI, and AI needs data.

After entering the "data 3.0" era, the data assets of enterprises have skyrocketed, often exceeding the inherent business boundaries and incorporating any junk data.

As a result, the amount of data is increasing, the quality of the data is uneven, and the data output results are difficult to be accurate.

Deep learning algorithms, on the other hand, require massive amounts of data to be "trained", and the larger and more accurate the data, the better.

In machine learning or deep learning models, it is very likely that the AI will be "deformed" by using the wrong data or not large enough data to train and run these models!

Google's data is based on its strong search business, while Apple is built on a large number of mobile devices.

Microsoft's words come from office software, operating systems, and search services.

Mr. Zhang: If you want to make a great artificial intelligence product, data is indispensable.

But as far as I know, most of the data of Chinese Internet users is in the hands of BAT.

Ruixiang has the financial data of some users, and there is very little other data. ”

"Yes, we are still lagging behind BAT in terms of big data reserves.

But the gap is not as big as you think. There are hundreds of millions of users of Douyin short video, hundreds of millions of users of Huimin Travel, and the number of Pindodo e-commerce users is about to exceed 100 million.

The total number of users of these four companies is 700 million, covering four fields such as finance, short video, travel, and e-commerce, and after deducting the overlap, it probably covers 300 million to 350 million Internet users in China.

According to the report, the number of mobile Internet users in China was 690 million last year, and about 730 million this year.

We cover almost half of China's Internet users, and although the usage time is not as long as that of penguins, it is definitely not much worse than Ahri and Qiandu. ”

"Really?"

After hearing this, Lu Qi became a lot more excited, looked at Zhang Yida with burning eyes, and asked again.

"That's true! I can show you the backstage now. ”

"That's not necessary, I'm sure Mr. Zhang wouldn't make such a joke. ”

Lu Qi is still very measured, and if he really asked Zhang Yida to adjust the backstage, it would be stupid.

He was born as a program ape, and he can still confirm what Zhang Yida said through some network means.

"700 million users? Mr. Zhang, these four pieces of your software are all explosive! All of them are national-level applications, so aren't Ahri and Penguin going to death? ”

Yuan Zheng also interjected on the side.

"Haha, that's not true, the first APP in China is QQ, but it is estimated that it will be surpassed by WeChat in the fourth quarter.

Then the third and fourth places are Taobao, pay Bei, and the fifth place is our investment and financing.

Then there are QQ Browser, UC Browser, Qiandu Map, Gaode Map, iQiyi, Penguin Video, Youku Video, QQ Music, Kugou Music, 360 Mobile Guard, Sina Weibo......

My other three apps are going to be out of the twentieth. ”

"These 700 million users don't include overseas users, right?" Lu Qi suddenly asked.

"Yes, counting several mobile payment companies held by Ruixiang Holdings, joint ventures, and Green, the number of users will be added to nearly 200 million. ”

"This adds up to almost 1 billion users, Mr. Zhang, have you considered merging the four of them?"

Lu Qi looked at Zhang Yida with interest, and said, "Your fingers must be clenched into fists, and you can only be powerful when you hit them." It's not a particularly good way to manage the company now by splitting the company into parts and components according to the industry segmentation.

I guess you must have concerns, maybe you think the business is too bloated after the merger?"

Zhang Yida pondered for a moment and replied: "Ruixiang must be taken out separately, and the financial business is not too suitable for merging together.

I had considered a merger before, but I couldn't find the right person to help me sort out my lines of business and figure out my strategic plan. ”

"If Mr. Zhang likes me, I will recommend myself to be this business combinger. ”

After speaking, Lu Qi set his eyes on Zhang Yida and waited for his reply.

Zhang Yida didn't expect Lu Qi to be so surprised, and he took the initiative to recommend himself before he could speak.

Lu Qi joined the company, and there were many benefits. First of all, he has served as vice president of Yahoo and vice president of Microsoft, and has a good international vision.

This is important for companies that want to expand overseas.

Secondly, although Lu Qi is from a technical background, his management skills are still quite good.

He once led Bing Search, which started almost from scratch, and grabbed more than 20% of the market share from under the nose of the strong Google.

In addition, Office has become the most profitable department of Microsoft under his control.

In his previous life, Qiandu hired Lu Qi as COO, and under his drastic reforms, he abolished the bidding ranking of Qiandu Medical and determined the "allinAI" strategy.

In one year, Qiandu's net profit increased by 57%, and its market value increased by 65%. The market capitalization also hit a new high, reaching a maximum of $99 billion, infinitely close to the 100 billion mark.

Then because the reform was too strong, which triggered internal struggles, Lu Qi left after more than a year.

On the day Lu Qi announced his resignation, Qiandu's stock price fell by 9.54%, and its market value evaporated by $9.4 billion.

It can be seen that Lu Qi is still very talented. In particular, the three views are still relatively positive, and the bidding ranking of Qiandu Medical has been abolished.

Of course, after his departure, there was a resurgence of the medical bidding ranking......

"I came here to invite you, Dr. Lu, to join our company. Zhang Yida said with a smile, "You can join any company under my umbrella if you want, and I will give you the maximum support and management authority." ”

"I want to join a new group composed of several companies such as Pindodo, Huimin Bicycle, Doushi, and Station B. ”

Lu Qi hesitated for a moment, and then said, "Besides...... AI project, I would also recommend to be put into this new group. ”

Zhang Yida saw that he was obsessed with AI, and this requirement was met, and it didn't matter to Zhang Yida whether he was going to be sharp or the new group, anyway, the meat was rotten in the pot.

"Yes, that's no problem, you come to be the CEO of this group, I will give you the greatest trust. ”

Lu Qi was also a little surprised, thinking that he might be the COO or CTO at most, but he didn't expect Zhang Yida to trust himself so much and appoint the position of CEO when he came up.

"Thank you Mr. Zhang for your trust, I will not let you down!"

Zhang Yida nodded with satisfaction, and it was not worth the trip to recruit Lu Qi.

Yuan Zheng was also happy for his friend Lu Qi and found a good platform and a good boss.

In terms of salary, Lu Qi didn't ask, and Zhang Yida didn't say anything.

are all smart people, Zhang Yida is willing to even appoint the profession of CEO, will he be stingy with salary and options?