Chapter 9: Joining the Core Group of WisdomTalk

The entire room erupted in murmurs.

The reporter who had been called upon froze for a moment, then excitedly raised a hand. “Of course there need to be restrictions! Just like yesterday when Ruixin Tech’s beta version turned a certain politician’s name into a pun…”

“Wrong!” Lu Qiuyi suddenly raised her voice, imitating He Jingyue’s gesture of pounding the table. “What really needs restricting is humanity’s habit of scapegoating AI.”

She smoothly pulled up the PowerPoint she had prepared last night, pointing to the bald stick figure example. “When we blame AI for telling hell jokes, have we ever considered that these materials all come from databases created by humans?”

Whispers began to ripple through the audience.

Lu Qiuyi gained momentum. “It’s like federated learning technology…”

She deliberately dropped the term given to her by He Jingyue, “Each participant shares data without bearing ethical responsibility.”

“Director Lu,” a middle-aged man wearing gold-rimmed glasses suddenly stood up. “I’m Zhao Ming, CEO of Cloud Atlas Technology. I completely agree with your point. Our small company has suffered because of this.”

Lu Qiuyi didn’t even know Cloud Atlas Technology, but the man’s flattering smile filled her with a sudden sense of fortune.

“That’s right! Just like what CEO Zhao said last week at the AI Ethics Summit.” She deliberately spoke vaguely, and indeed saw Zhao Ming nodding, overwhelmed with pride.

For the next twenty minutes, Lu Qiuyi endlessly deconstructed and recombined the three answers He Jingyue had given her.

Whenever technical questions were thrown her way, she resorted to the same trick: “This question reminds me of CEO Zhao’s practical experience…”

Forcing that CEO Zhao to frequently stand up and help cover for her.

When applause unexpectedly broke out in the breakout session, Lu Qiuyi was stunned herself.

She drifted down from the stage, only to be stopped by a girl wearing a staff badge: “Ms. Lu, I’m a reporter from Frontiers of Technology. May I ask if the multimodal architecture used by ‘SmartTalk’ was inspired by Google’s PaLM model?”

Cold sweat instantly broke out on Lu Qiuyi’s back.

PaLM? What was that? A potted plant?

But under all those eyes, she lifted her coffee cup with a mysterious smile. “That’s a trade secret. But…” lowering her voice, “Have you heard of ‘federated learning technology’?”

The reporter’s eyes lit up and she immediately began furiously taking notes on her tablet. Lu Qiuyi took the chance to slip away toward the restroom, but around the corner she ran into He Jingyue leaning against the floor-to-ceiling window, holding a cup of American coffee identical to hers.

“Federated learning technology?” He raised an eyebrow, repeating her lifeline phrase. “When I wrote that answer, I never thought it would be used to answer a hardware architecture question.”

Lu Qiuyi felt her ears burn instantly. “That reporter clearly didn’t know what she was talking about.”

She tried to defend herself, but under He Jingyue’s profound gaze, her voice grew smaller and smaller.

His fingertips lightly brushed the edge of the pocket on Lu Qiuyi’s suit jacket where the note filled with standard answers had once rested.

He leaned in slightly, the scent of cedar and coffee enveloping her. “By the way, the microphone you used during your speech was connected to the main conference’s simultaneous interpretation backup channel.”

“The live broadcast effect was quite impressive, Assistant Lu.”

Watching He Jingyue’s tall figure disappear around the corner, Lu Qiuyi suddenly took a deep breath.

Was he really so oblivious? I actually got away with it.

No, no—CEO He is the most discerning person in the world. Poor domineering CEO also has stomach problems.

Lu Qiuyi clicked her tongue in admiration.

Her phone vibrated wildly in her pocket, the screen flashing Lu Mingxuan’s name.

She swiped to answer, and her father’s cold voice came through: “Blue Sky Lake Tea House, the usual spot. Bring progress updates on ‘SmartTalk’.”

“Understood,” Lu Qiuyi replied.

Not seeing each other for a day, Lu Mingxuan was still as icy as ever, unlike the more humane He Jingyue.

At three o’clock in the afternoon, Lu Qiuyi appeared for the second time in the core area of the “SmartTalk” project team.

Outside the huge floor-to-ceiling windows stretched the bustling CBD skyline, but inside was another world.

The air was thick with the low hum of servers and the scent of caffeine. Gigantic screens scrolled dazzling streams of code and cascading data charts. Engineers in plaid shirts or hoodies either furrowed their brows staring at screens or engaged in heated debates.

Lu Qiuyi wore her most expensive navy blue suit dress, feeling like a clown who had stumbled into the control center by mistake. She forced herself to straighten her back and followed half a step behind He Jingyue.

“Assistant Lu,” He Jingyue turned toward her with a calm tone, “Starting today, you’ll join the ‘SmartTalk’ project team to assist Xie Mingxiao with project coordination, progress tracking, and external communications.”

Lu Qiuyi thought to herself, this is fantastic.

No need to get involved in core R&D, yet still hold a respectable position in the team to report back to Lu Mingxuan’s side.

Xie Mingxiao hesitated somewhat. “CEO He, the project is currently at a critical stage of model compression. Coordination is handled by Secretary Zhou, and progress tracking through an automated platform…”

The implication being that suddenly bringing in a ‘connected’ outsider would only cause trouble.

He Jingyue raised his hand and gently patted Xie Mingxiao’s shoulder, a gesture full of unchallengeable reassurance and pressure. “Mingxiao, ‘SmartTalk’ is not just technology; it’s a product, something to face the market in the future. Assistant Lu has unique creativity and experience from a user perspective and market sensitivity.” He paused, his gaze sweeping over Lu Qiuyi with a half-smile. “We need this perspective to balance pure technical thinking. Her role is very important.”

Did you hear that? Very important!

Lu Qiuyi nodded proudly.

Xie Mingxiao no longer argued. “CEO He is considerate as always. Assistant Lu, your workstation is over there.”

After days of storm and rain, Lu Qiuyi finally started work officially.

Walking toward the corner workstation surrounded by computer towers, her heart fluttered with nervous anticipation.

However, the cold reception she had expected never came.

Just as Lu Qiuyi set down her things, a round-faced girl with a high ponytail wearing an “I ♥ Python” T-shirt approached, her smile dazzling. “Hi! You must be the new assistant from the General Office, Assistant Lu? I’m Lin Xiaoyu, responsible for data cleaning and labeling.”

She enthusiastically extended her hand. “Welcome to the ‘SmartTalk’ hell… oh no, the big family!”

Lu Qiuyi was amused, her nervousness easing considerably as she shook her hand. “Thank you! Just call me Qiuyi. Did you say hell?”

“Exactly!” A boy with messy hair nearby didn’t even look up as he replied, his fingers flying over the keyboard. “Ever since the model compression started, Engineer Xie’s face hasn’t cleared up. The atmosphere’s so tense, it could freeze you to death. I’m Zhang Zhiwei, working on model optimization.”

“Don’t mind him, Zhang Zhiwei is a code fanatic; he only sees parameters,” Lin Xiaoyu waved dismissively, pointing to a woman not far away, dressed sharply and frowning at her screen. “That’s Sister Weiwei, our algorithm goddess. She’s a little hot-tempered but super nice! She was the one who praised your case study for its sharp perspective last time.”

Shen Weiwei seemed to hear her name, turning her head to look at Lu Qiuyi. Her gaze lingered for two seconds, then she nodded slightly, acknowledging Lin Xiaoyu’s words before immersing herself back into her code world.