Chapter 304 - 234: An Important Meeting

Chapter 304: Chapter 234: An Important Meeting

The old man leaned forward slightly, looked at Chen Lin, and asked, "Are you aware that in the Beautiful Country, training large AI models has led to a widening domestic power deficit and soaring residential electricity rates?"

Chen Lin was taken aback for a moment, then shook his head. "That... I can’t say I’ve been paying much attention."

He had been preoccupied with algorithms lately and hadn’t paid much attention to news about daily life from across the ocean.

The old man nodded and explained patiently:

"The Beautiful Country has indeed made rapid progress in the AI field these last few years. In their fight for computing power supremacy, those tech giants have been frantically building data centers. And when those servers are running, the electricity they consume is simply enormous."

"But they’ve focused on financialization for so many years that their power grid infrastructure is severely outdated, and the construction of new power plants can’t keep up."

"On one hand, you have the AI servers controlled by corporate giants that can’t be shut down—because that would mean falling behind in the technological competition and their stock prices would collapse. On the other hand, you have an insufficient power supply."

"So what’s the result?"

The old man raised a single finger, tapping it lightly on the armrest.

"The result is that industrial and residential power are constantly being squeezed. I saw in a report that residential electricity prices in some of their states have risen by 40% in the past year. In some places, people can’t even afford heating in the winter."

Chen Lin listened to the old man, his brow furrowing slightly.

As a veteran of countless online forums, he quickly pieced together the chain of logic.

’Computing power is electricity.’

’The stronger the AI, the more terrifying its energy demands.’

"Sir, you mean..." Chen Lin said thoughtfully.

"That is the first reason I asked you to come here."

The old man’s gaze became gentle yet firm.

"We must also develop AI and computing power. It’s the overarching trend, and we cannot afford to fall behind."

"However, we are not like them."

"Although I may not understand all the technical details of science and engineering, I have always held firm to one core principle—"

The old man’s voice wasn’t loud, but each word landed with resonant force.

"The ultimate goal of technological development is to enable the people to live better lives, not to sacrifice their interests for the sake of capital appreciation."

"If developing high-tech leads to a point where our people can’t afford electricity, then we’d be better off without that technology at all!"

Chen Lin looked at the old man’s resolute gaze, and his heart was profoundly shaken.

In that moment, he suddenly understood what "vision" truly meant.

Before, when he worked on AI, all he thought about was how to optimize algorithms, reduce VRAM usage, and make money.

But the old man was thinking about technology and the people’s livelihood, about the well-being of the 1.4 billion people on this land.

Chen Lin took a deep breath and nodded solemnly.

"I will remember this, Sir."

"Very good."

The old man nodded in satisfaction, then changed the subject.

"Since we want to develop AI without making the people pay more for electricity, there’s only one way forward: increase our supply and reduce consumption."

"As for reducing consumption, your new algorithm has already done an excellent job. It’s significantly lowered the cost of computing power, which is a major contribution."

"But just reducing consumption isn’t enough. We also need to increase our supply."

The old man looked at Chen Lin, his eyes twinkling with anticipation.

"And that brings me to the second reason I asked you here."

"There are several major projects crucial to our future energy security that have run into some difficulties. After much discussion, the experts have concluded that these problems are, at their core, mathematical problems."

"The most critical project among them..."

The old man paused, then slowly uttered three words:

"Controllable nuclear fusion."