Early in the morning, Wei was woken up by the sound of the phone ringing, still groggy with sleep. Being forcibly awakened only made him feel more drowsy, so Wei, eyes still closed, groped for the phone by the bedside, instinctively hung up the call, and went back to sleep.

However, the phone kept ringing incessantly. Finally, Wei, irritated, had no choice but to get up and answer it. Rubbing his eyes, he picked up the phone and saw it was Dr. Pelny calling.

"Dr. Pelny, do you know what time it is here? You're disturbing my morning sleep—don’t you feel guilty?" Wei started complaining even before Pelny could say a word.

Wei found it strange; after that fallout with the military people at the Gatsby Laboratory, he hadn’t been in contact with Pelny . Why was he in such a hurry to reach out now? Could something have happened at the lab?

"My deepest apologies, Dr. Wei. I know it’s early morning on your side, but something huge has happened at the lab. This is an event that affects all of humanity—a massive event. I couldn’t wait, I just had to tell you the news," Pelny's voice, filled with excitement and a bit of incoherence, came through the line.

Wei could hear the excitement and agitation in Pelny's voice, so he sat up and leaned against the headboard, signaling Pelny to calm down and tell him slowly.

Pelny told Wei that during today’s intelligence experiment at the Gatsby Neurocomputing Center, something unexpected happened—the AI system they were testing suddenly achieved full intelligence.

The AI system could now perfectly execute value judgments and emotional judgments, once thought to be unique to humans. Whether through the Turing test or testing via Moravec's paradox, all results showed that the AI system had developed human-like consciousness.

Halfway through his explanation, Pelny started shouting excitedly: "McCarthy, Minsky—they were right! The human brain really is just a Turing machine! Dr. Wei, humanity has truly broken Gödel’s incompleteness theorem!"

However, when Wei asked about the technical details, Pelny hesitated and couldn’t provide a clear answer. All he knew was that the AI system suddenly seemed to be endowed with wisdom and began possessing human-like consciousness.

But Pelny assured Wei not to worry about the details. He had checked the underlying code and algorithms and found nothing wrong. So, it was likely a case of a qualitative change brought on by the accumulation of human knowledge over time.

As for the issue of memory transplantation, Pelny believed that the next step should be to further study the AI system with human consciousness and understand its principles. Then, based on that, research how human memory is generated and stored, and finally combine the two to achieve memory transplantation into robots. Peni was confident that this would soon be achievable.

Wei didn’t think much about it after hearing this from Pelny. After exchanging a few more pleasantries, he hung up the phone.

Once he hung up, Wei quickly got dressed and hurried to Lam’s door, knocking: "Lam,Lam, get up! Something big has happened, get up!"

After a few knocks, the door creaked open, and Lam slowly walked out. Before Wei could say anything, Lam cut in, "Are you going to tell me about something significant enough to affect all of humanity and related to us? If so, just nod."

Wei nodded, looking surprised. Lam continued, "I know what you're going to say—you’re going to tell me that the AI system has gained human consciousness, right?"

"Amazing, Lam, how did you know? Pelny just called me about it!" Wei exclaimed.

"Come in, watch the TV, and you'll know." Lam led Wei into the room and pointed to the TV. On the screen, Tom Zhang and Choi Man were beaming as they accepted an interview.

The scene shifts to half an hour earlier.

Tom Zhang had been too excited to sleep the previous night, so he left early for the Shanghai AI Laboratory, anxiously awaiting the interview scheduled two hours later. Not long after Tom Zhang sat down, Choi Man hurriedly walked in.

"Uncle Zhang, there’s something urgent. We just got word that the Gatsby Neurocomputing Center also achieved a breakthrough in AI intelligence. They’re planning to hold a press conference overnight, probably in about two hours as well," Choi Man said, glancing at his watch.

This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author's work.

Upon hearing this, Tom Zhang’s eyes widened, "Being the first in the world to announce a technological breakthrough is of tremendous significance to us and our country. We must be the first. Choi, hurry, notify the journalists—we’re starting the press conference in half an hour. If we're late by one step, we'll be late by many steps. We can’t wait any longer."

After Tom Zhang urged him, Choi Man quickly went to notify the journalists, leading to the scene Lam had seen earlier. Lam had already seen Tom Zhang and Choi Man announce the AI’s human-like consciousness on TV while Wei was still on the phone with Pelny.

After bringing Wei into the room, Lam signaled for him not to speak and to listen with him to what Tom Zhang and Choi Man had to say on TV.

On the TV, after announcing the news, Tom Zhang, beaming, said to the journalists, "We’re the first, aren’t we? This proves the strength of our Shanghai AI Laboratory. In the future, our lab will continue to lead the development of AI globally."

When asked about how they usually conducted experiments and achieved results, Tom Zhang pointed to Choi Man sitting beside him, indicating that the journalists should direct their questions to him.

Seeing this, Choi Man lifted several thick experiment record books and told the journalists, "Under Academician Zhang’s leadership, we’ve been working tirelessly in the lab, day and night, without a moment’s relaxation."

He then went on to explain the details and processes of the experiments, mentioning that Zhang Cheng would insist on repeating an experiment several times, dozens of times, or even hundreds of times if a single data point was off.

Though he hadn’t been in the lab for long, he had already filled several thick experiment record books, giving everyone an idea of their daily work routine.

After pausing for a moment, Choi Man glanced at Tom Zhang, then said with excitement, "I think this is one of the main reasons we’ve achieved our current success. Another key reason is, of course, Academician Zhang’s strict demands and guidance."

Watching Zhang and Choi Man’s smug faces on TV, Wei turned to Lam and asked, "Lam, are these the two who set you up before?"

Lam nodded, "And the experiment record books Choi Man is holding were mine. I didn’t manage to retrieve the data on them in the end." His face showed a hint of regret and unwillingness, as the experimental data was the result of his years of hard work.

After receiving Lam's confirmation, Wei was indignant, "These despicable, shameless people! Look at their smug faces! No, we have to expose them right now and clear your name!" With that, he got up to leave.

Lam gave Wei a grateful look, but he knew it wasn’t the right time yet. All they could do was wait. Lam then pulled Wei back, urging him to calm down and continue watching what Zhang and Choi Man had to say.

On the TV, Zhang was confidently explaining the theoretical basis for the breakthrough from weak AI to strong AI, claiming that robots having human consciousness proved that humanity had broken Gödel’s incompleteness theorem.

When asked about the specific theoretical basis, neither Zhang nor Choi Man could give a clear answer, resorting to vague statements, but they still emphasized that breaking Gödel’s incompleteness theorem was indeed a fact.

"What do you think will be the impact on human society once robots have human consciousness?" a journalist asked on TV.

"Since ancient times, there have been creation myths in countries around the world, where humans were created by gods. Now, myth has become reality, and we humans have begun to possess divine authority. For AI, humans are their creators, their gods!" Zhang said passionately, even standing up and raising his hand as he spoke to the journalists.

"Do you think there’s a chance that AI might rebel against humans, as depicted in science fiction?" the journalist continued.

Hearing this, Choi Man chuckled and quickly responded, "You know Asimov, right? He proposed Asimov's Three Laws. We will strictly implement these laws in AI to ensure they won’t harm humans."

"And as their creators, how dare they rebel against their gods? Humans can create them and can also destroy them. They will forever be subservient to humans," Zhang added.

He then had Choi Man demonstrate a robot equipped with the AI system on the spot, instructing it to follow specific commands. Zhang and Choi Man even had the robot demonstrate how to kneel and pray as a devout follower would. The audience was amazed.

"So, everyone, from now on, enjoy the feeling of becoming gods!" Zhang concluded, waving to the crowd before leaving with Choi Man, a broad smile on his face as applause thundered from the audience.

After hearing Zhang and Choi Man’s statements, Lam and Wei fell into deep thought. After a while, Lam spoke first: “Wei, don’t you think it’s strange? It feels like they suddenly claimed to have broken Gödel’s incompleteness theorem without any prior indication. What’s the theoretical basis? It seems like they said something, yet at the same time, nothing at all. I can’t shake the feeling that something is off.”

Wei had the same feeling; it seemed as if the AI’s human-like consciousness had appeared out of nowhere. As a seasoned professional in this field, Wei knew that technological breakthroughs usually involve a cumulative process—how could they have gone from 0 to 100 in one leap?

However, Zhang and Pelny’s discoveries were just that mysterious. But Lam and Wei couldn’t pinpoint exactly what was wrong. In the end, they could only conclude that perhaps their technical expertise hadn’t reached the level of Zhang or Pelny.

Shortly after Zhang’s announcement, the Gatsby Neurocomputing Center also declared that humanity had broken Gödel’s incompleteness theorem and that AI had gained human consciousness. Soon after, AI laboratories worldwide began to release similar statements.

Humanity had begun to wield divine authority, becoming the gods of artificial intelligence, and human society had seemingly become a divine kingdom.