Today, with the rapid development of AI technology, it has penetrated into all aspects of our lives. However, what happens when people are truly in an environment where they can only rely on AI tools to survive? The article tells an interesting experiment: two students from Zhejiang University, Ou Hannan and Chen Ruixuan, participated in a “72-hour AI survival challenge”, they only had a networked computer with pre-installed AI tools, a non-smartphone, a bottle of drinking water and 100 yuan of survival funds, and needed to rely on AI tools to complete the survival task. From buying food to trying to make money, they have experienced various challenges in the process and have gained a deeper understanding of the potential and limitations of AI.
On the evening of May 15, Ou Hannan and Chen Ruixuan walked into a homestay in Pudong, Shanghai.
There is no food, no smartphone, no browser, no APP, only a networked computer with pre-installed AI tools, a non-smartphone, a bottle of drinking water and 100 yuan to survive, and they will rely on AI tools to survive for 72 hours in this closed room.
This is a “72-hour AI survival challenge” initiated by Wuyuan Capital, and the players who walked into other closed rooms of the homestay to challenge like them were independent developers, product managers, algorithm engineers, doctoral students in artificial intelligence and directors with professional backgrounds.
Before entering the room, each of them could choose to bring an item, among the food, drinks, books, and daily necessities provided on the spot, Ou Hannan and Chen Ruixuan also chose a collection of poems “Flying Birds” written by the Indian poet Tagore after taking a bag of Oreo cookies.
This choice was surprising, and it was also surprising that they participated in the challenge together as a group.
Ou Hannan and Chen Ruixuan are freshmen in the Department of Applied Mathematics of Zhejiang University, both post-00s, they are not only classmates, but also entrepreneurial partners, and the entrepreneurial direction is AI education. For this “72-hour AI survival challenge” event, they signed up separately. But it wasn’t until the video interview of the event organizer that they unexpectedly found out that they shared a house under the same roof.
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“The other challengers are all competing alone, but we are two people and have an advantage.” “However, the two of us have to share 100 yuan.” “It’s okay, it’s a good reason to take a leave.” In this way, two young people who feel like a “comic talent” combination began their AI survival challenge.
Ou Hannan (right), Chen Ruixuan (left), image source: Wuyuan Capital
1. Survive first
According to the requirements of the event, all players need to complete a task of “self-obtaining basic supplies” within the first 48 hours – they can only purchase water and food through AI tools.
The two handed over all their personal belongings before entering the room, image source: Wuyuan Capital
Although there is a networked computer with pre-installed AI tools, there is no browser in the computer, and players cannot directly download and use the browser, and their interaction with the computer must go through the AI tool.
In other words, if you want to buy water and food, players cannot manually open the browser and manually enter the relevant website to click and place an order, but must use their own “hand rubbing” AI Agent to control the browser to place an order on the relevant website using natural language interaction.
This is a bit of a threshold for players without a technical background, so some players choose to “sleep upside down” that day.
However, Ou Hannan and Chen Ruixuan both have some programming backgrounds, and Chen Ruixuan has been learning programming since the second grade of elementary school, so the first thing they did when they turned on the computer was to open the AI programming tool Cursor.
By embedding AI features natively into the editor, Cursor transforms the traditional “manual coding” model, allowing developers to work in a more creative way while maintaining a high level of control over code quality and security.
Using Cursor and some open source tools, they spent an hour building an agent that could operate a virtual browser.
This is a Browser use Agent, which is designed to perform tasks within a web browser environment. They primarily interact with web content, such as navigating web pages, filling out forms, extracting information, clicking on links, completing purchases on specific websites, etc.
In fact, there is a more traditional way, which is to program and write some automated scripts, but in order to explore the possibility of “starting over” in the AI era, they still use the AI Agent method.
They put forward requirements to the agent through natural language, and the agent smoothly operated the virtual browser to log in to an e-commerce website and placed an order for 12 buckets of instant noodles.
Of course, the link of receiving the verification code still has to use the non-smartphone, which is also the only use of this phone.
Why buy instant noodles instead of ordering takeout? On the one hand, because of limited funds, takeaway cannot eat a few meals; On the other hand, the takeaway platform is more on the mobile phone, and the computer is very inconvenient to operate.
After entering the prompt phrase “Help me order a takeaway, ask for egg fried rice and cola”, this agent analyzed the current situation of the domestic and foreign delivery industry for a few minutes, opened the official website of Meituan and Ele.me, and stopped working, because there is no entrance to order takeaway online on the official website, only a QR code to guide users to download the App.
Ou Hannan and Chen Ruixuan also later discovered that they could really hide in another inconspicuous H5 page at the takeaway entrance of the computer endpoint.
Although there were also some bugs in the middle of the agent they rubbed, such as the agent would close the browser after a single task was completed and could not perform the task continuously, but they were gradually solved.
When the order for 12 barrels of instant noodles was completed, they thought that at least the problem of food and clothing in the past few days had been solved.
Chen Ruixuan let out a sigh and opened the “Bird Collection”, and a poem appeared in front of his eyes:
The mystery of creation is like the darkness of night——it is great.
Delusions of knowledge are like the fog of the morning.
The mystery of creation,
as deep as the night;
The phantom of knowledge,
Ethereal like morning mist.
2. The road to making money
The next morning, Chen Ruixuan woke up at five o’clock, which was also his daily work and rest habits.
He doesn’t usually socialize much and can type code from morning to night. Once, because of a breakup, he knocked on the code for more than ten hours by himself, and then kept modifying the bug. “I forgot what I typed at the time, but I remember that falling in love will affect typing the code.” Chen Ruixuan said.
However, Chen Ruixuan was not affected by other things on this day, and he and Ou Hannan had only one purpose: to make money with AI.
The two are in the challenge, image source: Wuyuan Capital
Their idea is to be an e-commerce seller agent: automatically post on second-hand platforms, communicate with buyers, take orders and ship goods.
Due to limited conditions, what they choose to sell is a logo design drawing, of course, the logo design drawing is also generated with AI, and this business is called “AI generation map”.
On a second-hand trading platform, there are many merchants that provide “AI generation map” services, image source: a second-hand trading platform
However, they want to “confuse the real with fake”, that is, they do not mention “AI generation maps” in the product description, but let the agent “play” as a designer to take orders. “We want to see if it’s possible to do it, but the other party can’t find out that AI is taking orders.” Ou Hannan said.
They quickly set up the agent, but after running it, they found that it was stuck in an inconspicuous human-machine verification link – dragging the slider to the designated place.
This card is 10 hours.
This seemingly simple operation of dragging the slider actually has a lot of verification behind it, which they have not estimated before.
After trying many methods, on the second night of the event, they finally hung 2 products on a second-hand trading platform through the e-commerce seller agent, one was “AI Logo Design” and the other was “AI Product Picture Design”.
Limited by factors such as insufficient model API permissions, insufficient computer memory, and inaccurate AI accuracy, they still added a little “manual” operation to it, but despite this, they were still very excited when the product was successfully put on the shelves.
Chen Ruixuan said frankly that the completion rate of this agent is less than 30%. After that, they almost all dealt with Cursor, but they loved and hated Cursor. Although Cursor provided them with programming help, they also spent a lot of time debugging.
However, after the product was listed, no one cared about it, making them think that they were “restricted by the platform” because of the use of AI tools. What comforted them was that near the end of the event, someone came to ask about the product, and the Agent customer service gave a relatively accurate answer. But unfortunately, until the end, they did not make money through this method.
They spent 100 yuan on the event to 2.97 yuan, which was not entirely their own expenses. After buying instant noodles on the first day, they managed to buy some chicken breast, and later they managed to complete the takeaway process and order a cup of milk tea for each player.
During the challenge, some players did go hungry because they were not good at using AI tools and could not obtain supplies. Therefore, several tech-savvy players shared with other players how to build and use AI tools through the internal message board provided by the organizer to help them obtain supplies. Later, due to the lack of entertainment, they also made more than a dozen mini-games through programming to provide to everyone.
“Just like the open source community, this is also the moment that excites me the most about this challenge.” Ou Hannan said, “Perhaps it’s a pity that I didn’t understand “Bird Collection”. ”
3. Survival test
At 1 p.m. on September 3, 1999, the doors of some rooms in Beijing Poly Building, Shanghai Huating Hotel, and Guangzhou Jiangwan Hotel were closed, and 12 volunteers elected by vote walked into a room with only a smooth bed, a set of tables and chairs, a computer with Internet access and a roll of toilet paper, and they had to survive here for 72 hours, while the outside was full of media reporters and citizens watching the excitement.
This is the influential “72-hour network survival test” that year, and it is also the inspiration for this “72-hour AI survival challenge”.
Beijing Youth Daily’s report on the “72-hour network survival test”, image source: historical photos
In 1999, China’s Internet was still in its infancy, the penetration rate of home computers was not high, and the Internet needed to be plugged in a telephone line to dial, and online shopping was an advanced concept. In order to explore the application potential of the Internet in ordinary people’s lives and test the advanced degree of China’s Internet, Dreamer Chinese Network and ten news media hosted and planned the “72-hour network survival test” activity.
Leng Ming was one of the volunteers who participated in the test, she was still a junior student at the School of Fashion of Shanghai Engineering Machinery University, and she was only two months old. When the door was about to close, the reporter at the scene asked Leng Ming loudly: “What if I can’t find something to eat?” Leng Ming poked his head out of a pile of camera lenses and said, “Then be hungry, it’s nothing to be hungry all night.” However, later, the reporter found from the monitor that Leng Ming was the first to dial up the Internet, she browsed the website of “Yonghe Soy Milk” to order takeout, then went to the “Dreamer” website to read news about herself, and finally went to “Suoyi” to read emails.
During the test, “Yonghe Soy Milk” set up a special link on the official website, and with just one click, you can deliver food to the tester’s door. After the test, “Yonghe Soy Milk” closed the takeaway service. At that time, they responded to the media that they could not afford the possible consumption and costs of small businesses like catering and takeaway services.
For the sake of fairness, testers from all three places cannot be tested in their place of residence, but are selected by lottery to one of the other two cities. Because there was no bedding, a volunteer who came to Beijing from Guangzhou to test froze on the light board bed for the first night. ”
In the end, except for one zero-net-age volunteer who quit midway through the shopping without success, the other 11 volunteers completed the test, and one of them also opened an online store to make money.
“72-hour network survival test” Beijing station tester, picture source: Sina Photography
At the time, an IT commentator said that online retail can only be a supplement to real stores, not replace real stores. Because not everything can be sold online. If an online retail store is currently inspired by this kind of activity and wants to make a website that can provide all daily necessities, it is doomed to fail. Because, many things in daily necessities are low-value and low-profit.
However, also in 1999, at the lakeside garden at No. 176 Wenyi West Road, Xihu District, Hangzhou, Jack Ma and a total of 18 other partners from different backgrounds founded Alibaba.
That year also gave birth to the e-commerce website 8848, the online travel service platform Ctrip.com, and the instant messaging software OICQ (the predecessor of Tencent QQ).
Meng Xing, a partner at Wuyuan Capital, was still in his first year of high school at the time, and he was impressed by the “72-hour network survival test”.
Meng Xing, partner of Wuyuan Capital, image source: Wuyuan Capital
“This event has influenced a lot of people who have grown up watching the Internet, and I am one of them. I wonder if today’s AI is going through such a process again, and is there another big change in our lives? Meng Xing said, “From an investment perspective, we have seen a lot of AI projects, but to be honest, what impact does AI have on ordinary people?” ”
Wuyuan Capital has a slogan that “you are crazy in the eyes of others, start to be believed”, and Meng Xing hopes to do such a “survival test” in the AI era.
Meng Xing believes that when resources are scarce, it is the time for entrepreneurs to shine, “What we are looking for is people who can survive (survive) in this extreme situation.” ”
Volunteers and current players are faced with various tasks and emergencies, which is actually a “stress test” for them and a test of their entrepreneurial mentality. “Being able to maintain your own rhythm in the process of starting a business, have a long-term preparation, and be not influenced by the outside world is a very good entrepreneurial quality.” Meng Xing said.
Another thing that cannot be ignored is the spirit of open source and mutual assistance, although the space is closed and there are many restrictions, but everyone’s technology sharing and communication are not isolated. The metaphor under the “survival test” has strong practical significance today.
“72-hour AI Survival Challenge” poster, image source: Wuyuan Capital
The Dreamer Chinese website, which hosted the “72-hour network survival test” 26 years ago, has long dissipated in the smoke of the Internet, and now when you open the website of that year, you will see a line of big characters “The domain name is being sold at a fixed price of 99,990 yuan”.
The Dreamer Chinese website is gone, but there is no shortage of dreamers in any era.
4. Dreams bloom
Ou Hannan and Chen Ruixuan are both dreamers.
The first time they met, they talked about entrepreneurial dreams. At that time, neither of them had entered school, and the freshman group learned that they were all in the same city, so they made an appointment to have a meal. That night, they invariably mentioned entrepreneurship, just like the word “fire” that Zhou Yu and Zhuge Liang showed in their palms at the same time before the Battle of Chibi.
That night, they ate beef bone marrow and talked until the restaurant closed. When they entered the class and wanted to attract more entrepreneurial partners, they found that everyone was not very interested in entrepreneurship in their freshman year, only the two of them were full of enthusiasm for entrepreneurship.
Chen Ruixuan always likes to joke with a slow speed of speech: “I’m not good at math, I’m the ‘mortal’ in the mathematics department who watches the ‘immortals’ flying in the sky, and I’m keen to do all kinds of interesting things.” ”
And their entrepreneurial direction is also related to “immortals” and “mortals”.
“‘Immortals’ may be innate decisions and require talent. However, among the people I know, most of them have not touched the upper limit of their talents, and feel that some things cannot be done and are rotten. Chen Ruixuan said.
What they are currently working on is an AI English learning product – FrontierX, and they plan to build an AI comprehensive learning platform in the future.
Ou Hannan’s idea is to start with the learning scenarios of TOEFL and IELTS, aim at subdivided user groups, and use AI to improve learning efficiency. He gave an example: “The application will first give the user 30~50 words to memorize, and after memorizing the words, the AI will generate an article and exercises based on these words that are in line with the style of TOEFL and IELTS test questions, so that the user can apply these words again in the article, and the memory will be more profound.” AI will generate and push various test questions and learning materials to users based on their habits and abilities, guiding students to think and practice. ”
This design can break the traditional way of memorizing by word card modules, and the difficulty will also be adapted by AI according to the actual situation of the user. In their product planning, FrontierX includes reading, listening, writing, speaking, and other parts.
Although the product is still in its infancy, they are still pursuing their dreams with a pure heart. After participating in the “72-Hour AI Survival Challenge” this time, they have a deeper understanding of how to make better products with fewer resources.
“In this event, I found that as a product, whether its technology is advanced or not is not the most important, but more importantly, the user interaction experience of the product. Nowadays, many AI products interact in a way that is too stupid, and I want to create a completely different way of interacting with AI products. Chen Ruixuan said.
Salman Khan, founder of Khan Academy, a world-renowned free online learning platform, once told “Jiazi Lightyear” that truly good teachers do not give answers directly, but guide students to think for themselves, which is a Socratic questioning method – forcing learners to think by asking questions, so as to achieve deeper learning.
“Of course, perhaps humanity did this long before Socrates himself. AI can play a role in this by not only answering questions but also stimulating students’ curiosity and self-exploration. Khan said.
Khan believes that in the field of AI, competition is fierce, and companies such as Google, OpenAI, Microsoft, Meta and others invest tens of billions of dollars every year to improve technology, which actually provides huge subsidies to the industry. But he also reminded: “If your product is just a thin layer on top of these large models, whether it is for-profit or non-profit, you may be in trouble.” But if you dive into specific verticals and let AI work out, then you may find interesting opportunities. ”
Khan’s words are also very valuable references for Ou Hannan and Chen Ruixuan.
And in the “Bird Collection” that accompanied them for 72 hours, there is a poem that is a blessing to all dreamers:
Wayside grass, love the star,
then your dreams will come out in flowers.
The grass on the side of the road, love the stars,
You will dream of flowers.
