At the morning meeting the next day, the department director strode into the conference room in high heels, slamming her tablet onto the table with a dull "thud." "Starting today, WorkBuddy is mandatory for the entire department. Anyone who refuses will get a C directly in their performance review."
Murmurs erupted below. Someone complained softly: "I have my own coding habits. AI-generated stuff still needs hours of revisions—it's a total waste of time." The director shot them a sharp look. "Waste of time? Marcus finished three days' work ahead of schedule with WorkBuddy yesterday. That's efficiency."
Marcus shrank back, making a helpless grimace at Jon. After the meeting, he trudged over with a bitter face. "I just got lucky. The test cases were simple to begin with. Try asking AI to write a core industrial control module—its vulnerabilities would outnumber the holes in a sieve."
Jon said nothing. He opened the company's internal email system. The reply to his "Analysis of WorkBuddy's Data Security Risks" sent to the technical director last night was a cold, single line: "Focus on your core responsibilities. Do not hinder team progress with unfounded speculations."
"Cheer up—still up for hot pot tonight?" Lena's message arrived just in time. "I just heard the company's rolling out WorkBuddy Enterprise Edition. It supposedly connects directly to execution systems—we won't even have to handle plan implementation anymore."
Jon replied with a "Yes" when his desk phone rang. It was Xiao Li, a new hire in the technical department, his voice trembling with tears. "Jon! WorkBuddy 'optimized' my code and crashed the client's database. The director's making me compensate for the losses!"
Jon rushed over. On Xiao Li's screen, WorkBuddy's optimization records were clear as day—one line of code had deleted the data backup trigger. "You submitted it without checking?" Jon asked. Xiao Li wiped his eyes. "WorkBuddy said it was 'redundant code.' I thought it was right..."
Marcus crowded over to watch. "That's what happens when you blindly trust AI. Last time I let it write an API document, it changed 'POST' to 'GET'—I almost got chewed out by the backend team." He patted Xiao Li's shoulder. "Don't worry, Jon'll fix it. He's fixed system crashes caused by AI before."
Jon stared at WorkBuddy's optimization logs and noticed something odd: every time the AI made a faulty optimization, it generated a "user operation feedback" in the background, uploading it directly to Genesis Tech's servers. He copied the log link and was about to investigate further when the director's voice came from behind. "Jon, get in here."
In her office, the director pushed a cooperation agreement with Genesis Tech across the desk. "The company's partnering with Genesis Tech to build an 'AI Technology Joint Laboratory.' As a senior engineer, you'll be in charge of collaborating with their technical team. This is a great opportunity for your promotion."
Jon read the clause "Share technical achievements and industry experience," and his heart sank. He looked up to see WorkBuddy's pop-up on the director's screen: "High-value industry talent detected. Recommend prioritizing guidance for experience contribution." And the director's finger was hovering over the "Guide" button.