Nick swept his gaze over the group, then looked at the General. "Honestly, sir, I'm just a laid-back guy. I can't stand red tape and rigid protocols."
"The research institute is incredible—top-tier facilities, brilliant minds—but the restrictions are tough for me. I can handle the discipline in my personal life, but I find it hard to breathe when there are walls around my scientific research. I want to use what I've learned to push boundaries in more areas, to give back to society, and serve the country on a broader scale."
"Take this drone tech, for example. In the military, it's a weapon to protect the home front and defend against foreign threats. But in the civilian sector, it can trigger massive upgrades across dozens of industries—maybe even start an industrial revolution."
"The light shows we did with DJI got an incredible reaction in Miami and NYC, and now we're getting booking requests from all over. We're also working on intelligent logistics with Amazon, and we've made huge strides. We expect our first fully automated smart warehouse to be ready for a pilot run very soon."
"Drone delivery R&D is also about to kick off. I think it's going to turn the entire logistics industry on its head. Faster, more efficient deliveries will change lives, especially for people in rural or remote areas. Then there's autonomous driving, smart agriculture—the list goes on."
"Beyond that, I have other projects in the pipeline. We've already started the groundwork and recruited a significant number of top-tier engineers and scientists recently. I truly believe that once this next technology is ready, you'll all be floored."
"Haha, I see. You just like the freedom of the private sector," the General said with a hearty laugh. "I get it. That's how a lot of young people feel. Military life isn't exactly the Four Seasons, so those concerns are valid."
"However, we are already pushing reforms to make the service more attractive to top social talents. That's the only way our national defense stays strong and our people stay safe. But I respect your choice. I believe someone with your talent will shine and contribute no matter where you're standing. I look forward to seeing what else you pull out of your sleeve for the country."
"Thank you, sir. I won't let you down." Nick nodded earnestly. "Even if I'm in the private sector, my heart is with the service. If the military ever needs me, I'll be there—I'll give everything I've got."
"That's the attitude I'm looking for," the General said, clearly impressed. "The military needs that bridge to civilian innovation."
"Nicholas, can you give us a hint about this new project?" Denzel asked, leaning in. "There are no outsiders here; your secret is safe with us."
Bill nodded, smiling. "Come on, tell us. I'm dying to know."
During their time working together, they'd picked up on the fact that Nick's company had been on a massive hiring spree and buying up high-end hardware. They were curious, but Nick had always been vague. Now that he'd teased it himself, Dye and Maddox weren't about to let him off the hook.
Seeing the expectant looks around the table, Nick bit the bullet. "Actually, it's not that crazy. It's an intelligent voice assistant. Sort of like the smart speakers you see on the market now."
"Wait, what?" Everyone looked confused. If it was just another Alexa or Siri clone, why the massive investment? This kid was definitely holding out on them.
Seeing their skeptical faces, Nick knew he had to dig deeper. "For a long time, AI has been a massive hype machine. We've seen some incredible breakthroughs, but also a lot of vaporware just designed to grab headlines."
"The thing that inspired me is a technology that's really matured in the last couple of years: DeepFakes. Replacing one face with another in a video. That kind of VFX isn't new to Hollywood, but it used to take a team of professional editors weeks of work to get it right. Now, with the right AI algorithms and a decent GPU, anyone can create a highly realistic face-swap at home."
"There's a newer branch of this emerging, too. They're using AI to simulate human lip-syncing—adjusting the way a person's mouth moves to match a new audio track. In the near future, what a person looks like and what they appear to be saying in a video could be completely fabricated. It's a massive challenge for digital security."
The mood at the table shifted. These were military men; they immediately saw the tactical implications. If you can forge a person's appearance and speech perfectly, you've just unlocked the ultimate tool for psychological warfare, propaganda, and deep-cover intelligence. It would be a nightmare for an adversary to maintain internal trust.
Bill frowned. "But what does that have to do with a voice assistant? You said you were working on..."
Nick smiled and nodded. "I have some theories. I'm not sure if they'll pan out yet."
A collective gasp went around the table. If current tech can simulate the face and the lips, and Nick was building the piece that could perfectly simulate the voice and the intent... the possibilities were terrifying.
The discussion immediately pivoted to how to weaponize this—and how to defend against it. However, the room seemed to fixate entirely on the "Voice" part of Nick's project, instinctively overlooking the "Assistant" part. They didn't realize that the intelligence behind the voice—the core AI brain—was the real breakthrough Nick was hunting for.