CBN Friday Special丨WAIC 2023 gets underway in Shanghai, spotlighting homegrown AIGC

The World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) 2023 kicked off on Thursday at the Shanghai Expo Center.

The three-day event is being attended by top scientists, entrepreneurs, government officials, and industry experts.

Themed "Intelligent Connectivity, Generating Future", the conference comprises various forums and discussions about core technologies, intelligent terminals, application empowerment, and cutting-edge technology.

A record number of companies are attending the event, which is in its sixth edition this year. Over 400 exhibitors are showcasing a wide variety of products related to scientific intelligence, robotics, meta-universe, smart chips and autonomous driving in a 50,000-square-meter exhibition area. Both figures are at their highest levels since 2018, when the annual event was inaugurated.

Considered the most high-profile artificial intelligence event in China, the WAIC attracted over 600,000 offline visitors and witnessed the signing of 200 major industrial projects with a combined investment of 70 billion yuan over the last five editions.

"In the process of promoting high-quality development, creating high-quality life, and achieving efficient governance, we need to leverage the power of AI to empower all industries more than ever before. Shanghai will make greater efforts to promote the healthy development of AI in the future," said Chen Jining, Shanghai's Party chief, during the opening ceremony on Thursday morning.

China's AI industry is in the midst of a development boom, with the scale of the core industry at 500 billion yuan and the number of AI enterprises exceeding 4,300, Vice Minister of Industry and Information Technology Xu Xiaolan said at the event's opening ceremony.

China has been accelerating its construction of AI-related infrastructure, with its total computing power ranking second globally and its number of 5G stations exceeding 2.8 million, Xu said.

According to 2022 Global AI Innovation Index Report released at the WAIC, China ranks second in Global AI Innovation Index for the third straight year in 2022, as it has been accelerating efforts in expanding its talent pool, building data infrastructure and making technological breakthroughs.

While adhering to self-reliant innovation, China has been actively promoting scientific and technological sharing and exchanges, aiming to contribute to global sci-tech development for the benefit of all mankind, as a number of high-profile US multinationals including Google and Tesla also showcased their AI-powered products and services at the WAIC.

In a video speech delivered to the opening ceremony of the event, Tesla CEO Elon Musk lauded China's advance in the field. Musk said artificial intelligence will play a profound role in the future of human evolution and civilization and predicted that fully autonomous driving could be achieved later this year. He also expects China to have very strong AI capabilities in the future.

AIGC being the centerpiece

Large-language models and generative AI products are the undisputed highlights of this year’s WAIC, which includes a specially allocated area for the booths for more than 30 LLMs.

Chinese internet giants Alibaba Group Holding and Baidu, as well as AI startups such as Sense Time and iFlytek are just some of the LLM developers showcasing their latest products in the exhibition.

NetEase Youdao unveiled an interactive English language learning chatbot at the event, which allows speakers to practice spoken English with the AI model.

Chinese tech firm Meituan also launched the 4.0 version of its unmanned aircraft system. Compared with the previous editions, it has longer delivery range and better performance operating in inclement weather environment.

In terms of semiconductors, a number of domestic chip companies including Enflame, Vastai Technologies and Hexaflake unveiled their cutting-edge AI chips, which enable LLMs to process vast amounts of data at lightning speed.

Fourier Intelligence, a Chinese tech startup specializing in rehabilitation robotics and artificial intelligence, unveiled its first-generation humanoid robot at the event.

Standing 1.65 meters tall and weighing 55 kg, the robot, named GR-1, is able to walk at 5 km per hour and carry a load of up to 50 kg, the company said. With human-like motion control, it can walk bipedally, avoid obstacles, ascend and descend a slope with stability, and withstand shocks.

With the help of cognitive intelligence provided by ChatGPT-like tools, the robot is capable of interacting with humans while performing a variety of movements and tasks. General-purpose humanoid robots can be used in an array of scenarios including industrial production, rehabilitative care, scientific research and household service.

Meanwhile, several AIGC industry alliances were founded in Shanghai during the opening session, such as the Corpus Data Alliance for Foundation Model and the Large Model Assessment and Collaborative Innovation Center.

AIGC features like ChatGPT are initially being used in office work and collaboration and would be used further in next-generation robots, which would be more powerful and intelligent, Yao Qizhi, winner of the Turing Award and dean of the Shanghai Qi Zhi Institute, told the WAIC's opening forum.

China’s AI race intensifies

ChatGPT is currently making waves around the world with its user base crossing 100 million just two months after its launch.

Over the past two months alone, several Chinese tech companies have announced significant progress in the development of LLMs.

On June 28, ByteDance's Volcano Engine has announced the launch of Volcano Ark, an AI model service platform.

On June 9, iFlytek released version 1.5 new AI-driven cognition model “Spark” as the company aims to exceed ChatGPT's capabilities in Chinese language, reaching the same level as the English chatbot possibly in the fourth quarter this year.

During the Huawei Developer Conference Cloud 2023 today, the tech giant launched the much-anticipated Pangu Large Scale model 3.0. Huawei Executive Director and Huawei Cloud CEO Zhang Pingan said the new model focuses on value scenarios and is committed to being robust for government affairs, finance, manufacturing, coal mines, railways, pharmaceuticals, meteorology, and other industries.

Chinese organizations have launched over 80 LLMs as of July, according to Zhang.

The leading LLMs in China have shown impressive performance, comparable to GPT3.5, industry insiders said. Among them, Baidu's ERNIE bot has surpassed GPT3.5 and ranks first among domestic large models, according to a test made by China Academy of Industrial Internet (CAII).

In the automotive industry, Changan Automobile is leveraging Baidu's ERNIE bot to develop generative AI products, in order to enhance user experience for mass-produced vehicles.

360 Security Group is also adapting its LLM into various scenarios. In smart city application, a LLM developed by 360 surpassed ChatGPT in the national certified tax agents examination, the company said on Wednesday.

"Large language models will become standard in every digital system, deployable in smartphones and cars, and ubiquitous,"Zhou Hongyi, the founder of 360 Security Group said at Global Digital Economy Conference in Beijing on July 2.

According to a report by iResearch, the market size of China's AI industry is estimated to reach 612.2 billion yuan by 2027, with a compound annual growth rate of 25.6 percent from 2022 to 2027.

While the US has consistently held the position of global leader in terms of the number of large models, China has entered a phase of rapid development since 2020 and is currently experiencing synchronized growth with the US.

However, there are still some gaps between domestic and foreign models in terms of precision and universality, particularly when compared to advanced models like GPT4.

To promote implementation of LLMs and empower digital innovation and transformation across industries, a number of Chinese cities have joined forces in this endeavor.

Shanghai will continue to focus on embodied intelligence research and applications, with a particular emphasis on machine vision, natural language processing, and training LLMs for robots.

Beijing city has also taken note of the evolving situation and plans to ramp up policy support and leadership in setting standards. Efforts will be made to support Beijing's AI enterprises and various industry organizations in playing a leading role in the formulation of broad industry standards, including model performance, data security and privacy protection, according to a recent document.

在AI熱潮席卷全球之際，2023世界人工智能大會于7月6-8日在上海舉辦。

以“智聯世界 生成未來”為主題本屆大會聚焦科學前沿和産業發展，圍繞技術、産業、人文三大話題，重點關注大模型、智能晶片、科學智能、機器人、類腦智能、元宇宙、自動駕駛、資料論壇、法治與安全、區塊鍊等十大前沿風向。

值得注意的是，今年大會重磅回歸線下，參展企業數量、展覽面積均創曆屆之最。5萬平方米世部落客展覽涵蓋核心技術、智能終端、應用賦能、前沿技術四大闆塊，包括大模型、晶片、機器人、智能駕駛等領域，參展企業超400家，優秀初創企業超50家，首發首展新品達30餘款。

上海市委書記陳吉甯在開幕式上指出，放眼全球，人類社會已進入創新密集活躍的大科學時代。以大模型為代表的人工智能突飛猛進，正推動新一輪科技革命和産業變革加速演進。新征程上，上海要努力推動高品質發展、創造高品質生活、實作高效能治理，比以往任何時候都更加需要發揮人工智能賦能百業的“頭雁效應”、拉動發展的“乘數效應”。

工業和資訊化部副部長徐曉蘭在開幕緻辭時表示，在各界的共同努力下，大陸人工智能産業蓬勃發展。徐曉蘭表示，大陸人工智能核心産業規模達到5000億元，企業數量超過4300家，智能晶片開發架構、通用大模型等創新成果不斷湧現。

開幕式上，特斯拉創始人兼首席執行官埃隆·馬斯克以視訊方式“現身”并發表講話。馬斯克說，中國一旦下定決定要做一件事情，就一定能做好，各個産業都是這樣，包括人工智能，相信中國會有很強的人工智能能力。

馬斯克表示，生成式人工智能的出現，對人類文明正産生着非常深刻的作用和影響，随着數字計算能力的爆炸式增長，機器計算能力和生物算力的比例正在不斷擴大，這意味着，機器和生物的算力差距在進一步擴大，經過一段時間之後，人工的智能所占的比例會越來越低，這将是一個根本性的深度的變化。

中國科學院院士、清華大學交叉資訊研究院院長姚期智表示，在ChatGPT之後，人工智能研究的下一個重要目标，是要讓有多重感覺能力的機器人，在不同的環境下能夠自主學習新技能。

談及大模型在垂直領域的發展，姚期智認為，最容易想到的場景就是文書工作，基于大模型的語言，更多的工作可以交由機器來做。他同時指出，當下業内的強化學習方法速度太慢，常常需要幾個月的時間才能學好新技術，如果有強化學習的方法讓機器人在幾個小時内就能完成自主學習，将是重大的突破。

圖靈獎得主、被譽為“深度學習三劍客”之一的Meta AI基礎人工智能研究(FAIR)團隊首席人工智能科學家楊立昆(Yann LeCun)直言，不喜歡AGI(通用人工智能)這個名詞。他解釋稱，每一個智能都是專項的，人類智能也是非常專業、專項的，但LLM(大語言模型)隻基于文本訓練，不是利用視訊訓練，是以它們不了解實體世界，沒辦法規劃、推理，就沒辦法實作目标。

對于如何實作AI的治理和規範，楊立昆認為可以通過可控的方法、設定安全護欄等使它們不會出現欺騙和支配人類的行為。他認為，嚴格監管人工智能發展并不能保證AI安全，從長遠看，開源才能讓AI保持安全、良善。未來每個人都能通過人工智能助手和數字世界溝通。如果人工智能隻被少數人控制，這是不可以的。

“大模型”由虛向實

若論及此次世界人工智能大會最為“吸睛”的存在，大模型當仁不讓。

這次展會上共有20餘款機器人參展，并集中展示30餘款通用或行業用大模型。

其中，商湯日日新、百度文心一言、科大訊飛星火認知大模型、華為雲盤古大模型、阿裡雲通義千問、京東雲言犀大模型、清華大學ChatGLM、複旦大學MOSS以及出門問問序列猴子、360智腦大模型、第四範式的式說大模型等10餘家廠商研發的基礎應用大模型将集體亮相。

在WAIC展台上，螞蟻集團首次系統展示螞蟻可信AI的技術架構，以及全新更新的可信AI工業檢測平台——蟻鑒2.0。該平台可以通過智能對抗技術，生成海量測試集，對AIGC生成式模型進行互動誘導。可以了解成，它像一個24小時不眠不休的“安全黑客”在找茬大模型，進而找到大模型存在的弱點和安全問題所在。

商湯科技此次帶來了“商湯如影SenseAvatar”AI數字人視訊生成平台。該公司相關負責人對21世紀經濟報道記者稱，如影數字人生成方案隻需一次真人素材錄入，就能生成超寫實的數字分身，實作視訊制作效率的指數級提升。

目前，這一平台主要場景是幫助企業和個人輕松開展數字人短視訊、直播等内容創作，同時也可為教育教育訓練、企業宣傳、娛樂文化等領域提供視訊解決方案。

ChatGPT主導的對話式AI，令普通人能輕易感覺和了解人工智能，人和資料結合、互動比以往任何時候都更順暢。但是，大模型的發展和落地也需要時間探索。任何技術，歸根結底需要為産業和場景服務。

例如，科大訊飛、網易有道等科技公司的大模型落地，就率先瞄準了教育領域的場景。網易有道自研的大模型“子曰”最新應用成果也首次亮相。虛拟人口語教練跟使用者可以互動，它不僅能夠針對練習者的回答提供情感回報，還可以主動抛出問題。

昨日，華為輪值董事長胡厚崑在WAIC稱，2022年底ChatGPT的出現，将人工智能推向新風口，人工智能将幫助人類改寫身邊的一切。“走深向實”則是華為的重要戰略。

胡厚崑透露，目前華為雲生态已孵化了20多個基礎的大模型，同時還适配了10多個業界主流的大模型。另外，華為雲盤古大模型已經深入金融、制造、政務、電力、煤礦、醫療、鐵路等10多個行業，支撐400多個業務場景的AI應用落地。

WAIC上，機器人同樣十分亮眼。被譽為“制造業皇冠頂端的明珠”，機器人的研發、制造、應用是衡量一個國家科技創新和高端制造業水準的重要标志。在本屆世界人工智能大會上，機器人展品琳琅滿目。

比如，特斯拉就展示了明星機器人Optimus人形機器人。據了解，Optimus搭載了與特斯拉汽車同源的最新科技，包括完全自動駕駛能力（FSD）電腦以及Tesla Vision視覺神經網路。特斯拉人形機器人身高172公分，體重56.6公斤，與一個正常成年人的身形無異。機器人全身擁有28個自由度，就如同人體的關節。手部有11個自由度，可以更加靈活的抓握，且力大無比，可以單手舉起一台鋼琴。

本土科創公司傅利葉智能帶來的人形機器人GR-1身高1.65米，體重55公斤，全身自由度達40個，最大關節模組峰值扭矩可達300NM，步行速度可達到5KM/h，負重50公斤。這款機器人有高度仿生的軀幹構型、拟人的運動控制，具備快速行走、靈活避障、穩健上下坡、抗沖擊幹擾等運動功能，結合認知智能，能夠與人協同完成動作，在工業、康複、居家、科研等多應用場景潛能巨大。

“就像從台式電腦到個人電腦，再到手機的發展趨勢一樣，通用人形機器人未來會逐漸成為行業的主流。”傅利葉智能負責人表示，目前通用人形機器人硬體基礎基本奠定，大模型推動的應用浪潮即将來臨。“我們感受到通用人形機器人的商業化未來可期，是以其也搶抓先機，将發展戰略逐漸切入到萬億級通用機器人領域。”

在業内人士看來，随着AI的快速演進，機器人變得更加“可支配”，未來落地生活場景的方方面面也具備了更多可能性。

“百模大戰”風起雲湧

由Open AI掀起的“百模大戰”正在上演。

今天，在華為開發者大會2023（Cloud）上華為常務董事、華為雲CEO張平安宣布，華為雲盤古大模型3.0正式釋出。張平安表示，盤古大模型3.0是一個完全面向行業的大模型系列，包括5+N+X三層架構，圍繞“行業重塑，技術紮根，開放同飛”三大方向，持續打造自己的核心競争力，将重塑千行百業。

自今年3月，基于文心大模型3.0打造的百度新一代知識增強大語言模型“文心一言”公開邀測之後，阿裡通義千問、訊飛星火大模型、智譜AI的ChatGLM 等紛紛釋出。此後，美團、百川智能、雲知聲、美圖、騰訊……新加入大模型賽道的國内科技公司此起彼伏。

目前，中國緊跟潮流，已進入大模型快速發展期。從全球已經釋出的大模型分布來看，中美兩國數量合計占全球總數的超80%，美國在大模型數量方面居全球之首，中國目前則已進入大模型快速發展期，與美國保持同步增長态勢。

截至7月3日，大陸10億級參數規模以上大模型已超80個，大模型産業将進入“百模大戰”時代。

“我們把大模型及相關産品分為三類。第一類是通用大模型，如OpenAI的ChatGPT、百度的‘文心一言’、科大訊飛的‘星火’等都屬于通用大模型。第二類是行業大模型。第三類是基于通用大模型或行業大模型的應用型服務。目前已經釋出的産品大多集中在第一類和第二類。”有業内人士表示，“從參數量來看，‘文心一言’等通用大模型的參數量在1000億級别，其他企業或初創公司大模型參數量通常在100億、10億級别。”

全國多地正在以大模型作為人工智能發展突破口，搶占行業和市場發展新高點。7月2日，北京釋出全國首個政務服務大模型場景需求。共涉及市政務服務管理局、市中小企業服務中心等32個項目，涵蓋智慧政務、智慧辦公等14類場景。北京市政務服務大模型在國内外探索大模型助力政務管理實踐方面具有極強的示範帶動意義，在推動大模型賦能千行百業、加快推進大模型商業化落地應用等方面也極具吸引力。

Executive Editor: Sonia YU

Editor: LI Yanxia

Host: Stephanie LI

Writer: Stephanie LI

Sound Editor: Stephanie LI

Graphic Designer: ZHENG Wenjing, LIAO Yuanni

Produced by 21st Century Business Herald Dept. of Overseas News.

Presented by SFC

編委: 于曉娜

策劃、編輯：李豔霞

播音：李瑩亮

撰稿：李瑩亮

音頻制作：李瑩亮

設計：鄭文靜、廖苑妮

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