Huawei Ren Zhengfei said in a recent speech within the company that Huawei is still in a difficult period, but it has not stopped on the road ahead. In 2022, our R&D expenditure was $23.8 billion, and we will continue to invest in cutting-edge exploration in a few years as our profits increase.
Mr. Ren briefly reviewed the founding and development history of Huawei, and mentioned the difficulties faced by Huawei after being sanctioned and suppressed by the United States. However, Huawei has made preparations in basic theory and invested hundreds of billions to train a group of scientists and technical know-how experts who study basic theory. In the face of difficulties, Huawei people have overcome the blockade of foreign chips, raw materials, markets and other aspects, and achieved stage victory, indicating that they will strengthen cooperation with domestic universities in the future. In the question session after the speech, the questions of internal employees and external people were novel and closely followed the world form, and Mr. Ren's answers were even more exciting, and a brief summary was shared with everyone:
1. Question: Does Huawei have corresponding ideas and specific measures to cooperate with universities in terms of future technical talents?
Mr. Ren: Science and technology are two different concepts, education and science are the same, education does not necessarily have to have accurate answers, accurate answers are not necessarily the needs of schools. Not too pragmatic and demand-oriented. Reading is to get the "key" to open the door, and the method of using knowledge is more important than knowledge. The needs of enterprises are realistic because we have to solve real problems, but education should not focus on real needs, but be oriented to the future.
2. Question: People who have the ability do not have resources, and those who have resources do not have the ability, what advice and guidance does Mr. Ren have?
Mr. Ren: First, only by combining old, middle-aged and young scientists or talents can we overcome major difficulties, and China's future needs to bloom in a hundred flowers.
Second, there will be storms in the future on AI big models, not just Microsoft. The direct contribution of artificial intelligence software platform companies to human society may be less than 2%, 98% is the promotion of industrial society and agricultural society, and the popularization of AI services requires 5G connectivity, and the final contribution to human beings is great.
We should pay attention to applications, especially in industrial and agricultural societies, and the application of models is sometimes more promising than the models themselves. But in addition to the underlying computing power platform of AI, our company's application platform is not our choice. What are the opportunities for ChatGPT for us? It will stretch up the calculation, stretch the pipeline flow, so that our products have market demand.
3. Question: Do personal leadership and personal heroism play a decisive role?
Mr. Ren: On the Internet, the collision of ideas is global, and the spark of collision is also at the forefront of the times. It pushes a huge group to create the world, and the speed of progress in the world accelerates.
In the field of connectivity, we should be the world leader in computing, and if we want to catch up with the United States, we have a window of opportunity, and we must rely on collective strength to promote cluster computing. Our company is called "a cup of coffee absorbs cosmic energy", mainly collective wisdom squeezes and hits each other, your thoughts ignite his spark, his spark ignites a raging fire.
Therefore, individual inventions must have a platform for groups to turn sparks into raging fires. How to unite this platform? Everyone will devote themselves to carrying a "palanquin".
4. Question: After Huawei realized the importance of mathematics, how did it promote and lay out at the company level? Will Huawei continue to strengthen cooperation with university research communities?
Mr. Ren: Mathematics can be used to solve problems in a variety of places, covering a wide range. In the future, towards the information society, the importance of mathematics is getting higher and higher, artificial intelligence is all mathematics, and algorithm problems are mathematical problems. How to solidify some quantities of physics into models using algorithms? This model allows everyone to use it, and the people who use the model do not have to understand, they can use it. Of course, physics, chemistry, neurobiology, engineering, electronics ... It's all very important.
5. Question: How to implement the research plan to Huawei's product line, and how to follow up? Can the person who can give the question also be motivated?
6. Mr. Ren: We can't be too stingy, after the teacher unveils the list, we must give corresponding bonuses and commendations, and combine spiritual and material incentives.
Our learning platform is divided into several parts: first, "Huang Danian Tea House", where all theories (including our own) are fully open, because we believe that Huawei's integration capabilities should be stronger than other companies; The second is the "Jiaxian Network", which is Know-How, which is technology and is currently not open to the society; Third, the technically open part was released to the "Huangdanian Tea House".
We need people with problem-solving ability, and well-rounded people don't play much role in our company. For example, the "Spark Award" is a broken question, and you may also be a "crooked date", except for breaking this question, you don't understand much else. Holistic development is about developing leaders. To the doctorate should not be comprehensively developed, at which point can break through, we should change the evaluation system of doctors. If it can be changed, it will be valuable to the next generation of children.
6. Questions: ChatGPT, electric vehicles, DJI drones... A lot of disruptive innovation is done by start-ups. The first question, how does Mr. Ren view the difference between young people in innovation and entrepreneurship and compliance? The second question, in addition to treatment, can our company give young people some resource encouragement in the system, encourage everyone to break through, innovate, and dare to challenge?
Mr. Ren: First, when entering our company, all new employees in the Sanyapo induction training, everywhere is the list of announced topics, everyone should actively reply to the post, someone will read this post, someone will come to you for coffee, you have to communicate seriously, objection or approval. They are selecting people, and these experts have the power to rank you on the spot and set jobs, because they are very good experts themselves. If he thinks you can develop, the rank will be set high, so why do you have to start at the lowest level? He can also pull you into his project team, and you go straight into the big project team. A large project team does not refer to a large scale, but a high-end project team.
We emphasize "eclectic selection of talents", combining old, middle-aged and young people, and rolling forward in an open environment.
Second, we cannot monopolize talents, employees want to go out to start a business or go to other companies, and people can make the best use of their talents and play their value, which is useful to the country. Not using it well to what he does best, not working well is a waste of his youth.
The key to talent is how to use it. Practice without theory, will be experienced dozens of times in blind groping to feel; Without practice, there is no deep understanding of theory.
7. Question: The world has gradually entered the data age, and algorithms, computing power, and data are the three pillars of the data era. But some data may involve privacy issues that are difficult for companies to provide, so the algorithm is slow to progress. I wonder what Mr. Ren thinks about this issue?
Mr. Ren: Our company's algorithm is an algorithm to solve the computing power, and the energy is mainly focused on how to use the algorithm to reduce the consumption problem in the process of large traffic, and only do the "black soil" basic platform. In principle, we do not do algorithms that solve customer applications, and the algorithm part that serves the business can only be understood by customers. The data belongs to others, and we can borrow it at most.
We may also learn from Google in the future and do some research that has no practical meaning, not necessarily related to Huawei's business, in fact, it is to make more contributions to human society.
8. Question: In some applied mathematics fields, from Huawei's perspective, what problems can we do medium-term or long-term planning?
Mr. Ren: The combination of mathematics and industry should be the task of some specific applied research institutes.
9. Question: There are some uncertainties in basic research, and it is difficult to plan in advance. May I ask Mr. Ren, how do you see the balance between the two?
Mr. Ren: Science is driven by curiosity, and some theories and papers are published, and it may take one or two hundred years for them to play a role. We still have to separate science and technology, and if we talk about doing things with purpose, purpose is technology, not science. Science is your hobby, and it will be done at all costs to figure it out. Therefore, most scientists seem to be "crazy", and few scientists can see the achievements of their research in human society. Scientists are also "ascetics", and the process of advancing scientists to the forefront of science is the same as that of missionaries to Africa.
10. Question: Should some research in universities and some research and development within our company be further coordinated to solve technical problems together?
Mr. Ren: The research of universities is not directly related to the research and development of our company, because universities should undertake the tasks of universities, which is a very broad concept. We cooperate with universities, and our company just puts a little thing in, releases it through the power of universities, and gives full play to the role of university scholars.
The second is to identify some outstanding students, which are our seeds. We need to attract talent from all over the world to solve some of our problems.
11. Question: Is it possible to set up some special data distribution points for Huawei? We come to do some analysis, you do some physical control; You can also do some desensitization of some data and remove Huawei's core technology.
Mr. Ren: First, in the future, the cooperation between our schools and enterprises should be reported once every few years. Second, I'm open to data.
12. Question: What guidance does the cutting-edge research in system simulation modeling in the computing industry have for us?
Mr. Ren: We can't be the first yet, the United States is still powerful, because advanced chip manufacturing is still difficult in China, and we are using other methods to make up for the backwardness in chips. Our construction of a large-scale cloud architecture system simulation laboratory in Shengshi is to build our advanced "digital wind tunnel" to accelerate the iteration speed of scientific research through system modeling, analysis, simulation, verification, and optimization. There are many excellent mathematicians and physicists in the local area, and you should make full use of them.
13. Question: How to do better internal technical cooperation, technological competition, and external technical cooperation?
Mr. Ren: If it is scientifically reasonable, there can be no duplication of resources. The research of multiple modules, in the competition, it is possible that the small module will eat the large module, then we will recognize the leadership of the small module, and it is up to him to integrate resources. The cadre tenure system, the expert circulation system, the learning platform for everyone to discuss... The departmental "wall" was gradually torn down.
14. Question: The school's student assessment orientation is different from our company's assessment orientation.
Mr. Ren: We must all agree with a variety of education models. Our company is a selection system for employees, not a training system, and students should consider whether the work is suitable for your hobbies when choosing whether to come to Huawei or not. The company has only one general ideal, employees can not ask the company to achieve your ideal, you must adapt to this general ideal, participate in the main force combat, play your role. Our main channel will not change.
15. Question: How to keep up with the trend of the times? Second, does Mr. Ren have any good suggestions on the cultivation of talents and guidance of students in colleges and universities?
Mr. Ren: The iteration speed of computers is much faster than the iteration speed of communication, not two or three generations after another, but two or three months, to feel the speed of change in the world. The speed of change in the world will continue to be faster and faster, and the future world will be terrifying. The actual digital soul will not be absent, it is inherited, and AI is subverting our past perceptions. Therefore, changes in human society are unimaginable, and if you want to perceive this change, you must read more literature.