The digital era corresponds to the "five comprehensive information", that is, all airspace ubiquitous, whole process continuity, full intelligent analysis, full value superposition and full data analysis, with five characteristics: structure, dynamic, order, credit, and ecology
Looking forward to the future, the business model in the era of artificial intelligence will present three new characteristics: customization, service-oriented, and ecological
A smart city must be a city with people-centered and systematic development, and it must form a five-in-one urban operation intelligent system based on data elements and digital technology
After realizing urban dataization, networking and intelligence, it is necessary to rationally plan and develop the digital space of the city according to the ecological, cultural and industrial characteristics of each city, so that each subject can live, work and trade fairly, across physical space and digital space
Text | Huang Qifan, Executive Vice Chairman of the Academic Committee of China National Innovation and Development Strategy Research Association and former Mayor of Chongqing
The light of data, candlelight forward; Technology changes and empowers development. In February this year, the CPC Central Committee and the State Council issued the "Overall Layout Plan for the Construction of Digital China", which pointed out that the construction of digital China is an important engine for promoting Chinese-style modernization in the digital era and a strong support for building new advantages in national competition.
At present, the new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation and the mainland's accelerated transformation of economic development mode have formed a historical convergence, and digitalization, networking and intelligence have released strong momentum in building a new development pattern, building a modern economic system, and building new advantages in national competition.
The construction of digital China is a systematic project spanning economic, political, social, life, security and other fields, and understanding the internal logic of digital China construction to empower high-quality economic development is of great significance to winning the historical initiative in promoting high-quality economic development.
Visitors visit and learn about intelligent machinery at the 2023 China International Big Data Industry Expo held in Guiyang (taken on May 26, 2023) Photo by Tao Liang/This magazine
The "Five Essential Information" in the Digital Age
As an economic factor, data has its specific nature and characteristics, and human beings form wisdom by processing data. Generally speaking, data has six characteristics: data is inexhaustible; Raw data is fragmented and meaningless; Data cannot be completely "raw", and its processing process is from disordered to orderly; Data can produce data; Data generates value and property rights in the process of utilization; Data can be transferred and bought and sold multiple times. Thanks to these six characteristics, human beings can recognize laws, explore truth, create brilliant scientific and cultural achievements, inherit rich experience and skills, and promote the progress of civilization in the process of continuously generating, using and refining data.
Information is the key to understanding the world, and the real world corresponding to different information forms and connotations is different. The agricultural era corresponds to natural information, the industrial age corresponds to market information, and the Internet era corresponds to traffic information. The digital era corresponds to the "five complete information", that is, all airspace ubiquitous, whole process continuous, full intelligent analysis, full value superposition and full data analysis, with five characteristics: structure, dynamic, order, credit, and ecology.
It can be said that the "five complete information" is the key to the formation of wisdom. Original, fragmented data can become "five complete information" through refining and cleaning, and only then can it have the value from information to knowledge, knowledge to judgment, judgment to wisdom.
From raw data to the generation of "five complete information", it must go through five steps: the first is digitalization, to achieve "the voice of all things"; The second is networking, to achieve "everything connected"; The third is intelligence, to achieve "human-machine dialogue"; The fourth is intelligence, which must realize "intelligent networking". After completing these four steps with raw data, there are conditions to enter the fifth step - digital twin, which transforms the massive data generated by the entire system into "five complete information" through dynamic, continuous, real-time, two-way linkage and interaction between physical entities and digital models.
Based on the above, the underlying technology, software and hardware infrastructure that supports human society to complete digitalization, networking, intelligence, intelligence, and then realize digital twins is a digital platform formed by the organic combination of digital technologies such as big data, cloud computing, mobile Internet, artificial intelligence and blockchain, and this digital platform is similar to an intelligent body with a human body structure.
Artificial intelligence is the soul of digital platforms
The basic functions and applications of digital platforms are innovative, helping human digital civilization to prosper step by step. Among them, the development of artificial intelligence plays a key role.
Since Alan Turing proposed the "Turing test" in "Computing Machines and Intelligence" in the 50s of the last century, and the seminar held by Dartmouth College in the United States first proposed the concept of "artificial intelligence", the development of artificial intelligence officially kicked off. In the development process of more than 70 years, artificial intelligence has evolved into eight key technologies: deep learning, augmented learning, pattern recognition, data search, machine vision, knowledge engineering (popular science, social consensus, professional knowledge), natural language understanding, and brain-like interactive decision-making.
Since 2023, the launch of a series of AIGC (content generative artificial intelligence) achievements at home and abroad represents that artificial intelligence has entered a stage of rapid development. At present, artificial intelligence technology represented by ChatGPT can collect, analyze and process massive data from around the world through intelligent algorithms and big data analysis, and the application scenarios of large-scale AI models far exceed the scope of conversational chat, and even develop the ability of reasoning, understanding and abstract thinking.
Taking ChatGPT as an example, it has achieved the following major breakthroughs: First, it has moved away from artificial rules and statistics, and has shown more general intelligence than previous AI models. Second, visual abilities have been developed from dialogue, and once equipped with limb tools, they can be competent for basic human work. The third is to be able to learn new knowledge independently and imitate humans to make decisions when training without samples.
Artificial intelligence is applied to various industry scenarios, which will profoundly change various industries such as office, e-commerce, entertainment, education, and media, and lead artificial intelligence to achieve the leap from perception and understanding to intelligent creation. Looking forward to the future, the business model in the era of artificial intelligence will present three new characteristics: customization, service-oriented, and ecological.
The first is customization. The private deployment and personalized customization of the system will be the prerequisite for the large-scale safe application of artificial intelligence technology in the future. This means that personal AI will be isolated from public network AI, and organizations or individuals will ensure their own data security when they obtain the most comprehensive services that meet the industry average.
The second is servitization. In the Internet era, technology companies make money in freemium, personalized advertising, subscription, etc. In the era of artificial intelligence, an artificial intelligence company can make money in terms of service and support in a variety of ways after selling products.
The third is ecology. In the future, if the AI products of technology companies want to amplify their benefits, they will inevitably establish a complete artificial intelligence ecosystem, covering links from hardware devices to software applications, algorithm models and data platforms, forming a complete industrial chain.
The "Big Five" of the Fourth Industrial Revolution
Large products with artificial intelligence as the core technology will become the "five major pieces" corresponding to the fourth industrial revolution. Each era will give birth to worldwide durable consumer goods, which have different forms, functions and use scenarios, but their underlying technical basis is often similar, and they are the most advanced productivity representatives in the social life scene at that time.
At present, the fourth industrial revolution that is taking place in the world is the era of artificial intelligence and intelligent networking, and the new generation of core technology artificial intelligence will become the commanding height of a new round of industrial transformation, and the new generation of "five major pieces" empowered by artificial intelligence will enter thousands of households and become the main battlefield of global industrial competition. These large products have begun to emerge, including the following five types:
One is a household robot that can be competent for the basic work of human beings. This kind of housekeeping robot has intelligent sensors similar to eyes, ears, nose, and tongue, which can sense the surrounding environment with high precision; It has a mechanical body that can move and can take on jobs such as housekeeping.
The second is a content output robot with logical judgment ability. After massive pre-training of large models, the function of this robot is not to become a search engine for finding cases, but to make effective judgments according to specific scenarios based on the scientific common sense, social consensus and professional knowledge obtained by its own learning and refinement. This kind of robot does not have to have the form of a robotic arm or a robotic foot, it may be a terminal, but it can output content and undertake secretarial and assistant work.
The third is an AR/VR headset or glasses with a brain-computer interface. Brain-computer interface is to establish direct communication between the brain and external machines, equipped with this function AR/VR glasses or helmets, will become a new way of human-computer interaction, only capture the brain's electrical signals to achieve human-computer interaction. In the future, this device can even have the function of brain-like interactive decision-making.
The fourth is self-driving clean energy vehicles. With the development of clean energy vehicles, intelligent driving functions with artificial intelligence digital technology as the core will gradually penetrate and integrate, connect road transportation and traffic infrastructure in real time, respond quickly to complex road conditions and traffic information, improve driving safety and urban traffic efficiency, and greatly expand the value space of automobiles as a means of transportation.
The fifth is 3D printing that breaks through the limitations of materials. 3D printing gives people the ability to customize the tools they need, and the current 3D printing has limitations in the material link, such as directly synthesizing raw materials into new substances, and making breakthroughs in materials is the key to the development of 3D printing equipment.
Once these products mature, the market size will reach the trillion-dollar level, and these industries will become a key battleground for international competition. In this regard, we must actively carry out forward-looking layout and form a number of globally competitive industrial clusters around these key industries.
Five-in-one smart city system
The symbol of the city's comprehensive intelligence is the deep release of human wisdom and the formation of a five-in-one smart city system of economy, government affairs, culture, society and ecological civilization.
With the continuous development of artificial intelligence technology, human beings are approaching intelligence from a technical level. With the help of artificial intelligence technology, human beings will break through the existing sensory limitations, further release the potential of the brain, have more accurate judgment of the nature of things, more effective reasoning and decision-making, carry out more creative and development potential work, and then build a smarter, more civilized, democratic and prosperous urban intelligent development and operation system.
The "Overall Layout Plan for Digital China Construction" points out that the construction of digital China should comprehensively empower economic and social development and realize the systematic development of economic, government, cultural, social and ecological civilization. A smart city must be a city with people-centered and systematic development, and it must form a five-in-one urban operation intelligent system based on data elements and digital technology.
First, economic development is intelligent. Driven by AI and other technologies, the urban economy is gradually moving towards a stage of intelligent development. The city's data resources will form a stable and intelligent economic cycle, and continue to create value for the city in the process of empowering hundreds of industries. Urban formats will run on the developed data infrastructure of human beings, and a large number of repetitive tasks will be replaced by AI, and human beings will be engaged in intelligent work that fully reflects the creativity of human brains. Through this intelligent operation system, the value of human labor has been unprecedentedly amplified, and human exploration ability to explore the unknown world has been maximized.
Second, social life is intelligent. In the era of AI, digital technology is fully integrated into social communication and daily life, public services and social operation methods are constantly innovating, and the smart life enjoyed by all people has become a reality. At the basic level of life, human clothing, food, housing and transportation will become more intelligent, and human beings can meet the intelligent operation of basic life with minimal individual consumption; At the level of digital consumption, driven by urban and rural smart systems, a large number of digital needs have been activated, constantly opening up new consumer markets; At the level of public services, the intelligent operation system of urban and rural areas has been initially established, the social development problems faced by the industrial era have been solved, and the livability of urban and rural areas has been improved.
Third, government services are intelligent. Under the overall digital architecture of AI cities, according to the multi-level needs of urban digital development, establish an institutional rule system suitable for the intelligent operation of the government system. First, consolidate the urban government data infrastructure and build a national integrated government affairs big data system; Secondly, realize the interconnection of information systems networks, on-demand data sharing, and efficient business collaboration of various government departments; Third, actively expand the smart governance of urban digital space, extend government services to digital space, and form a new government service model that integrates data and reality.
Fourth, cultural prosperity and wisdom. Urban and rural physical space and digital space will become the carrier of culture, through intelligent means and tools, can help a large number of Chinese traditional culture to digitalization, marketization, can also orderly guide the prosperity of new culture, data, algorithms, computing power and people together, to create China's unique, confident and prosperous digital culture. Urban cultural big data system and artificial intelligence infrastructure have laid the foundation for the generation, dissemination, service and consumption of culture, and human beings will further demonstrate their intelligent creative ability, and produce new digital culture formats that span the digital and real space and world-leading digital cultural enterprises.
Fifth, the wisdom of ecological civilization. The governance model of urban ecological environment has begun to become intelligent, and a unified ecological civilization big data system has been formed. Based on the three-dimensional "one map" of natural resources and the basic information platform of land and space, cities can better use digital technology to promote the integrated protection and systematic governance of landscapes, forests, fields, lakes, grass and sand, better develop ecological civilization data, build digital maps of natural space through digital twin technology, and realize more intelligent utilization and development models of water resources, carbon resources, air resources, and forest and grass resources.
Governance of digital twin cities
Cities in the AI era are digital twin cities composed of physical space and digital space, and full attention should be paid to the governance of digital space. With the acceleration of urban digitalization, cities, enterprises, and individuals have begun to form diversified digital models, and various basic technologies for building digital spaces have begun to mature, preparing for the construction of digital twin cities.
From the perspective of individual residents, in the future, urban residents will work and start businesses, handle business, shop and entertainment, make friends and learn in the digital space, and urban and rural areas where people gather will move towards digital twins and give birth to a new form of urban integration of digital and reality.
Building a digital twin city is not a smart city in the general sense, but a demand-oriented establishment of a market system and governance system in the digital space, which is an important means to develop urban data elements and an important growth point for the future urban economy. After realizing urban dataization, networking and intelligence, it is necessary to rationally plan and develop the digital space of the city according to the ecological, cultural and industrial characteristics of each city, so that each subject can live, work and trade fairly, across physical space and digital space.
From the perspective of urban management, full attention should be paid to the governance of urban digital space. From the perspective of the integration of data and reality, rethink the urban governance model and build the basic norms for the governance of digital and real space. For example, creditworthiness is the most basic social norm, and the credit system is the data and institutional system shared by the two spaces, which is the key to future urban governance. Based on blockchain, big data, artificial intelligence and other technologies, a fairer, more reliable and safe credit system covering urban and rural areas can be established, relevant legislation on digital space can be strengthened, and the behavior of individuals, enterprises and governments in digital space can be regulated, avoiding monopoly, big data killing, invasion of privacy and other phenomena, so that digital space can become a new source of urban economic vitality and a new supplement to residents' happy life.
As the carrier of the modern industrial system, the city is entering a new stage of development, and the development path of digitalization, intelligence and intelligence requires the people of the whole country to forge ahead and have the courage to create. Today's world is experiencing major changes unprecedented in a century, China's urban construction should complete, accurate and comprehensive implementation of the new development concept, maintain strategic concentration, adhere to people-oriented, apply artificial intelligence and other digital technologies, coordinate the physical and digital spaces, plan the digital development path of the city, and strive to create a new model of urban development leading human civilization in the AI era!
A balance must be struck between development and security
Artificial intelligence is both a major opportunity and a potential risk, and it is necessary to balance development and security. At present, there are many controversies in the development of artificial intelligence, such as artificial intelligence will replace human jobs, resulting in a large number of unemployment; whether the robot should be self-aware; whether artificial intelligence should have moral concepts, etc. With the rapid development of artificial intelligence technology, these problems will become more and more urgent and intractable.
On the one hand, it is necessary to remain vigilant against its potential risks and continuously strengthen supervision and regulation. These risks broadly include: AI has the potential risk of getting out of control; Without government intervention, AI will greatly exacerbate social inequality and bring about a greater class gap; Science knows no borders, but artificial intelligence must have national boundaries and must be fully controlled; AI can be exploited by people with ulterior motives, posing huge risks.
On the other hand, further increase investment in artificial intelligence and seize the commanding heights of the future scientific and technological revolution. The mainland has made many achievements in the field of artificial intelligence, but there is still a certain gap compared with developed countries such as the United States. Therefore, it is necessary to further increase investment in artificial intelligence, explore and promote the development of artificial intelligence technology from algorithms, models, data, hardware and other aspects, strengthen the integration of artificial intelligence with other cutting-edge technologies, such as quantum computing, blockchain, biotechnology, etc., and promote cross-innovation and development in various fields.
First, strengthen the research and development of artificial intelligence chips and core networks, and break the monopoly position of the United States in AI technology; Second, establish China's general model to maintain national security and data security; Third, increase the introduction of AI talents and support technology platforms to strengthen the research and development of large model ecological platforms.
In short, artificial intelligence is a once-in-a-century opportunity for the science and technology industry, and China must seize this historic opportunity, increase resource investment, strengthen strategic coordination, lay a solid foundation for competition in the next 30 and 50 years, enhance China's competitiveness and discourse power in the global science and technology system, and achieve China's scientific and technological leap. ■
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