The 2023 World Artificial Intelligence Conference opens today! The future is being generated, and the future belongs to Shencheng

From today, the World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) will once again bloom on the banks of the Huangpu River. This year coincides with the 5th anniversary of the World Artificial Intelligence Conference, which is an important node moment for Shanghai, which continues to promote the construction of artificial intelligence highlands. Equally important, marked by the popularity of ChatGPT and generative artificial intelligence (AIGC), "generation" has become a hot keyword in the AI industry, driving a new round of technological upgrading and industrial restructuring. Some people say that we may be ushering in the "great age of artificial intelligence". Therefore, Shanghai needs to look back at the past and look forward to the future, so as to continue to lead the way, face the wind and tide, and "generate" the future.

Accumulate thick and thin, only then can you step on the "wind outlet"

The popularity of ChatGPT for more than half a year has triggered a feverish focus on large models. With the continuous digestion of the industry, people gradually find that in this field, some enterprises in Shanghai have a layout, and their technologies and products are accelerating towards maturity.

According to a report released by the New Generation Artificial Intelligence Development Research Center of the Ministry of Science and Technology not long ago, the United States and China are in a leading position in terms of AI large models, of which the number of large models in the United States ranks first in the world, and China has developed rapidly since 2020, and the current growth momentum is in sync with the United States. In China, 14 provinces, cities and regions are carrying out relevant research and development, measured by the number of large models, talent reserves and other indicators, Shanghai and Beijing, Guangdong, Zhejiang and other indicators are in the first echelon.

Prior to the release of this report, we had seen several large models "created in Shanghai". Among them, the conversational big language model MOSS system released by Fudan University in February this year is the first large model publicly released in China. Later, SenseTime's SenseNova model, Takema Intelligence's "Magic Writing", the medium-term weather forecast model "Fengwu", Shanghai Unicom's medical model "Uni-talk", and Daguan Data's "Cao Zhi" system were unveiled successively.

Observing the "release peak" of this wave of large models in Shanghai, we can see the diversity and thickness of the local AI industry. On the one hand, those who have accumulated for many years and finally stepped on the "outlet" to come up with a big model are colleges and universities, state-owned enterprise leaders, private leading enterprises, and entrepreneurs who "spilled" foreign-funded R&D centers. As far as the model itself is concerned, there are both general-purpose products that can handle multi-scenario tasks, as well as innovative achievements that focus on becoming the intelligent foundation of vertical fields.

Companies continue to bring big models from the lab to the market, and some key areas of the city are also taking action to serve and drive this trend. In particular, Xuhui District, as Shanghai's first artificial intelligence development cluster, on the one hand, Pujiang Lab and other innovative entities have successively released a number of industry-leading large models, on the other hand, the government has also paid attention to the traction role of large models, promoting cooperation between enterprises and manufacturers in advantageous fields such as digital entertainment and life and health, so that large models can empower games, intelligent cockpits, e-commerce retail, etc.

Continue to exert force, in order to be able to play with ease

The theme of this year's World Artificial Intelligence Conference is "Intelligent Connected World, Generating the Future", which directly echoes the industry's attention to AIGC and large models. In the past five years, Shanghai has taken artificial intelligence as one of the three leading industries to be built, and has continued to make efforts and achieved remarkable results, and the construction of artificial intelligence highland has height, thickness and vitality. As a result, the entire city can navigate the rapid iteration and evolving technology trend.

According to data from the Municipal Economic Information Commission, the number of AI companies above designated size in Shanghai has increased from 183 in 2018 to 348 in 2022, and the output value has increased from 134 billion yuan to 382.1 billion yuan. The industrial chain includes basic enterprises such as intelligent chips and sensors, technical enterprises such as software and hardware collaboration, and large models, as well as a number of product enterprises such as intelligent robots and intelligent networked vehicles. With the development of a number of industry leaders and unicorn enterprises, the entire AI industry cluster is gradually moving towards world-class.

In terms of spatial layout, the city's artificial intelligence has basically formed a "4+X" pattern. Four key regions have distinctive characteristics - Pudong Zhangjiang focuses on the integrated development of intelligent industry and scientific and technological innovation; Xuhui West Bund gathers top AI enterprises and scientific research institutions from around the world; Minhang Maqiao focuses on the development of intelligent terminals such as robots; With Dishui Lake AI Innovation Port as the core, Lingang New Area accelerates policy innovation and cutting-edge industrial agglomeration. In addition, other districts have also given full play to their respective advantages to create a number of artificial intelligence characteristic parks.

Gathering strategic scientific and technological forces in the field of AI and strengthening the function of innovation source is also an important part of Shanghai's national strategic tasks. At present, a number of high-end platforms represented by Shanghai Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, Unmanned System Science Center, Zhizhi Research Institute, and Shanghai Advanced Research Institute of Zhejiang University have been put into operation, and have begun to innovate "no man's land"; 5 national new-generation artificial intelligence open innovation platforms, 17 municipal artificial intelligence innovation centers, and a number of leading enterprise innovation centers have been deployed in Shanghai, enhancing the supply capacity of industrial innovation. In terms of key technologies, Shanghai has gathered the largest number of smart chip companies in China, started the operation of Asia's largest AI intelligent computing center, and the performance of high-throughput flexible brain-computer interfaces has reached the world's advanced level.

Be open and inclusive, let innovation fully grow

According to Zhang Jie, director of strategic development of Shanghai Innovation and Creative Design Institute, in order to seize the current AIGC-driven industrial transformation opportunities, we must emphasize ecological construction and collaborative innovation, give new teams, new formats and new ideas space to fully grow, and let AI empower thousands of industries.

In fact, Shanghai has always been at the forefront of the country in building an AI ecosystem. Taking intelligent driving as an example, Shanghai has so far issued 623 road test licenses for intelligent networked vehicles to 28 enterprises, opening a total of 1,800 kilometers of test roads, ranking first in the country in the number of test enterprises, license issuance, and mileage of open roads. In more "AI+" scenarios, in the past five years, Shanghai has opened 3 batches and 58 AI benchmarking application scenarios, providing landing opportunities for more than 280 enterprises and more than 500 solutions at home and abroad. It is worth mentioning that many of these enterprises were not originally registered in Shanghai, but Shanghai still has an atmosphere that does not seek ownership, but seeks use, cultivates ecology, and encourages innovation. This open and inclusive attitude makes the city naturally form a strong attraction to innovative subjects while constantly providing verification or trial and error windows for AI "new gameplay".

Creating an ecology also includes improving the governance system and optimizing the business environment. In the past five years, Shanghai has taken the lead in introducing the first five-year plan for the development of the local artificial intelligence industry, implementing the first provincial local regulations on artificial intelligence, and building the first local artificial intelligence standard system. At the same time, Shanghai leveraged hundreds of billions of yuan of capital through the establishment of an artificial intelligence industry investment fund; By promoting open source algorithms, computing power development, and data openness, and establishing organizations such as artificial intelligence industry associations, we can build efficient links to artificial intelligence resource elements...

The evolution and iteration of AI has sent us to the entrance of an era of widespread change. From "birth" to "success", Shanghai has the potential to continue to explore and utilize the powerful kinetic energy of AI. Standing at a new starting point, we should fully expect that the future is being generated, and the future belongs to Shencheng.

Author: Zhang Yi

Editor: Fan Jing