In a week's time, 24-year-old Shanghai teenager Zhou Guanyu will be on the home ground of his F1 career for the fifth leg of the season, the Chinese Grand Prix, which will also be the 20th birthday of the Chinese Grand Prix.
Speed is the eternal pursuit of F1 and the dimension of global artificial intelligence enterprise competition. Whoever can transform scientific and technological innovation into valuable products the fastest will be able to win in the market. Today, a collision of technology and speed took place before the race: Xu Li, Chairman and CEO of SenseTime, spoke with Zhou Guanyu, China's first F1 driver. From a cross-border dialogue, it is not difficult to see that AI is giving sports new charm, and China's F1 and AI have a tenacity.
AI participates in decision-making, and the F1 field is expected to reproduce the "37th hand" of Alpha Dog
Accelerating from 0 to 100 km/h in 2.5 seconds and 200 km/h in 5 seconds, F1 is known as the "human speed moment". In less than two minutes of a lap, there is a constant level of communication between the driver and the team, and countless decisions are made.
"There are more than 100 buttons on the steering wheel, and there are six or seven different operating variations in different situations, and these have become my muscle memory after repeated practice. Zhou Guanyu said.
In addition to the skill of the drivers, strategy is crucial to winning the result of the race. Acceleration or preservation, "tyre" or "pit stop", teams need to choose between electric and sparkling, and the addition of AI can optimize the team's decision-making process and race strategy.
Xu Li explained in Go that in the second match between Alpha Dog and Lee Sedol, the AI's 37th move made a surprising move, but the AI thought that this move was a "decisive move", and after this move, the AI's winning rate was higher than that of Lee Sedol. It wasn't until the review that people discovered the beauty of this move.
"AI is very good at making decisions, especially when there is enough information, and AI can make decisions that go beyond the paradigm of human cognition. Xu Li believes that the decisions made by AI are not based on the imitation of human thinking methods, but on the integration and reasoning of massive amounts of information.
According to reports, SenseTime will use real-time racing data to tailor AI intelligent racing solutions for Zhou Guanyu's KICK Sauber team, giving full play to its technology accumulation in the field of deep learning and intelligent vehicles, and helping the team maintain its competitive advantage. Zhou Guanyu is very much looking forward to AI being able to give the "37th hand" that jumps out of the paradigm of human thinking in F1.
Accelerate innovation to "escape velocity" and you'll be able to swim in the industry
"Why GPT has been studied for many years, people call the breakthrough moment the 'ChatGPT moment' because GPT is combined with the chat scene. Xu Li said. In his view, AI can only play its value when it is combined with scenarios, which is why SenseTime chose to become the technology partner of the F1 team two years ago.
The in-depth combination of innovation and industry is the development strategy of SenseTime. Xu Li made a vivid analogy: "When you innovate fast enough and turn technology into business value the fastest, you have 'escape speed'." Once you reach this speed, you can escape gravity and swim happily in the industry. ”
At present, SenseTime has established cooperation with more than 700 world-renowned enterprises and institutions at home and abroad to jointly promote the application of AI technology. Zhou Guanyu recounted his recent experience at the F1 Saudi Arabia Championship: when signing autographs before the regular race, he showed a QR code, and after scanning the code, fans could see Zhou Guanyu and his teammate Bottas talking to the digital human, and the audience was very surprised to see the lifelike digital human. Yesterday, in the SenseTime Building, Zhou Guanyu also experienced applications such as entering keywords to generate racing posters and playing Go with AI, and he lamented that AI has really come to us.
From catching up to surpassing, only persistence can go up step by step
In 2004, F1 came to China for the first time with the first F1 Chinese Grand Prix at the brand new Shanghai International Circuit. That year, 9-year-old Zhou Guanyu sat in the audience, his sparkling eyes full of anticipation.
This year, the little boy who used to sit in the stands will make his "debut" at home, and Zhou Guanyu is more excited than nervous. "Next Friday I'm going to do my first 'Flying Lap' in Shanghai, which means a lot to me. I designed a new helmet and wanted to make my debut in the best possible condition. He said.
On the F1 track, Chinese drivers have always been learning and catching up, and it was not until 2021 that the F1 competition had its first Chinese racing driver, which is inseparable from the persistence of a group of people. In Xu Li's view, there is a certain similarity between the state of F1 and AI companies in China, and they both have a tenacity not to admit defeat.
"Only by persevering can we go up step by step. Xu Li said that in this round of generative AI competition dominated by large models, we are confident that we will go out of a different development route and bring results beyond imagination by combining scenarios and going deep into the industry.