On April 18, the 10th "2024 Lenovo Tech World" with the theme of "AI for All" was held in Shanghai. In the "AI-driven Future Computing Technology Innovation Forum", Wang Guangxi, Vice President of Lenovo Group and Partner of Lenovo Venture Capital, delivered a speech entitled "Embodied Intelligence, AI Future", elaborating on the development potential and commercialization path of embodied intelligence in the next ten years, as well as Lenovo Venture Capital's thinking and strategic layout in the field of embodied intelligence. Wang Guangxi said that Lenovo Venture Capital has insisted on investing in the field of AI robots for ten years, not only based on the belief in embodied intelligence, but also the positioning and mission of Lenovo as a CVC and technology watchtower. Lenovo Ventures looks forward to working with more partners to embrace the future of AI PCs and embodied intelligence, and work together to usher in a new era of intelligence.
Wang Guangxi, Vice President of Lenovo Group and Partner of Lenovo Venture Capital
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Intelligent computing power and large models have become national strategic competitiveness
Promote the rapid development of silicon-based intelligence
Intelligent computing power and large models have become an important part of national strategic competitiveness, and breakthroughs in intelligent algorithms and computing power with large models as the core will promote the rapid development of silicon-based intelligence and have the potential to reshape many traditional industries. This technological advancement will play an important role in both the digital and physical worlds. Specifically, the software industry in the digital world will be rewritten to fully empower intellectual workers, while in the physical world, all kinds of hardware terminals will be rewritten and created to realize the assistance and replacement of manual labor.
According to Wang Guangxi's analysis, the emergence of large models will redefine intelligent terminals from multiple dimensions. Multimodal interactions, new hardware forms, and embodied intelligence will all become a reality. New hardware forms, such as various wearable AI headsets, glasses, accessories, as well as home and in-vehicle devices, will become the main carrier connecting the digital and physical worlds. Embodied intelligence, that is, through the carrier of high complexity and flexibility, the AI agent that connects the digital world and the physical world, truly implements multi-modal interaction into task planning and helps humans complete manual labor end-to-end.
As the technology watchtower of Lenovo Group, Lenovo Venture Capital has been committed to in-depth exploration and strategic layout in the field of embodied intelligence, and has invested in more than 50 AI-related companies, involving algorithms, computing power, data and other fields, and covering multiple vertical industries such as autonomous driving, intelligent manufacturing, and smart healthcare. In the field of robotics, Lenovo Venture Capital has laid out more than 20 robot companies, covering core components, ontology, control, motion and other links, and pays attention to investment opportunities in traditional robots and humanoid robots.
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Exploring the Future of Embodied Intelligence:
Technology architecture and commercialization path
In order to more easily consider the evolution of embodied intelligence from the perspective of application, the level of intelligence from L1 to L5 can be defined by referring to the hierarchical mode of autonomous driving. This hierarchy depicts a blueprint for the gradual maturation and implementation of fixed tasks to limited generalization in a controlled environment to increasing self-directed decision-making and learning capabilities. Wang Guangxi said that optimistically, the current embodied intelligence is in the L2 stage. Specific to the subdivision capabilities, for example, L3 level robots will add electronic skin and tactile modalities to be able to perform delicate manipulation tasks, which is a key threshold for the transition from professional robots to general-purpose robots.
The generalization ability brought by large models is the core variable and concern. This capability has the opportunity to scale multiple applications, thereby driving a significant reduction in cost as scale increases, breaking down the barriers to the implementation of robots in scenarios.
The analysis of commercialization scenarios is an important part of the expectation of the implementation of embodied intelligence. However, each scenario has multiple dimensions that need to be analyzed and balanced. For example, the A-side pays more attention to multi-function and convenient interfaces, the B-side pays more attention to accuracy, beat, stability, and the integrity of human substitution, and does not have high requirements for interaction generalization; and the C-end has the highest complexity, and attaches more importance to interaction and generalization capabilities, and needs to ensure safety, but the accuracy requirements are often not high. The combination of these factors will eventually form an ROI calculation for various customers, which will roughly land in A, B, and C scenarios according to the above three stages.
The development of embodied intelligence is a gradual process, which requires in-depth exploration and continuous innovation at multiple levels, such as technical architecture, function implementation, and commercial application.
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AI+ robots will lead the huge industrial transformation in the future
Wang Guangxi said that Lenovo Venture Capital's research on AI robots is far more than the above analysis, but ten years of persistence and continuous iteration of cognition. Since the establishment of Lenovo Ventures, it has always believed that AI+ robots will lead the huge industrial transformation in the future.
At the same time, Wang Guangxi introduced the path evolution of Lenovo Venture Capital's layout of AI+ robots. Lenovo Ventures' investment strategy has always focused on the industrialization process and technology development stage of embodied intelligence. Starting from the initial industrial robots, core components, and machine vision, it has witnessed Megvii becoming a leader in the field of visual intelligence, Pegasus has achieved a leading position in the field of surveying and mapping drones, and Laifu has been deeply cultivated in the field of domestic harmonic reducers. Subsequently, Lenovo Ventures pivoted to mobile and service robotics, investing in industry leaders such as VisionNav Robotics, Cloudtrail and Jiazhi, which play an important role in unmanned forklifts, hospitality services, and high-end manufacturing around the world.
Today, Lenovo Venture Capital has quickly entered the field of composite and humanoid robots in the era of large models, and has invested in innovative projects such as Xingdong Era incubated by the Institute for Interdisciplinary Information Sciences of Tsinghua University, Zhuji Power founded by Dr. Zhang Wei, a tenured professor at Southern University of Science and Technology, Benmo Technology founded by Zhang Di of Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, and cross-dimensional intelligence founded by Professor Jia Kui of Hong Kong Chinese University. These investments are not only based on the maturity and industrialization of the technology, but also take into account the role of the rapid evolution of AI in promoting general-purpose embodied intelligence. Lenovo Ventures is committed to providing continuous support to portfolio companies to help them find AI-enabled enhancement opportunities and international scenarios to maximize value.
Wang Guangxi emphasized that Lenovo Ventures' insistence on investing in the field of AI robots over the past ten years stems not only from the belief in embodied intelligence, but also from the positioning and mission of Lenovo Ventures as Lenovo's CVC and technology watchtower. Lenovo Ventures focuses on the investment of early-stage scientific and technological innovation, and at the same time gives full play to the advantages of CVC, with the help of capital and entrepreneurs, promotes intrabusiness incubation, and pays attention to the innovation of IT future technology, in order to capture the great enterprises of the next era and create a prosperous cooperation ecosystem for Lenovo Group.