TIAN Qi: Era of AI Explosion in Next Decade

TIAN Qi

Chief Scientist in Artificial Intelligence, Huawei Cloud; IEEE Fellow, IEAS Academician

In the next decade, AI will see growth so strong it will usher in an era of AI explosion. The 2021 125 Questions from Science magazines talk about cutting-edge technologies in various disciplines. We predict that AI will help deliver major breakthroughs in one third of these areas.

*This expression does not reflect the views and position of the BFA.

Innovation requires a corresponding social environment and institutional support. What are the most important elements to stimulate innovation? Why are some societies more prone to disruptive innovation, such as the US, while others see themselves as relying mainly on non-disruptive and continuous innovation, such as Germany？

TIAN Qi: To encourage innovation, we need support from both the system and society. In recent years, China has been cultivating scientific research, such as with its innovation-driven development strategy. The country attaches more and more significance to the sciences. In particular, fundamental research now receives increasing attention, investment, talent training, and working conditions. This prioritizing has paid off: China is rapidly achieving innovation of international influence. Demand for high-caliber talent has been soaring, and an endless stream of talent has also infused vitality into science research. The research environment has also become more inclusive and diverse. More and more attention is being paid to fundamental research, industry ecosystem, and talent training.

Both disruptive innovation and continuous innovation are important for social development. These two types of innovation are not mutually exclusive; in fact, they are complementary. On one hand, disruptive innovation must come from cumulative, continuous innovation. On the other hand, disruptive innovation can provide new research directions for continuous innovation.

Innovation needs a conducive environment and, more importantly, enthusiastic participation of enterprises, because their policies are paramount.

We at Huawei propose Innovation 2.0, which focuses on breakthroughs in theory and foundational technologies. These breakthroughs are driven by our vision of the future and challenges of the present. We continue to invest heavily in innovation, and foster re-innovation, to create value for industries and society. This investment is in line with our mission to enable more people, homes, and organizations to benefit from a fully connected, intelligent world.

Step up investment in fundamental research: In keeping with the mindset of open innovation, Huawei established the 2012 Laboratories, an open research platform to attract global talent, foster communication, and reduce organizational entropy.

Deepen collaboration: We aim for an environment of openness. Open collaboration between industry, academia, research, and ecosystem will advance team innovation, drive academic research by industry, and extend partnerships.

Accelerate industry collaboration at the strategic level: We need to coordinate in terms of strategy and overarching framework, accelerate the integration of industry, academia, and research, seek shared excellence, and continuously drive transformation into an innovation-oriented, foundational, and talent-centric future.

What positive effects will your industry have on industrial development and social innovation? How do you perceive the most important technological breakthroughs in your industry in the next decade? How do you see the application value and commercial value of metaverse, which is the hottest concept in 2021?

TIAN Qi: AI is a supplement. It promotes labor quality, reshapes productivity, and alleviates shortages, driving industrial transformation and upgrade. In addition, AI supplements key resources. For example, it plays a vital part in intelligent diagnosis systems that help doctors improve efficiency and accuracy in diagnosis and treatment.

More importantly, AI is profoundly changing the way humans conceptualize and understand the world. AlphaGo has made moves on the chessboard that humans have never imagined before, effortlessly defeating the top chess grandmaster. AlphaFold verified the predictability of protein structure, by far surpassing the achievements scientists have made in over a century. Similarly, In foundational disciplines such as computational chemistry, computational physics, computational biology, and computational materials science, AI is disrupting the way of research humans have known for the past few centuries. People are beginning to realize that the limits of the human brain can be broken by AI. Let’s think about that: The human brain has created a stronger intelligence to solve problems that the human brain cannot. Isn’t that amazing?

As for the metaverse, its value cannot be underestimated. The richer our material life, the more we yearn for spiritual creativity and freedom. The metaverse can give human beings freedom beyond the limits defined by the physical laws of the real world, especially for people with impairments due to disability or age. Our brains, thoughts, and souls are free and should not be confined by the physical body. Imagine what else Hawking would have created for the world if he were in the metaverse. VR emphasizes immersion, AR stresses integration, and brain-computer interfaces bridge reality. Collectively, these advances impact on entertainment, social networking, and the way we work.

Let’s think of the metaverse as AI in physical form and reality in virtual form. In the short term, we are limited by technology maturity to commercialize AI on large scale. We still make breakthroughs in some applications. One example is the virtual human, digital beings without real-world avatars and digital twins with their real-world counterparts. In the long run, as technologies mature, the metaverse will change the way humans socialize and will bring AI closer to reality, widening both its application and its value.

亚洲浪潮，博鳌视野

立足亚洲面向世界

传递论坛最新动态促进亚洲深度合作

全球重要对话的传达者亚洲共同发展的瞭望者

原标题：《TIAN Qi: Era of AI Explosion in Next Decade》