Han Ximin

1824295095@qq.com

SHENZHEN, with its rich application scenarios and deep industrial foundation, will become a new ground for innovation and entrepreneurship in the AI era.

The remark was made by Robin Li Yanhong, founder, chairman and CEO of Baidu at the 2023 X-Lake Forum, which opened at the Shenzhen University Town in Nanshan District yesterday.

He shared his observations and thoughts on the topic “AI Native Era: ‘Cold’ Thinking and ‘Hot’ Drivers.”

“In China and the U.S, the best AI native apps haven’t appeared yet. This is precisely the opportunity for entrepreneurs,” Li said.

By October, 238 foundation models had been released in China and there are thousands of AI native apps worldwide, according to him.

“China has too many foundation models and very few AI native applications developed on top of these models. What we need is AI native applications at a million scale, rather than 100 foundation models. If our industrial policy encourages more AI native applications built based on foundation models, we will be able to foster a prosperous AI ecosystem and promote a new round of economic growth,” Li said.

As a veteran in the AI industry for over a decade, Li has no doubt about the great value and far-reaching impact of foundation models and AI native applications. He thought that powerful foundation models drive the outbreak of AI native applications. China, which has leading foundation models, provides a solid underlying driving force for AI native applications.

In September, Baidu released ERNIE 4.0, the most powerful ERNIE foundation model to date, with significant improvements in the four major capabilities in terms of understanding, generation, reasoning, and memory. It not only generates text, but also features multimodal content such as photos, videos and digital humans. It can also generate over 200 genres of literature, covering almost all writing needs, according to Li.

Good applications will drive market growth and force market changes. In the AI industry, development is demand-driven, where stimulation should happen in the demand and application sides. The prosperity of the AI application ecosystem will drive economic prosperity, he said.