Ten years of sharpening a sword, towards a scientific and technological power

Interviewer: Jiang Yugang (Vice President of Fudan University, Professor, School of Computer Science and Technology, Fudan University)

If there is one word to describe the feeling of Professor Jiang Yugang, vice president of Fudan University and computer scientist, when he went to Beijing to participate in the "Three Science and Technology Conferences", it is "urgency".

Like many scientific and technological workers, he was particularly impressed by a passage from General Secretary Xi Jinping: "At present, a new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation is developing in depth. Scientific research expands to the extreme macro, to the extreme micro, to extreme conditions, and to the extreme comprehensive, and constantly breaks through the boundaries of human cognition. Technological innovation has entered an unprecedented period of intensive activity, and cutting-edge technologies such as artificial intelligence, quantum technology, and biotechnology have emerged in a concentrated manner, triggering chain changes. ”

"To further intensify scientific and technological innovation, seize the commanding heights of scientific and technological competition and future development, as scientific research workers in colleges and universities, we really have a sense of urgency." Jiang Yugang is a post-80s scholar and the winner of the second prize of the National Natural Science Award. In his view, to grasp the pulse of the new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation, colleges and universities urgently need to change the paradigm of scientific research and fully embrace the arrival of the era of artificial intelligence. At the same time, as the cradle of talent training, colleges and universities should create a better atmosphere for innovation, encourage young people to devote themselves to scientific research, and stimulate more original innovation.

In response to the "chain change", all disciplines of the university should open a new paradigm of scientific research

"At present, the explosive development of artificial intelligence is leading the chain change of the technology industry. If in the past, all scientific fields developed 'step by step', then with the empowerment of artificial intelligence, the development of science and technology has shown 'acceleration'. Jiang Yugang said that with a deep insight into the challenges brought by the "chain change" to higher education and the emergence of more disruptive innovations, colleges and universities must promote the transformation of scientific research paradigms in various disciplines as soon as possible, and all teaching and scientific research workers must fully embrace the arrival of the era of artificial intelligence.

Take Jiang Yugang's award-winning project "Theory and Method of Visual Computing with Multiple Collaboration" as an example. Twenty years ago, when he first entered the field of visual computing, computers typically processed only a few hundred pieces of video data, and dozens of recognizable data categories. But even with this magnitude of data, it sometimes takes days to get the results of experiments on a computer. Today, visual data, dominated by images and videos, accounts for more than 90% of Internet traffic. The rapid development of computing power and the significant improvement of model capabilities enable scientists to efficiently and intelligently analyze massive images, videos and other visual data, thereby further meeting the major needs of national strategic applications such as social security prevention and control and network content security.

The "chain change" triggered by cutting-edge technologies such as artificial intelligence has directly brought great challenges to higher education. In the era of artificial intelligence, what is a university? "In our view, whether it is discipline development or talent training, if today's universities do not embrace artificial intelligence, then it is likely to be eliminated by the times." Jiang Yugang said that in the past few years, Fudan University has been focusing on AI4S (AI for Science) and AI4SS (AI for Social Science), that is, all disciplines from science, engineering and medicine to humanities and social sciences will combine artificial intelligence and promote the transformation of scientific research paradigms.

"Every discipline of the university should actively embrace AI, and the talents cultivated by the university should have the ability to 'work' with AI." Jiang Yugang said.

Create a culture of innovation and encourage young people to continue working in seemingly "useless" directions

Jiang Yugang still remembers that more than 10 years ago, when he listened to an academic report at Columbia University in the United States, a well-known scholar in the field of computer vision said that computer vision has been developed for many years, and there are only two technologies that can be used, namely fingerprint recognition and face positioning. At the time, AI technology was nowhere near as hot as it is today. However, it is precisely because he insists on continuing to work in the seemingly "useless" research direction that the research results are now proven to be valuable and can be widely "used" in various fields.

"As far as the field of computer vision that I am familiar with, the research level of many domestic units, including Fudan, is in the first echelon in the world, and it is precisely because of everyone's long-term continuous efforts in the same direction that we have achieved today's development." Jiang Yugang has not changed his research direction since he started his doctoral studies, and in addition to his personal academic interests, it is also particularly important that he "continues to receive stable support from the state and the university".

Needless to say, at present, after artificial intelligence technology is "used", both the scientific community and the industry will invest more support in research in this field. After returning to Shanghai after participating in the "Three Sessions of Science and Technology", Jiang Yugang also combined his own research experience and fell into deeper thinking: how can we give better support to young people engaged in these research when a "usable" technology is still only a germination of a scientific problem and is still in the "useless" basic research stage?

Jiang Yugang admits that the results of innovative research always come more from young people. In recent years, the state attaches great importance to the support of young people, whether it is talent plans or scientific research funds, and has increased the tilt towards young talents, including the National Natural Science Foundation of China, and has also opened up the innovation funding chain from undergraduate students to doctoral students. However, "we still need to give more space to more young people and encourage them to dive into more challenging scientific research questions."

He said that Fudan University has also recently started the reform of the relevant system, and for the evaluation of young teachers, the past "non-promotion or departure" based on competitive evaluation has been optimized and adjusted to "merit is retained" based on multi-dimensional developmental evaluation, "We hope to create an innovative culture and atmosphere, fully stimulate the vitality of young researchers, and let them settle down to focus on the research of interest issues, rather than doing some 'short-term' research in order to pursue more publications."

To promote technology for good, it is urgent to strengthen international cooperation in AI governance research

Jiang Yugang also has an identity: a member of the Shanghai Artificial Intelligence Ethics Expert Committee. As early as a few years ago, he began to promote the work on AI ethics and governance, and repeatedly called for the construction of a "technology + rules" two-wheel driven AI governance system. "While fully embracing the arrival of the era of artificial intelligence, we must also strengthen research on artificial intelligence governance."

At the "Three Sessions of Science and Technology", General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out in his speech that the concept of building a community with a shared future for mankind should be deeply practiced and open cooperation in science and technology should be promoted. Jiang Yugang felt deeply about this, he said: "As far as the development of artificial intelligence is concerned, one of the areas where it is most urgent to strengthen international cooperation is artificial intelligence governance. ”

For a long time, global AI experts have been committed to improving the performance of AI technology, and to ensure the robustness and security of AI technology, and prevent the impact of technology "hurricane" on law and ethics, AI governance research has shown unprecedented importance.

Since the beginning of this year, many countries and regions have been committed to the construction and iteration of AI governance frameworks. On May 7, China and France further issued the Sino-French Joint Statement on Artificial Intelligence and Global Governance based on the Sino-French Joint Statement. Looking to the future, Jiang Yugang said: "We hope that all countries around the world will work together to promote AI technology for good and improve human well-being." ”