Five highlights of the 2024 World Artificial Intelligence Conference: 25 humanoid robots are unveiled, and large models continue to "emerge"

The Paper

2024-07-02 07:34The Paper official account

The 2024 World Artificial Intelligence Conference and High-level Conference on Global Governance of Artificial Intelligence (WAIC 2024) will open on July 4, focusing on three major sections: core technology, intelligent terminals, and application empowerment.

According to the organizers, this year's conference and exhibition will continue to expand and upgrade, with an exhibition area of more than 52,000 square meters, and the forum will be held from July 4th to 6th, and the exhibition will be held from July 4th to 7th. Focusing on the theme of "Governing AI for Good and for All", the conference focused on key areas such as large models, computing power, robots, and autonomous driving, and focused on displaying a number of latest achievements in the innovative application of "artificial intelligence +", and launched a batch of innovative products. At present, more than 500 companies have confirmed to participate in the exhibition, with enterprises outside the city and international enterprises accounting for more than 50%, and the number of exhibits has exceeded 1,500.

At this conference, the conference forum was re-presented according to the "1+3+X" architecture, including an opening ceremony and plenary session, three main forums on global governance, industrial development and scientific frontiers, and several industry forums, covering ten key topics of AI ethical governance, large models, data, computing power, embodied intelligence, AI for Science, new industrialization, autonomous driving, investment and financing, education and talents, and fully embodying the value orientation of AI for good, international cooperation, and co-governance and sharing. According to reports, the conference forum brings together the world's top wisdom, 9 Turing Award, Fields Medal, Nobel Prize winners and 88 domestic and foreign academicians will participate in the conference, a total of more than 200 heavyweight guests will attend the conference to deliver speeches.

As an important exhibition platform for cutting-edge AI technologies in China and the world, Shanghai has successfully hosted six consecutive World Artificial Intelligence Conferences. On June 20, the Shanghai Municipal Government held a press conference, Zhang Ying, director of the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Economy and Information Technology, said that artificial intelligence is one of the three leading industries that Shanghai focuses on developing, and this year's conference will focus on ten key topics such as AI ethical governance, large models, data, computing power, and embodied intelligence.

Aspect 1: Model algorithms promote the implementation of applications

At last year's World Artificial Intelligence Conference, more than 1,400 guests attended the conference and a total of 133 forums were held. The conference connected with 210 upstream and downstream enterprises, reached an intended purchase amount of 11 billion yuan, and promoted the signing of 32 major industrial projects, with a total project investment of 28.8 billion yuan. The large model has become the focus of attention at the conference, and a total of more than 30 large models at home and abroad have been unveiled.

This year's conference exhibition site will continue to present the current situation of the emergence of large models. Not only Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent, Huawei, SenseTime, iFLYTEK, China Mobile, China Unicom, China Telecom, Transwarp and other leading industries will participate, but also newcomers such as Minimax, Baichuan Intelligence, Zhipu AI, and Step Leap Star will also appear on the scene. In addition, Microsoft, Dell Technologies, Lenovo, ZTE, Kingsoft Office, Ape Power Technology and other enterprises focus on end-side applications, showing the prospects of model landing.

Among the debut shows related to large models, including SenseTime's "SenseTime Rixin 5.5", iFLYTEK's "iFLYTEK Xinghuo Large Model V4.0", Transwarp's "AIPC-based Transwarp Boundless Large Model", Baichuan Intelligence's "Latest Generation Pedestal Large Model Baichuan 4", as well as model applications such as Ant Group's "Alipay Intelligent Assistant Based on Ant Bailing Large Model", as well as Huawei's "Ascend AI Full-Process Enablement Platform" and 4Paradigm AIOS5.0 Industry Model Platform" and other platforms and systems.

Aspect 2: Intelligent robots drive the future

In 2023, the national robot market will reach 83.9 billion yuan, and the market will develop vigorously. At last year's artificial intelligence conference, more than 20 robots were unveiled at the scene.

This year's conference and exhibition will focus on building a humanoid robot zone, exhibiting 25 humanoid robots, and releasing the world's first full-size open-source public humanoid robot Qinglong, as well as the first full-scale humanoid robot open-source community in China. Tesla will debut the second generation of Optimus, and Unitree Technology will display the first full-size universal humanoid robot H1 in China that realizes the running function. Fourier, Mindmind, Yunshen Technology and other companies will also bring more than 20 intelligent robots.

Aspect 3: AI terminals are emerging

The conference and exhibition will also bring together a series of new terminal species, covering people's livelihood, education, media and entertainment and other industries. Dell Technologies and Lenovo will bring a variety of AI terminal products represented by AI PCs, ZTE will demonstrate a comprehensive layout of the "AI for AII" product strategy, and XREAL will display head-mounted terminal products.

In addition, "AI+" has gone beyond the theoretical stage and entered production and life. The exhibition site will also see a product from the collaboration between Google and Lanzhou University, which uses the open-source technology Tensorflow to migrate Dunhuang-style patterns to modern clothing. Time and Space Journey will bring the Time and Space Journey Artificial Intelligence Technology Research Experience Hall (Eye of Time and Space) to show how to build an online and offline integrated AI+ education, cultural tourism, social networking, and entertainment integrated commercial body.

Aspect 4: The "AI+" of central state-owned enterprises stimulates the growth of the industry

In the field of artificial intelligence, central state-owned enterprises are forming new impetus and new synergy to build an innovative "growth pole". At this year's exhibition, central state-owned enterprises such as China Mobile, China Unicom, China Telecom, CITIC Group, ZTE Group, Bank of Communications, and Pacific Insurance will demonstrate the application of "artificial intelligence +" industry.

For example, China Mobile will bring the "Nine-day Pedestal Model" and "5G-A× AI New Call"; China Unicom will exhibit the "Yuanjing 1+1+M large model", that is, a large model system of 1 set of basic large models, 1 large model base, and M large models of industries; China Telecom's full-stack self-developed exhibition area will showcase innovative achievements based on core technologies such as cloud-network computing power and self-developed algorithms, and CITIC Group will demonstrate the world's first "lighthouse factory" technology in the special steel industry for the first time.

With the theme of "Artificial Intelligence Empowering New Industrialization", the conference will also hold an exhibition of Chinese artificial intelligence industry innovation achievements, vividly showing China's progress and achievements in technology, industry and governance to the world, and has invited more than 60 enterprises from all key links of the artificial intelligence industry chain to participate in the exhibition.

Aspect 5: Innovative industry ecology cohesion and energy enhancement

In addition, this year's Artificial Intelligence Conference pioneered the "Global Link Pavilion", which summarized and presented highlights such as scientific research rookie talents, innovation and entrepreneurship projects, and investment and financing industry empowerment in the hall, gathering 100+ innovative projects, 100+ investment institutions, 100+ purchasing groups, and 100+ demand scenarios to create a one-stop full-cycle service platform for the all-round development of young talents and innovative enterprises.

There is a special "Future Tech 100 Innovation Incubation Zone" in the museum, where 100 start-up project teams will be selected from all over the world. There is also an "artificial intelligence +" application scenario comprehensive area, focusing on building three functional areas of exhibition center, release center and matchmaking center, 20 procurement matching meetings and closed-door meetings of purchasing groups will be carried out, with more than 100 scene parties from nearly 20 countries such as Switzerland, the United States, Singapore, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Mexico participating, and nearly 200 actual procurement needs will be released on site, with a procurement amount of more than 10 billion yuan.