(Original Title: What can be done to address the issue? Voice interaction and facial recognition are expected to lead the way in AI commercialization.)
Editor's Note:
[Artificial Intelligence (AI) has advanced significantly today, particularly in recent years, making impressive strides. It has gradually integrated into our daily lives, especially with voice interaction and facial recognition. These technologies have been portrayed in TV shows for a long time. Today, can you imagine what the AI landscape might look like in ten years? Just like ten years ago, would you have dared to predict how smartphones would transform our lives?
Perhaps you haven't yet felt the shift in trends, but others have already anticipated it, such as venture capitalists. Capital is the most sensitive indicator of AI's future, and AI investment firms are growing year by year. Last week, many domestic AI-related companies secured financing, and 2017 is expected to mark the first year of global AI commercialization.]
Every reporter Zhang Si; Intern reporter Liu Chunshan; Edited by Xi Jinpi.
Imagine controlling smart devices around you simply by speaking—this experience is far superior. Consequently, major tech giants are investing in smart speakers, positioning them as gateways to home technology products. Besides smart speakers, facial recognition technology has become the hottest sector in venture capital, especially in financial authentication and security scenarios. Industry insiders say that China's large population and dense urban areas offer significant advantages for AI substitution, potentially leading the world in AI commercialization.
â— Competing for Intelligent Voice Interaction Consumer Services
On July 5th, Alibaba officially launched its first smart speaker, Tmall Genie X1. Apple's HomePod smart speaker was released at the Apple Developer Conference in June. Prior to that, Amazon Echo had sold nearly 10 million units. Smart speakers have become a key carrier for voice interaction technology. Additionally, the hype around smart speakers stems from their potential to become the control hub for various household technology products in the future.
On the other hand, through audio assistants like Apple Siri, Microsoft Xiaobing, and Duer, and extending to real-time voice translation, voice input methods, and voice control, smart voice technology providers have discovered numerous application fields and are accelerating consumer-grade services.
In automotive applications, HKUST has collaborated with Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Toyota, and other international manufacturers as well as domestic automakers. In March this year, HKUST News and Changan Automobile announced comprehensive and in-depth cooperation in the field of intelligent technology development, product design, and vehicle applications for smart cars.
Baidu founder Li Yanhong emphasized in speeches that the combination of hardware and software in AI products will be a crucial direction. In February this year, Baidu acquired Raven Technology. Externally, Baidu is intensifying the output of AI technology, combining hardware and software to bring products to life.
Since its debut in January this year, Baidu DuerOS has reached cooperation with well-known companies such as Midea, Haier, TCL, Lenovo, vivo, HTC, CITIC Guoan Guangshi, and Xiaoyu at home. It has also been involved in televisions, refrigerators, smart wearables, and automotive scenes, providing users with a "live and free" lifestyle experience.
In an interview with the reporter of the "Daily Economic News," Longsheng, the chief marketing officer of Stables, expressed optimism about the application of vertical fields. Currently focusing on smart homes, vehicle IoT, robotics, and other areas, through the creation of traditional technology companies, to achieve industrial upgrading.
â— "Invisible" Facial Recognition
Voice technology has already been widely adopted with the help of smartphone assistants and smart speakers. Image recognition, however, seems somewhat cold and hasn't been extensively discussed by regular consumers. Does this mean that image recognition is far removed from us?
Long Mengzhu pointed out in an interview that users will utilize artificial intelligence image technology when using self-timer apps like Mito Xiuxiu. When taking pictures, it is necessary to automatically capture the position of the face. Beauty enhancements and special effects require locking onto a person's face, nose, and eyes. Baidu Maps and Tmall's product search are both based on image recognition technology. The reason voice technology feels more tangible is because users actively engage in speech and receive voice feedback.
Dr. Xu Li, co-founder and CEO of Shang Tang Technology, told the reporter of the "Daily Economic News" that facial recognition technology has been used for years in public security surveillance systems, home security systems, identity verification, and entertainment internet, becoming the first computer vision industry application to land. In Shangtang Technology's cooperation list, the largest number of corporate users are banks and financial companies. Their SenseTime facial recognition technology collaborates with JD.com's wallet. Users can scan their faces on JD.com wallets to complete comparisons and unlock passwords instead of using traditional password logins.
Jeff Lin, the founder of computer vision startup Insight, said in an interview with reporters that facial recognition technology is currently the hottest segment of entrepreneurship, especially in financial identity authentication and security scenarios, which have become the focus of artificial intelligence startups.
Different from voice interaction, computer vision companies almost always provide technical support to other companies rather than directly offering related products to consumers. Xu Li told reporters that the current technology can achieve single visual vertical field accuracy beyond human capability, but overall video scene content, object recognition, are not yet at the human standard level. This is why there are no consumer-level products based on computer vision technology.
â— China's Opportunities
Human-computer interaction based on "intelligent voice operating systems" and intelligent image recognition with "facial recognition" as the core, along with connected smart homes, IoT, security, and identity recognition scenarios are gradually becoming the main battlegrounds for AI commercialization. To achieve vertical applications in areas such as smart audio and facial recognition, artificial intelligence startups are also exploring more applications.
Wang Shangzhi, a computer industry analyst, told the Daily Economic News reporter that China has many advantages in the field of artificial intelligence, and it is expected that the commercialization of AI technology will surpass the international curve. The potential of the Chinese market is vast, and the population density is high, determining the demand for personalized services. In addition, artificial intelligence is expected to replace many repetitive low-end laborers.
“In terms of data and business scenarios, China itself has some inherent advantages. China has a large population and abundant data. Whether it is object recognition or scene recognition, technology companies can obtain first-line data in various scenes; secondly, China has all the application scenarios for AI field applications, and the environment is bold enough to accept new technologies and new things; thirdly, China has sufficient talent reserves for AI engineers. Based on these three conditions, Chinese artificial intelligence can actually lead the world,†Xu Li told the reporter of the “Daily Economic News.â€
At the same time, Wang Shangzhi pointed out that artificial intelligence technology is not yet mature in China's entrepreneurial environment, and laws and policy supervision are not yet perfect, hindering the rapid integration of Chinese artificial intelligence technology and practical applications in some aspects.
[No more investment before the first investment in the past week for at least four artificial intelligence companies]
Every reporter Zhang Si has edited by Xi Jinpi.
Capital is the most sensitive indicator, and artificial intelligence (AI) investment companies are increasing year by year. Last week, Chinese startup companies including Tang Focus Technology, robotics company Geek+, Cloud Brain Technology, and Tesla Technology have issued financing information, including Shangtang Technology's $4.1 billion B round of financing setting a record for the global single-wheel artificial intelligence market.
A number of investors said in an interview with the reporter of the “Daily Economic News†that with the accumulation of big data and the improvement of cloud computing infrastructure, artificial intelligence technology is bringing tremendous changes to our industry development, and 2017 is expected to become the first year of global AI commercialization.
“Artificial Intelligence +†Becomes a New Trend
What sparked the sudden popularity of AI? Almost everyone interviewed with this reporter answered - “AlphaGo.â€
The wave of artificial intelligence development has been ongoing for five years so far. The venture capital firm Lanchi Ventures has been focusing on artificial intelligence since 2012. At that time, they concluded that the foundation of artificial intelligence is big data, and the foundation of big data is cloud computing. This matter is actually urgent. The first problem to be solved is data and the underlying cloud computing platform.
Cao Yu, executive director of Lu Chi Venture Capital, told the Daily Economic News reporter that Baidu founder Li Yanhong's drive to develop autonomous vehicles on the five-ring road was an industry signal. The delivery of autopilot technology through actual operations shows that around the accumulation of technology, the application of multiple scenarios can now be applied. The development of artificial intelligence has reached the critical point of commercial outbreak.
In an interview with the “Daily Economic News,†Lenovo’s Star Investment Manager Wang Zheng talked about the aforementioned Shang Tang Technology financing case. In his opinion, the high financing of Shangtang Technology comes from the company's large number of applications. In the early days, Shang Tang Technology, which entered the field, had a strong ability to recognize the industry. After accumulating a large amount of operational data, it was very clear about the landing of the application scenario.
Lenovo Star is one of the major investment institutions in the field of artificial intelligence in China. Both the company’s early-investment companies Contempt Technology and Incischi are expected to become unicorn potential companies in computer vision and speech recognition.
The above two investment institutions are just a microcosm of the huge investment network. In March this year, artificial intelligence was written into the government work report. The national leadership attached great importance to artificial intelligence as a strategic development technology. Domestic IT giants such as Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent, and Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Microsoft all regard artificial intelligence as the breakthrough point for the next technological revolution and invest heavily in accelerating their deployment.
According to statistics from CB Insights, 61 artificial intelligence enterprises were financed in 2010. By 2016, 522 artificial intelligence startups had obtained financing; the investment amount soared from the original $81 million to $3.12 billion.
Why does the market place so much emphasis on the development of artificial intelligence? According to the Accenture research report of the consulting company, through the comparison of the economic growth rates of the 16 super industries, the industry’s economic growth potential will increase as more industries integrate artificial intelligence technologies. It is estimated that by 2035, artificial intelligence can increase the average profitability of all involved industries by more than 30%, resulting in an increase in the total economic value of nearly $14 trillion.
There is no doubt that “artificial intelligence +†will become a new trend, but it is not the specific track for O2O, e-commerce, and consumer upgrades. Instead, it is like the Internet, providing a technological tool for industrial upgrading - the advent of the Internet made O2O, e-commerce, and consumer upgrades possible. When artificial intelligence matures, all industries can use it to improve their efficiency and productivity. This is also why it is highly regarded by capital and the industry.
How to Come From High Financing to High Valuation
On an academic level, investigating valuations is the basic logic for some investments in the AI sector in the past, but this situation is changing from this year onwards.
“Investment is a risky business. Since it is a business, it must pay serious attention to investment. Especially for technical projects, it is more difficult to realize. Only companies that emphasize technology and do not emphasize landing will be treated cautiously,†said Wang Zheng. Companies that can obtain high valuations, in addition to focusing on the background of the team, are more concerned with their ability to obtain various types of resources, including whether or not they have selected the right track.
Cao Yong also holds the same view, “under the premise of accumulation of basic technologies, we must choose a large industrial track, such as logistics, in addition to the team background, technical capabilities, but also to understand its understanding of the logistics industry, whether it can really help logistics companies achieve space optimization through data processing, which requires scientists and technology founders to have a certain understanding of industry needs, and their design plans must not only meet the needs of industry applications but also have sales capabilities to ensure that enterprises can use them.
According to the research report of Zhiyan Consultation, the areas with large investment include natural language processing, robotics, smart home, smart driving, and smart finance. Among them, natural language processing, robotics, computer vision, and other fields have obtained a large amount of investment, all exceeding 1.5 billion yuan.
In addition, according to the Accenture research report, anthropomorphic technologies will be widely used in communications, manufacturing, and finance in the future and are expected to become the top three industries with the highest economic growth in 2035.
However, the large-scale application of artificial intelligence still lacks successful cases. Artificial intelligence enterprises are struggling to explore the scene of commercialization. If you can't achieve a combination of technology and practice, artificial intelligence is a bubble waiting to burst.
In addition, premature business concerns are also an obstacle to academic progress in artificial intelligence. The industry believes that the application bonus brought about by the last breakthrough in academic circles (deep learning algorithm) may soon be over.
[AI Talent Demand Increases by 8 Times in 3 Years]
Each reporter Zhang Si; Intern reporter Zong Xu; Edited by Xie Jinchi.
According to the "Global AI Field Talent Report" released by LinkedIn (Lee), the demand for talent in the AI field has increased rapidly in the past three years. The number of AI-related posts released through the LinkedIn platform has approached 50,000 jobs since 2014. More than 440,000 jobs by 2016. The surge in job demand in three years not only demonstrates the rapid development of artificial intelligence in recent years but also reflects the shortage of talent behind artificial intelligence.
Why is the demand for AI talent so great? A number of industry sources said in an interview with reporters that buying talent is buying the future. In the next 5 to 10 years, the shortage of artificial intelligence talents may increase.
Talent Flowing In Normally
The scarcity and high mobility of personnel have driven the rapid rise in artificial intelligence talent prices. In this "arms race" for artificial intelligence talent, the use of absolute high salaries to attract senior experts and university researchers has become a common method used by high-tech enterprises.
In 2013, Google invited Geoffrey Hinton to join the Google Brain team. Geoffrey Hinton's company DNNresearch had no product and only three people. Apple's tactics are the same as Google's. In 2016, it acquired the artificial intelligence company named Turi, founded by Guestrin in Seattle.
In addition, the surge in talent demand has also led technology companies to gradually focus on the top academic talents in the AI field of major universities. In 2013, Facebook hired Yann LeCun, a professor at New York University, one of the three leaders in deep learning, as the head of the Facebook Artificial Intelligence Laboratory; Google invested $4.5 million at the University of Montreal; and Intel donated $1.5 million at Georgia Tech University to establish a machine learning and cyber security research center.
In China, the most famous AI talent competition case was Wu Enda joining Baidu. Wu Enda joined Google X Lab in 2010 and was responsible for creating the world’s largest neural network “Google Brain†in 2011.
However, under the scourge of artificial intelligence, the talents dug up won't necessarily be their own. Taking Baidu as an example, after successfully recruiting Wu Enda, in June 2015, Yu Kai, executive vice president of the Baidu Institute of Deep Learning, announced his departure. In March this year, Wu Enda also announced his resignation from Baidu. Baidu senior vice president (formerly the general manager of the unmanned driving department) Wang Jin also announced his departure. In addition, Zhang Qian, who had left previously, Baidu artificial intelligence top talents have left. In the domestic artificial intelligence technology talent market, Baidu played the tragic role of the “Huangpu Military Academy.â€
Why do these companies spend a lot of money to buy talent? Dr. Xu Li, co-founder and CEO of Shang Tang Technology, said in an interview with the reporter of “Daily Economic News†that buying talent is buying the future. “At the time, when Google paid 400 million pounds for the DeepMind company, only 50 people in the world truly understood the design of deep learning engines. Of these, 12 were in DeepMind, so Google actually bought future engine designs.â€
Lack of Creative Talent
For artificial intelligence talents, Google’s senior researcher Dr. Greg S Corrado in the field of artificial intelligence and machine learning thinks that there are two types, one is those engineers who can truly understand and use artificial intelligence tools, and the other is innovative and business-minded people who can effectively apply artificial intelligence technology more widely.
According to the Global AI Field Talent Report, the number of global artificial intelligence talents in the first quarter of 2017 exceeded 1.9 million, of which the United States had more than 850,000, occupying half of the country; China had 50,000 and ranked seventh in the world. In terms of talent structure, there is a significant gap between the number of senior AI talent in China and the United States.
Computer industry analyst Wang Shangzhi analyzed in an interview with the reporter of “Daily Economic News†that in the field of artificial intelligence, China has a strong talent pool, especially the quality of “engineers,†but China still lacks “creative talents.†“The lack of a profound understanding of the business model changes and global influence.â€
Xu Li also believes that China indeed has a large reserve of future AI engineering personnel, but lacks top-level research talents. “Above all, AI research can really guide the promotion of talents in the entire industry. It is very scarce. Two countries are the smartest people who rely on PK.â€
Professor Deng Zhidong of Tsinghua University analyzed in an interview with the reporter of “Daily Economic News†that with the rise of the industry, in the next 5 to 10 years, the shortage of artificial intelligence talents may increase.
How to solve the problem of talent cultivation? This incident involves three parts: government, business, and university. According to Deng Zhidong, as the government, it is necessary to introduce policies, such as supporting the establishment of more artificial intelligence majors in first-class universities, or creating artificial intelligence colleges, or supporting social education, using online teaching methods such as MOOCs, and innovating institutional mechanisms to cultivate a large number of artificial intelligence research and development talents for society. “The University of Chinese Academy of Sciences has recently established an artificial intelligence technology college, which is a good start.â€
Chinese universities and research institutes should pay more attention to the exploration and innovation of cutting-edge technologies for artificial intelligence and cultivate a large number of engineering and technology development talents for Chinese artificial intelligence companies. Moreover, enterprises must accelerate the process of industrial landing and realize their commercial value.
Bee Eyes Beam Light ,Mini Bee Eye Moving Head,Bee Eye Led Moving Head,Bee Eyes Beam Lights
Guangzhou Cheng Wen Photoelectric Technology Co., Ltd. , https://www.cwledwall.com