Shulou(Shulou.com)06/03 Report--

Throughout history, it is not difficult to find that the development of human science and technology is not a smooth curve, but will peak intermittently. Sometimes we can't help but wonder whether people living in the era of technological innovation, which we call the industrial revolution, can really sense the hidden tide of technological innovation, or whether they will have to wait until decades later to look back. To see the trajectory of science and technology.

From the point of view of the brain, there must be signs to follow in the torrent of scientific and technological progress. Like an oil painting that many people have seen, the 18th-century painter Joseph Wright created "the Bird experiment in the Air pump", depicting an aristocratic family watching the science and technology experiment with their children by candlelight. In the interpretation of later generations, many people describe this scene as the eve of the outbreak of the Industrial Revolution-the aristocracy's education for their children is not only literature and religion, but also natural science.

You see, the impact of scientific and technological progress on human beings is far more far-reaching than we imagined. It quietly permeates life, education and even art, turning accidental moments into iconic events in the eyes of later generations. Just today, a seemingly ordinary thing has also happened, but it is likely to be regarded as historical coordinates by later generations.

Today, Baidu announced that Baidu AI system to upgrade the organizational structure, the original AIG (AI technology platform system), TG (basic technology system), ACG (Baidu Intelligent Cloud Enterprise Group) as a whole integrated into the "Baidu artificial intelligence system." The new AIG consists of two major groups: technology Taiwan Group (TPG) and Intelligent Cloud Enterprise Group (ACG), which will continue to be the overall responsibility of Baidu CTO Wang Haifeng. At the same time, the four business sectors of smart government, smart health care, smart finance, intelligent customer service and marketing have been upgraded to four business departments, and increased investment in industrial Internet, video, Internet of things, industrial quality inspection, logistics maps and other areas. The relevant responsible person continued to report to Wang Haifeng.

A structural upgrade of Baidu's AI system may also mark that China's AI is waking up from a wonderful night to the dawn of the industry.

AI wonderful Night, with Baidu which started ahead of time.

In the past five years, China's AI can be said to have experienced a wonderful night.

In addition to enterprises like Baidu that have long had a layout of AI technology, most enterprises found their technological advantages and the rising momentum of AI around 2015 to 2016, so they began to deploy troops to a new technological track.

With the data and financial advantages accumulated during the technological Internet era, coupled with China's high-quality information base, this U-turn quickly brought about results. The research results from the Chinese team began to "slaughter" each top meeting, the mobile AI chip began to sink into affordable mobile phones, and smart speakers gradually appeared in the home.

China's AI seems to have taken place on this wonderful night from being widely recognized to its achievements.

What about after that?

Smart speakers, mobile AI, academic achievements. Although all the achievements have greatly changed our lives, it is clear that the expectations of the whole world for AI do not stop there.

At this time, we can focus on the "early start" of Baidu.

Since the establishment of Baidu AI technology platform system in 2017, we can see that the innovative technologies that have been endowed with Baidu's own business are constantly pulling away, integrating and shaping. In the end, the result is a more "transparent" Baidu AI--, which opens more than 200 technical interfaces to the outside world, embracing the deep learning platform Fei Pao of all developers, and Baidu smart cloud, which began to integrate with the CTO system last year, is also continuously exporting industry cases.

At last year's Deep Learning developer Summit, Baidu CTO Wang Haifeng once mentioned such a point of view: the instrumentalization, automation and modularization of technology are pushing AI into the era of industrial production.

We seem to understand that Baidu's previous series of actions are all realizing the instrumentalization, automation and modularization of the technology. Today, the upgrading of Baidu's AI system is through the "three supremacy" to promote the real arrival of the era of large-scale industrial production of AI.

The supremacy of Science and Technology: under the Industrial goal, the New growth track of AI

The first point that is easiest to understand is "science and technology first".

This organizational structure upgrade summarizes the original AIG, TG and ACG as a whole under the new AIG, which undoubtedly reconfirms the leading concept of AI technology. Especially for ACG such and directly acting on the real scene business group, its development logic will also conform to the development and growth of AI technology capabilities.

In particular, we need to understand that although industrial AI is a key task at the moment. But industrial AI does not mean that the technological capability of AI itself is no longer growing.

For example, in recent years, Baidu not only pays attention to the instrumentalization and platform building of technology, but also does not relax the accumulation of underlying technology. For example, Baidu Research Institute, which is full of talents, is constantly ramming the technology reserve of Baidu AI. For example, with the platform and instrumental AI technology constantly coming into contact with the real world, it is bound to produce deformation and re-innovation because of the needs of the real scene.

Baidu is upgrading its organizational structure at the moment, which undoubtedly opens up the channel between the technology Taiwan group and the smart cloud business group, when the technical capabilities of the technology platform have a chemical reaction with the industrial scene, the new crystallization can be input into the smart cloud service more quickly. The technological innovation achievements obtained by the research institute and other departments can also be more easily implanted into the industry through the cloud. The process paths of technology upgrade and iteration have been greatly shortened.

Even from serving C-end users through the Internet to serving the industry world through the cloud and technology platforms, the core driving force of Baidu has not changed, and technology is still paramount.

Customer first: export cloud, export AI, export service

The second is customer supremacy. This sentence sounds a bit "cliche" and will appear in almost all employee manuals. It has been repeated in the mouth of Wang Haifeng, CTO of Baidu.

In the email announcing the upgrade of the organizational structure, Wang Haifeng wrote: "artificial intelligence is entering a critical period of large-scale application. We expect everyone to adhere to the concept of 'user / customer first', forge ahead, and have the courage to innovate. While creating the most leading technology platform in the AI era, we will further strengthen the landing of technology applications and become the leaders of industrial intelligence." Before that, he has mentioned many times: "the development of AI will eventually return to the essence of 'serving users'."

I believe that today, when AI has begun to move towards the goal of industrialization, practitioners have deeply understood the difficulties behind the word "customer first". Although China has a good information foundation, the complexity of the industrial world is still far beyond the imagination of technology developers.

In contrast, Baidu smart cloud, which has earlier and more extensive contact with customer needs, has naturally accumulated a treasure. This adjustment will enable Baidu AI to better spread its understanding of the industrial world, and turn this experience into a reusable new technology to better meet the needs of the industrial world.

Trend supremacy: a runway shared by the world

Finally, there is trend supremacy. Baidu is not alone in putting AI on the ground and transforming the industrial world.

We can see that countless technology companies at home and abroad are weaving AI with all the connection points that can be connected to the real world-chips, terminals, clouds. This is a long cross-country, but countless people still firmly embark on the journey.

After the upgrade of the organizational structure, in addition to discussing the impact on the development of Baidu AI itself, we also have to think about the impact of this upgrade on the industrial AI.

Baidu has been investing in industrial AI and AI for a long time. In this process, Baidu has accumulated a large number of customer resources, developers and hardware and software partners in the industrial chain. If you look at the birth of the new AIG as an accelerated voyage, it is clear that not only Baidu, but also Baidu's AI open ecology is on board.

Especially when Wang Haifeng mentions upgrading the four major business units of smart government, smart health care, smart finance, intelligent customer service and marketing to four major business departments, and increasing investment in industrial Internet, video, Internet of things, industrial quality inspection, logistics map and other fields, it not only means that Baidu has to do more work in these areas, but also opens the way for AI landing in these areas, so that the industry itself Or other AI practitioners sow the seeds of AI in the industrial soil through tools and platforms such as flying oars provided by Baidu's brain.

In the industry AI, the world's shared runway, Baidu AI moves with the trend, but also integrates into the trend itself.

Concluding remarks

In this email announcing the upgrading of the organizational structure, Baidu CTO Wang Haifeng wrote such a title: "ride the wind of AI, tread on the waves of industry, set sail with artificial intelligence system."

In just a few lines of the email, a brand new AIG was announced. Numerous AI enterprises keep repeating "industry!" In a year, the forerunner Baidu still bears the responsibility of the forerunner in 2020, opening the meridians and dedicating it to the world's naked son of the times-the new AIG.

Today, we may not be sure whether the industrial AI will wake up with the new AIG in 2020. But what we can see is that Baidu and countless technology companies are delivering nourishment to the industrial world from the cloud or every terminal through their own practical actions. The three supremacy embodied in the new AIG is precisely the practice of Baidu's belief in the brilliant future of industrial AI.

But as long as you are on the ship, you will always reach the other shore.

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