Baidu expects AI to replace simple brainwork
- By Chen Boyuan
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E-mail China.org.cn, December 18, 2015
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Li Yanhong (Robin), takes questions at a joint press conference on Dec. 17, during the second World Internet Conference (WIC) held in Wuzhen, Zhejiang Province. [Photo by Chen Boyuan / China.org.cn] |
China's leading search engine Baidu Inc. has expressed confidence in the future of artificial intelligence (AI) as the company showcased its latest breakthroughs in auto-piloting vehicles at the second World Internet Conference (WIC) held in Wuzhen, Zhejiang Province.
Baidu's founder and CEO Li Yanhong (Robin), speaking at a WIC press conference on Dec. 17, said development of AI technology, especially that of computers, has elevated computer performance while bringing down cost, hence making the "previously impossible" increasingly "possible", and auto-piloting vehicles were a case in point.
One day earlier, President Xi Jinping dropped by Baidu's pavilion at the Light of the Internet Exposition at the WIC and asked about the specifics of Baidu's auto-piloting technologies, such as the car's top speed, production cost, and when it could achieve mass production.
Li said AI's application would be far wider than piloting a car, since he believed that "all simple, repetitive brainwork could be replaced by AI in the future", in the same way that machinery started to replace manual labor since the first Industrial Revolution.
"Driving is just a simple, repetitive brainwork. I project that auto-piloted cars will be very common in 3-5 years."
Likewise, Baidu Translation, an automatic online translate service, is also where AI will assume a larger role. According to Li's description, Baidu's automatic online translation has started to learn on its own, rather than relying on human input to enlarge its brainpower by continually loading more information.
Looking further on, he said his company – the same as all other companies – should always be customer-minded in trying to make innovations, and innovation is a result of competition in the market economy. However, competition does not contradict building "a community of shared future," the WIC's theme.
"A market without competition will be strange and unhealthy. Competition comes hand in hand with cooperation. The size of Chinese Internet economy is a result of effective competition and cooperation," said Li.
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