Future of technology gathers pace
A foldable screen is displayed at the 5th World Internet Conference that concluded in Wuzhen on Friday. More than 430 companies and organizations from 25 countries showcased their latest products and technology at the top dot-com event.
The world’s first artificial intelligence anchor developed by a news agency and AI firm, “One-minute” manless clinic for chronic diseases, customized online courses for students and adults and an interactive knowledge platform are among the highlights of the 5th World Internet Conference in Wuzhen, Zhejiang Province.
Internet development and improved information infrastructure have deeply integrated into people’s daily life and changed society in a “deep water” stage, Pony Ma, chief executive and chairman of Tencent, told a panel of the conference.
The Internet, along with AI, big data, the Internet of Things, 5G and VR, has brought a breath of fresh air to health care, education, digital entertainment, finance and automotive industries.
More than 430 companies and organizations from 25 countries showcased their latest products and technology at the country’s top dot-com event. More than 1,500 guests visited the conference between Monday and Wednesday.
Another topic that couldn’t be neglected was 5G. The 5G technology offers 20 to 50 times faster Internet access, brings more space and imagination for various Internet services from online video, game and eSports to social services. It’s available on trial in Wuzhen and expected to be available to the public next year.
The innovation and improved network will “reshape media’s distribution and production ways,” such as super high-definition contents up to 8K and wider coverage of audience, said Gong Yu, founder and CEO of online video firm iQiyi, which has more than 700 million users in China.
Some applications were rewarded as top 15 “Scientific and Technological Achievements” at the conference. They were chosen from 400 entries from countries including China, the United States and the United Kingdom. The AI anchor and Baidu’s self-driving projects were on the list.
AI anchor
The world’s first artificial intelligence news anchor made “his” debut in Wuzhen, developed by Xinhua news agency and tech firm Sogou.
“He” has become a member of its reporting team and can work 24 hours a day on its official website and on various social media platforms, reducing news production costs and improving efficiency.
Based on the latest AI technology, the anchor has a male image with a voice, facial expressions and actions of a real person. “He” learns from live broadcasting videos by himself and can read texts as naturally as a professional news anchor, with AI technology such as facial and lip recognition, emotion capture and natural language processing, according to New York-listed Sogou.
It’s a first step for Sogou to develop a “practical AI assistant” in people’s daily life to deal with duplicated work, like sending customized greeting messages to various groups, Wang Xiaochuan, Sogou’s CEO, said during the Wuzhen conference.
The world's first artificial intelligence news anchor by Xinhua News agency.
One-minute clinic
A phone booth-size room called the “One-minute Clinic” is located outside of Wuzhen’s convention center, which attracts a long queue of visitors.
After entering the booth, people can access Ping An Good Doctor’s AI-assisted medical consultation with cloud platform and AI service. Then they will be connected to related medical professional teams and, based on AI’s preliminary consultation, describes the symptoms. After that the manless clinic provides users with hundreds of common drugs and more options with delivery services.
This service reduces time and cost for the consultation of common illnesses, which adds huge pressure to China’s hospitals. It avoids the situation as “talking with doctors for only three minutes after waiting for three hours,” especially for chronic diseases, Wang Tao, chairman and CEO of Good Doctor, told a panel in Wuzhen.
A man visits the "One-minute Clinic" outside of Wuzhen's convention center.
Interactive Knowledge
Ma, as Tencent’s CEO, raised a question in online knowledge community Zhihu: “In the next decade, which will be the biggest scientific breakthroughs to influence Internet industry?”
His questions raised several hundred answers and attention from netizens and scientists. The answers cover data storage and transmission, AI, quantum computing, 5G, battery, automotive, epidemiology, e-commerce, high-level eduction and environment protection.
In the Internet community, people need more “earnest voices” rather than the volume of voices. Zhihu also offers an equal platform for everyone to contribute contents, Zhou Yuan, CEO of Quora-like Zhihu, told a sub-forum during the Internet conference forum.
In August, Zhihu, with more than 200 million users, just secured a US$270 million investment in the latest round of financing.
The booth of Zhihu, which offers an equal platform for everyone to contribute contents.
AI-featured online courses
How to plan an art exhibition? How to explain people’s behavior with economy knowledge? How to recognize fake history records? Those are projects of online courses which people can’t learn through traditional classes.
“Based on tech and Internet, we want to bring students skills rather than knowledge, which brings benefits to their whole life,” said Bai Yun, co-founder of Lonely Readers, an online course on Hujiang’s CCTalk platform.
Chinese traditional medicine, multi-language courses covering French and German, graduate exam preparation, programming and WeChat account operation, various and diversified courses have been available online through CCTalk. It now covers 176 countries, with 20 percent “online students” from overseas regions. Some top “cyber teachers” can get income up to 3 million yuan (US$432,053)annually.
Shanghai-based Yimi offers one-on-one online courses for K12 students, with over 1,000 professional teachers and 140,000 courses nationwide. The spotlight of the service is a totally customized education service, based on users’ learning skills and habits “judged” by AI and human teachers.
It’s in the “take-off stage” for the Chinese online education market, with huge potential and opportunities, Li Xiaofeng, Yimi’s founder and CEO, said in the company’s booth.
Bai Yun, co-founder of Lonely Readers, addresses the audience on online courses.
