Yangpu District aims to become AI innovation hub
An expert shares her insight on AI on the 2023 Foundation Models Entrepreneurship Conference in Yangpu District.
Shanghai's Yangpu District, supported by prominent universities and institutes within the district, aspires to become a hub for artificial intelligence development, according to the district's top official.
The district hosted the 2023 Foundation Models Entrepreneurship Conference at the Wujiaochang commercial hub on Friday.
The event brought leaders from major internet platforms, universities, research institutions, as well as companies and startups in Yangpu. Its primary objective was to bolster the entrepreneurial ecosystem within China's foundation model industry and exchange insights regarding its innovative future.
Yangpu District boasts unique advantages in the field of AI, with a high density of innovation and a vibrant entrepreneurial environment. Xue Kan, the Party secretary of Yangpu, noted that the district is home to numerous enterprises in the AI industry.
Foundation models refer to a class of large-scale machine learning models that serve as the basis or foundation for a wide range of natural language understanding tasks. One of the most well-known examples of foundation models is OpenAI's GPT (Generative Pre-trained Transformer) series
The rapid rise of new-generation AI, represented by the foundation models, is having a profound impact on various sectors of society. It has become an engine driving industrial upgrading and economic and social development, Xue told the conference.
Zheng Weimin, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, emphasized China's need to vigorously carry out research on foundation models based on domestic systems.
Efforts should focus on optimizing data models, supporting data models and creating a win-win ecosystem. He also emphasized the importance of government policies in promoting the innovation and application of foundation models.
A number of foundation models have emerged in Yangpu, such as the Volcengine's "ark foundation model," providing comprehensive functions, such as model training, inference and evaluation.
UCloud launched the Intelligent Cloud Platform, while Fudan University and Alibaba Cloud jointly built the CFFF (Computing for the Future at Fudan) Smart Computing Platform.
The district will continue to focus on the four emerging fields -- technology services, AI, life and health, as well as green and low-carbon -- to create an innovative and modern industrial system, Xue said.
