Is it really possible to make AI universally accessible?

Every May, a global big data industry feast will open in Guiyang, and it is the China International Big Data Exhibition.

The AI ​​industry, which is closely related to big data, is also using the annual Big Data Expo as a weather vane and industry beacon.

At last year's Guiyang Big Data Expo, Zheng Yelai, Vice President of Huawei and President of Huawei Cloud Business, first proposed the concept of "inclusive AI" in the industry, making AI affordable and accessible to all industries. This year's Big Data Expo is on schedule, and the theme of inclusive AI has also reached its first anniversary.

At this year's Big Data Expo, the Guiyang Station of the "Guiyang·Choose Extraordinary Huawei Cloud City Summit 2019" was held as scheduled, and the Huawei Cloud Guizhou Node was officially launched. This year, inclusive AI has gone through a lot of changes from scratch, from concept to practice, from algorithms in hard drives to fields.

Today, it seems worthwhile to review where the “inclusive AI” proposition has come to after a year of hard work.

Toolchain is the hard truth

AI must be made accessible to all and this new technology must be applied to thousands of industries and mass economic production. Access tools are the beginning of everything.

In general, stable cloud computing infrastructure, powerful AI computing power and easy-to-use AI development tools constitute a complete set of tool chains required for inclusive AI. It can be seen that today these key basic tools have been delivered to the industry and developers.

In terms of computing power, Huawei launched the Ascend 310 and 910 series AI chips, building the foundation for full-stack, full-scenario AI capabilities and providing a convincing solution to the AI ​​computing power bottleneck.

On this basis, Huawei Cloud launched ModelArts, a one-stop AI development platform, which provides industry applications and AI developers with data processing, intelligent labeling, an out-of-the-box development environment, large-scale distributed training, automated model generation, a rich AI market, and complete AI development capabilities for full-scenario deployment of end-edge-cloud models, helping users quickly and efficiently create and deploy AI models and manage the entire development lifecycle.

In the field of visual AI application development, Huawei Cloud launched the HiLens platform, which breaks the boundary between machine vision devices and cloud development, allowing machine vision applications to be developed and implemented quickly and efficiently.

At the 2019 Big Data Expo, the industry's authoritative award "2019 Big Data Expo Leading Scientific and Technological Achievement Award" was officially released. Huawei Cloud won four awards with its industry-leading artificial intelligence services. Among them, Huawei Cloud's one-stop AI development platform ModelArts won the "2019 Leading Scientific and Technological Achievement Award - 'Black Technology' Award; the intelligent OCR digitization product won the "New Product" Award, and the Knowledge Computing Cloud Service and Huawei Cloud HiLens End-Cloud Collaborative AI Platform both won the "New Technology" Award.

Simply put, Huawei Cloud has opened a low-threshold basic channel for AI development, allowing AI infrastructure to lead the way to industry applications.

AI in the physical world

Can AI really be used by everyone and can it demonstrate its value in the industry?

This question will not work no matter how many times we ask it. The only way to verify it is to sink into the physical world and really see whether AI can be used and whether it has value. As the proposer and explorer of inclusive AI, Huawei Cloud has explored the real development of AI in the real world in both vertical and horizontal directions this year.

In the vertical direction, AI is entering industries and scenarios. At present, Huawei Cloud AI has been explored and implemented in more than 300 projects in 10 major industries, including cities, manufacturing, logistics, and the Internet. Huawei Cloud City Intelligent Body has been deployed in Tianjin and has significantly improved traffic efficiency; the industrial intelligent body project in cooperation with Xinlei has brought intelligent development momentum to the coal coking field. In all these ways, Huawei Cloud has completed the implementation of Huawei Cloud Intelligent Body in several key areas, proving the true value of AI in industry development.

On the horizontal side, AI technology is introduced to various provinces and cities to meet the needs of different regional economies for intelligent exploration. The deep integration of AI and China has given Huawei Cloud's inclusive AI a stronger industrial vitality. In Changchun, Huawei Cloud cooperated with FAW to deepen the exploration of AI evolution in old industrial bases; in Beijing, around the AI ​​needs of large government and enterprises, a series of AI project cooperation and ecological empowerment were carried out; in Guiyang, around Guizhou's big data development strategy and geographical advantages, a comprehensive strategic deepening of the cooperation agreement was established to build the Huawei Qixing Lake Data Center in Gui'an New District.

It is not difficult to see that Huawei Cloud is gradually bringing inclusive AI to China through its vertical and horizontal strategies.

The boundary of “digital rights”: the focus of the next stage

On the first anniversary of the proposal of the inclusive AI concept, Zheng Yelai focused on discussing the issue of digital rights.

In fact, this question is also crucial. After industrial AI has developed to a certain extent, the value of enterprise production data and accurate data in the industry has objectively been unprecedentedly improved. At this stage, data is productivity, that is, commercial interests and corporate competitiveness itself.

When implementing the integration of AI and the industry, the clarification and protection of data has become a problem that the entire data + AI radiation circle must face together. The whole issue needs to trigger a chain of discussions and standard setting, which will also become a key issue in the development of the AI ​​industry in the future.

Extending to the AI ​​industry cycle, the most direct projection is that AI technology providers must clarify data sovereignty, standardize boundary awareness, and prove the protection of data rights to users in a credible manner.

At the Big Data Expo 2019, Zheng Yelai emphasized that digital rights should be respected like property rights. Data, as one of the foundations of AI, must be respected legally and compliantly. The most important thing is that the service provider must have a clear sense of boundaries and maintain clear boundaries and sufficient respect for user data. Huawei Cloud respects customer data sovereignty and adheres to the principle that the intellectual property rights generated by Huawei Cloud's AI capabilities belong to the user, and gradually promotes the implementation of AI.

Judging from the current practice of Huawei Cloud AI implementing more than 300 projects in 10 major industries, Huawei Cloud's respect for digital rights is becoming its key competitive advantage in the development of inclusive AI.

The right time, right place and right people make us more prosperous every year.

In the year since the concept of inclusive AI was proposed, it has received widespread responses from various industries and has been actively developed across the entire industry chain. On its first anniversary, we can see that this inclusive AI project proposed by Huawei Cloud and responded to by the entire industry is at a critical juncture of "right time, right place, and right people".

The so-called right time means that the development of industrial AI meets the needs of today's social and economic situation in China, and is in line with national policies and the international environment. In the computer age, China's technology matrix is ​​in the overall situation of the downstream of the industry, and has obtained a rare opportunity to change lanes and overtake in the AI ​​era. We have no absolute shortcomings in China's AI technology system and industrial structure. This makes the strategic value of the AI ​​industrialization process stand out in the era.

In terms of geographical advantages, AI has proven its value and reliability through a large number of cases. All regions and industries are taking action. Huawei, BAT, as well as a large number of AI unicorns such as SenseTime, Megvii, and iFlytek, as well as a large number of cutting-edge AI companies, have formed a vibrant Chinese AI ecosystem.

In terms of "harmony among people", from the construction of AI disciplines and talent training to the commitment of companies such as Huawei Cloud to empowering developers and building an ecosystem, AI has begun to become the dream of a large number of developers, entrepreneurs, and young talents, and they are willing to devote their energy to it.

Looking back, the three major conditions of time, place, and people may not have been as timely and complete a year ago as they are today. A new starting point means new tasks and responsibilities. Huawei Cloud's inclusive AI path, and even the inclusive AI path of the entire social economy, are brewing a new start. Next, innovative breakthroughs in AI infrastructure, in-depth construction of the industrial chain, continued sinking of the industry, and the awakening of the developer ecosystem will all be the next tasks of Huawei Cloud's inclusive AI.

Facing AI, we can see from the big picture that every striver is working hard. Today, they deserve respect.