The 2024 Inclusion·Bund Summit opened this morning in Shanghai. During the opening keynote, Wang Jian, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, director of Zhijiang Laboratory, and founder of Alibaba Cloud, shared his thoughts on AI, AI+, and AI infrastructure. He pointed out that AI+ is not a simple combination of AI and industries, but a combination of data, models, and computing power, with cloud computing serving as the infrastructure of the AI era.
Wang Jian reflected on the development of artificial intelligence, noting that although AI has a long past, it has a short history. Scientists like Turing began thinking about AI in the 1940s and 1950s, but it was not until Google proposed the Transformer in 2017 that AI re-entered the public eye and began to impact industries.
Wang Jian analyzed that from ChatGPT to AlphaFold to weather forecasting, these are applications with very broad scopes. However, the fundamental thing behind them is the Transformer. AI before 2017 is significantly different from what we call AI today, hence AI has only a seven-year history.
Wang Jian believes that under the logic of AI+, ChatGPT is not just an application but an application platform. If GPT is further disassembled into a foundational model, then Chat becomes an application, so ChatGPT is GPT+Chat. Chat is not a simple application scenario. It is known that Microsoft, in its collaboration with OpenAI, did not just develop Chat; they also discussed at Bill Gates' home what scenarios GPT could be used in, and ultimately, only Chat was revolutionary enough to become a product.
Wang Jian stated that when we talk about the "+" in "AI+", it's not about adding something, but how to add, and more importantly, it's about mechanism innovation. This innovation is the combination of data, models, and computing power. When the scale of data, models, and computing power undergoes significant changes, new elements must be introduced, namely, AI infrastructure.
Wang Jian said that when discussing infrastructure, it signifies the ultimate form of technology permeation. What technology will have the most lasting impact on humanity? It is the one that becomes infrastructure. He cited Sequoia Capital's view that in the cloud era, mobile era, and AI era, infrastructure is cloud computing.
Wang Jian concluded: "When you look at AI, AI+, and AI infrastructure, you realize that not only is technology undergoing a revolution, but so are mechanisms and infrastructure. There is nothing more exciting than these three revolutions happening simultaneously. I believe these revolutions are creating the future."