Boao Forum for Asia·Xinhua Perspective｜Boao Forum for Asia: Imagine the joys and worries of artificial intelligence technology
Xinhua News Agency, Hainan Boao, March 28Title: Boao Forum for Asia: Thinking about the joys and worries of artificial intelligence technology
Reporter of Xinhua News Agency’s “Xinhua Viewpoint”
When will artificial intelligence surpass human intelligence? Will the rapid development of artificial intelligence bring more benefits or risks? Should more emphasis be placed on regulated “speed limits” or on accelerating development? …
At the ongoing Boao Forum for Asia 2024 Annual Conference, the topic of “artificial intelligence” is quite popular. In just a few days, there were three sub-forums with more than 10 topics related to it. Experts, scholars and business representatives from domestic and foreign technology frontier fields will have an in-depth discussion on the prospects of artificial intelligence.
How far away is the “singularity” of the technological revolution?
Scientists usually refer to the point in time when human science and technology make an “explosive leap” as the “singularity point” of the scientific and technological revolution. At the Boao Forum for Asia, participating experts and scholars made “predictions” about when this disruptive moment will arrive.
Lee Kyung-moo, a professor at the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Seoul National University in South Korea, said that a 2017 survey of artificial intelligence scientists showed that most people predict that the next round of technological revolution “singularity” will occur between 2045 and 2090. “If you ask the same question now, you might get a different answer.”
Li Jiongwu believes that the arrival of the “singularity” of artificial intelligence may be earlier than people expect. He personally predicts that the “singularity” may appear in five years.
In recent years, large models represented by ChatGPT and Sora have achieved technological breakthroughs, setting off a new round of artificial intelligence craze. Domestically, large model tools such as Baidu’s “Wen Xin Yi Yan” and iFlytek’s “Xinghuo Cognition” have also been launched.
Artificial intelligence is developing at an unprecedented rate. Even experts engaged in research in related fields are shocked by the frequent new results. “If the development scale in the past was measured in 10 years, it has now become 5 years or even 1 year.” Some experts said.
Li Jiongwu said that what is certain is that technologies such as artificial intelligence and quantum computing empower each other. Abundant data, computing power, and energy will give birth to more powerful artificial intelligence and accelerate the arrival of the “singularity.”
Yuan Hui, chairman and CEO of Xiaoi Group, also believes that the emergence of large models is regarded as a major technological leap towards general artificial intelligence. The birth of general artificial intelligence will bring disruptive innovation.
In fact, it is difficult for anyone to give a definite answer as to when the “singularity” will arrive.
Stuart Russell, an internationally renowned expert in the field of artificial intelligence and a professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of California, Berkeley, said that the key is not “when”, the important thing is that we must start preparing.
On March 27, Stuart Russell, author of “Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach” and professor of the Department of Computer Science at the University of California, Berkeley, spoke at a sub-forum.Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Cao Mengyao
Which industries will be positively empowered?
Experts attending the meeting said that the application of artificial intelligence in finance, medical care, education, elderly care and other fields can not only improve production efficiency but also has huge potential in continuously improving human well-being.
Artificial intelligence has become an important technology for digital transformation in the financial field. Renate Bekturvov, President of the Astana International Financial Center in Kazakhstan, said that major financial organizations have achieved fruitful results through the application of artificial intelligence technology, such as improving efficiency, enriching experience and reducing risks, etc., in the decision-making process This is especially evident in automating and optimizing customer service operations.
AstraZeneca, a global biopharmaceutical company, also has personal experience with the upgrading of the pharmaceutical industry driven by artificial intelligence.
“We have long recognized that artificial intelligence has the potential to change the way we work. The application of these new methods has improved our ability to process and understand massive amounts of data, allowing us to discover and develop new treatments faster and more accurately.” Boao Asia Suboko, director of the forum and global CEO of AstraZeneca, said.
Suboko introduced that using generative models through artificial intelligence platforms to identify potential drug molecules can be twice as fast as traditional processes; applying generative artificial intelligence and machine learning to the antibody discovery process, the time to identify target antibody clues has been reduced from 3 Month is shortened to 3 days.
The integration of artificial intelligence and education is also promoting change and innovation, accelerating the creation of education that is more suitable for everyone, more open and flexible.
Cheng Qun, vice president of Yuanfudao Group and director of the Artificial Intelligence Research Institute, visited a school in a remote mountainous area in Sichuan and found that the artificial intelligence applications developed based on its large model have brought changes to many children, and even solved some problems by increasing their interest in learning. The problem of students dropping out of school.
“Some students asked what the theory of relativity is, but local teachers couldn’t answer it, but artificial intelligence can be explained clearly with an easy-to-understand story.” He said that the development of large models must be “application-oriented” and “people-oriented”, and technology should pay attention to and empower Can every individual.
Empowered by artificial intelligence technology, more people will be able to enjoy accurate and personalized elderly care services.
“The application and implementation of innovative technologies will benefit thousands of households.” According to former Finnish Prime Minister Esko Aho, artificial intelligence technology will help solve the problem of insufficient commercial services in the existing elderly care model and better cope with the population. Challenges of Aging.
“The rapid development of artificial intelligence is profoundly changing human social life and changing the world.” The “2024 Annual Report on Asian Economic Prospects and Integration Process” released by the Boao Forum for Asia said that driven by applications that empower society, artificial intelligence is moving towards the three The following directions are further expanded: “machine + human”, “machine + human + network”, “machine + human + network + things”.
Researchers from the humanoid robot research team of the Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences debug the robot at the National Key Laboratory of Multimodal Artificial Intelligence Systems (photographed on January 31, 2024).Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Jin Liwang
How to strengthen governance to achieve “intelligent good”?
Regarding artificial intelligence technology, people are not only excited and looking forward to it, but also worried and uneasy.
The “2024 Annual Report on Asian Economic Prospects and Integration Process” points out that while artificial intelligence improves productivity and promotes economic growth, it may affect income and wealth distribution and impact employment. In addition, if artificial intelligence gets out of control or is misused maliciously, it will also increase security risks.
What purposes and principles should AI governance follow? How to release huge growth momentum while ensuring that it is safe and controllable? How to promote the formation of a unified global artificial intelligence governance framework and standards? At the Boao Forum for Asia, many topics were related to this.
At the sub-forum, Zhang Yaqin, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and dean of the Intelligent Industry Research Institute of Tsinghua University, recalled his conversation with Stuart Russell many years ago, saying that Russell had long been concerned about the risks and governance issues of artificial intelligence. Today, Zhang Yaqin is more inclined to agree that artificial intelligence technology should be developed in parallel with governance.
Yuan Hui believes that to ensure safety and controllability and achieve “intelligent good”, it is necessary to strengthen the supervision of artificial intelligence, including data, algorithms, computing power, and application scenarios; at the same time, it is necessary to strengthen the research and judgment of potential risks in the development of artificial intelligence and be on guard.
In fact, many countries and regions have introduced laws, regulations, and regulatory frameworks specifically for artificial intelligence, aiming to guide the healthy and orderly development of artificial intelligence.
Zhou Xiaochuan, Vice Chairman of the Boao Forum for Asia, stated in the annual meeting journal that in strengthening global science and technology governance, promoting fair competition and secure and orderly cross-border flow of data, aligning artificial intelligence with the diverse values of human beings, narrowing the digital divide, and protecting labor In terms of investor rights, the world looks forward to the Asian solution.
Zeng Yi, a researcher at the Institute of Automation of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, called for the safety and ethical governance of artificial intelligence at the global level to share opportunities and protect safety. Countries need to carry out more cooperation in establishing technical standards, formulating e-commerce regulations, and cybersecurity protocols.
Zeng Yi proposed that in response to the impact of artificial intelligence technology, more philosophy and cognitive psychology knowledge should be taught to young people. “We need to understand what human intelligence is, how humans think, and what are the important issues and directions in life.”
“How will the world change when artificial intelligence completes what people want to do in a more efficient and economical way? If a machine can learn knowledge in 20 seconds, why do people still need to spend 20 years in education?” Stuart Russell said, we need to consider what should be the direction of technological progress and how human civilization can develop better.
(Reporters Shu Jing, Song Chen, Wang Cunfu, Luo Jiang)