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Tech companies' executives share insights into the latest technological issues at the Future Artificial Intelligence Pioneer Forum, a key part of the AI Day.

As artificial intelligence has sparked technological revolution and industrial transformation, its influence was pervasive throughout the 2024 Zhongguancun Forum, which concluded in Beijing on April 29.

A highlight of the five-day event, also known as the ZGC Forum, was AI Day, the first in the annual forum's history.

On April 27, a series of the latest innovation achievements and policies were released, underlining the host city's prominence in the AI research and industry landscape.

One of the technological achievements, a virtual girl named Tong Tong, developed by the Beijing Institute for General Artificial Intelligence grabbed attention.

Driven by values and causality, the avatar based on artificial general intelligence has a distinctive "mind "that sets it apart from data-driven AI. It can make decisions based on its own "values" rather than simply executing preset programs.

The development of Tong Tong circumvents the reliance of current data-driven AI on massive computing power and large-scale data. Its daily training uses no more than 10 A100 chips, indicating that it does not require massive computing resources and huge amounts of data for independent learning and growth.

At the same time, Tong Tong has acquired intelligent generalization capabilities, making it a versatile foundation for various vertical application scenarios.

"If the Tong Tong's 'fullness' is decreased, she will find food herself, and if 'tidiness' is increased, she will also pick up bottles from the ground," said a BIGAI staff member. By randomly altering Tong Tong's inclinations such as curiosity, tidiness and cleanliness, the avatar can autonomously explore the environment, tidy up rooms and wipe off stains.

Researchers said Tong Tong possesses a complete mind and value system similar to that of a 3 or 4-year-old child and is currently undergoing rapid replication.

"The birth of Tong Tong represents the rise of our country's independent research capabilities. It has shifted from the initial data-driven approach to a value-driven one, which has deeply promoted the emergence of technological paradigms and has had a significant effect on our scenarios, industries and economy," BIGAI Executive Deputy Director Dong Le said.

The goal of general AI research is to seek a unified theoretical framework to explain various intelligent phenomena; to develop a general intelligence entity with autonomous capabilities in perception, cognition, decision-making, learning, execution, social collaboration and others; all while aligning with human emotions, ethics and moral concepts, said BIGAI Director Zhu Songchun.

Also among the tech presentations was the text-to-video large model, Vidu, from Tsinghua University in collaboration with Chinese AI company Shengshu Technology.

It is reportedly China's first inaugural video large model with extended duration, exceptional consistency and dynamic capabilities, with its comprehensive performance in line with top international standards and undergoing accelerated iterative improvements.

"Vidu is the latest achievement in full-stack independent innovation, achieving technological breakthroughs in multiple dimensions, such as simulating the real physical world; possessing imagination; understanding multicamera languages; generating videos of up to 16 seconds with a single click; ensuring highly consistent character-scene timing and understanding Chinese elements," said Zhu Jun, vice-dean of the Institute for Artificial Intelligence at Tsinghua University and chief scientist of Shengshu Technology.

Such leading-edge technologies are examples of Beijing's AI research, which provides a foundation for the sustainable growth of related industries.

The city has released a batch of policies to encourage the development of the AI industry.

The policies are aimed at enhancing the supply of intelligent computing power; strengthening industrial basic research; promoting the accumulation of data; accelerating the innovative application of large models and creating a first-class development environment, Lin Jinhua, deputy director of the Beijing Commission of Development and Reform, said at the Future AI Pioneer Forum, part of the AI Day.

Beijing will pour more than 100 billion yuan ($13.8 billion) in optimizing its business and financing environment in the next five years and award AI breakthrough projects that have been included in major national strategic tasks up to 100 million yuan, according to Lin.

An international AI innovation zone is planned for the city's Haidian district, said Yue Li, executive deputy head of the district.

The zone will leverage research and industrial resources in the district including 52 key national laboratories; 106 national-level research institutions; 37 top-tier universities, including Peking University and Tsinghua University; 89 top global AI scholars and 1,300 AI businesses to create a new innovation ecosystem paradigm, Yue said.

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Impact of AI felt throughout five-day event - China Daily