Why is Chengdu selected for the expansion of the National Artificial Intelligence Innovation Application Pilot Zone in the west? _Local_news home_redstar news network

On the night of the 19, the official website of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued an announcement stating that it supported the creation of national pilot zones of AI innovation applications in Beijing, Tianjin (Binhai New Area) , Hangzhou, Guangzhou and Chengdu. . This is the second batch of pilot zones after the three pilot zones in Shanghai (Pudong New Area), Shenzhen and Jinan-Qingdao.

So far, the national artificial intelligence innovation application pilot area has increased to 8. From the perspective of geographical distribution, in this expansion, the Yangtze River Delta and Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao will each add a pilot area, and Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei has achieved “zero to two” breakthrough, and the western region with the economic circle of the twin city of Chengdu-Chongqing as the core, finally ushered in the Intelligence Innovation Application Pilot Zone Chengdu National Artificial.

In fact, the difficulty in the development of the artificial intelligence industry is not the front-end research and development capacity. According to Jiang Tao, president of the International Joint Research Institute of Robotics and Intelligent Systems of Chengdu University of Information Technology, president of Chengdu Artificial Intelligence Industry Association, and the doctoral supervisor of the Academy of Sciences of the University of China, as an intermediate industry, the development of artificial intelligence mainly depends on integration with other industries. “The gap between the different regions is reflected in the level of integration of technology and applications.”

The reporter noted that the “China 2020 New Generation Artificial Intelligence Development Report” released last year showed that the total number of artificial intelligence enterprises in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, the Yangtze River Delta and Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao accounted for 83% of the country, the number of artificial intelligence companies is considered to reflect the ability of technology and application grafting.

“The new pattern after the expansion of the pilot zone means that during the period of the ‘XIV Five Year Plan’, the national artificial intelligence industry is expected to break the pattern of a strong east and a weak west.” In Jiang Tao’s view, Chengdu will lead the development of artificial intelligence in the west. New pattern “.

Searching for scenarios / Chengdu will build in-depth application scenarios of artificial intelligence

In addition to the announcement of the expansion list, the announcement of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology also has different divisions of work for the five new pilot areas. For example, the Chengdu National Artificial Intelligence Innovation Application Pilot Area should build on the location advantages of important “Belt and Road” strategic hubs and footholds and build on success. The opportunity for the construction of the two-city economic circle in Chongqing, with artificial intelligence empowering small and medium-sized enterprises as an important starting point, focusing on advantageous industries such as health and finance, publishing the list of application scenarios and promoting the iterative development of technology and industry.

Focusing on regional development and small and medium-sized enterprises will be keywords for the development of artificial intelligence in Chengdu and even the western region.

Jiang Tao pointed out that the “artificial intelligence +” scenario is very important. The next important task for Chengdu is to discover the beneficial industries and potential markets.

Take the electronic information industry, for example, which has just hit a trillion scale. Jiang Tao said that the strong industrial cluster effect of Chengdu electronic information means that it has a large production scale and can be applied to such scenes as security production, quality control, inspection and quarantine. At the same time, the application of the industry, Intelligent and service robots also have a considerable huge market size.

Another potential market is smart transportation, because the western region has more complex terrain, such as plains, hills and mountains, which generate enormous value on the road scene. In transport applications, intelligent planning of traffic system traffic lights, road management and control, optimized layout, evacuation, emergency plans and other fields are carried out by establishing artificial intelligence models and the combination of big data traffic.

Chengdu is also making clearer plans for the development of the artificial intelligence industry. The person in charge of the Chengdu Information and Economy Office stated that in the next step, Chengdu will promote the coordinated development of the central and western regions, adhere to the scene-based city, highlight industrial characteristics, use artificial intelligence to empower small and medium-sized enterprises as an important starting point, and focus on key areas such as health and finance Advantageous industries, build in-depth application scenarios of artificial intelligence, publish a list of urban scenarios, help companies companies to share opportunities play with the “enabling” effect of artificial intelligence.

At the same time, it will focus on the new district and Chengdu Tianfu high-tech zone to create a pattern of artificial intelligence industry with development of dislocations and distinctive features; actively explore and practice innovation of policies, mechanisms and models, deepen national and international cooperation, improve industrial ecological environment and radiate Promote the development of regional integration of artificial intelligence.

Enriching Resources / “Reveal Rankings” – From Cultivating Talent to Cultivating Companies

Chengdu is not surprising as the first national AI innovation application pilot area in the west. Jiang Tao mentioned that Chengdu is indeed more prominent in industrial development and the creation of artificial intelligence scenarios. According to data from the Chengdu Economy and Information Office, in 2020, there will be more than 550 enterprises of the artificial intelligence industry in Chengdu, with an industrial scale of 20 billion yuan, an increase of 83% and 67%, respectively , since 2019.

The reporter noted that to achieve this breakthrough, Chengdu had intensively published articles on artificial intelligence in recent years and carried out industry cultivation and artificial intelligence target setting. According to the plan, by 2022, the scale of Chengdu’s artificial intelligence industry will exceed 50 billion yuan, which will make the scale of related industries exceed 500 billion yuan.

Jiang Tao believes that such a strong government push has helped Chengdu quickly narrow the gap with industrially developed regions. Especially in resource areas such as companies and talents, in recent years, Chengdu has owned leading companies in industries such as Baidu, SenseTime, and iFlytek, and has cultivated the rise of local companies such as Sichuan University Outwit, Sifang Weiye, and Koala Youran. Eight companies, including Bonsi, were selected from the list of key tasks for innovation in artificial intelligence of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, representing 1/17 of the country and basically forming a complete industrial chain business group to starting from basic support. basic technology for higher level applications.

However, when industrial development is directed to pilot areas of innovative applications, Chengdu still has room for development. For example, it is necessary to increase the number of leading companies. An intuitive manifestation is that the ability to bring together and drive small and medium-sized businesses and industrial ecology needs to be further enhanced.

In addition, in the in-depth research on the market and companies, Jiang Tao also found that the shortage of composite talent is a major problem in Chengdu’s insufficient mix of artificial intelligence research and industry. “Those who understand financing don’t understand technology, lest they dare early. Those who intervene in companies with independent technologies and eventually stay and develop can only become follow-up brokers.”

However, improvements are already being made. Jiang Tao noted that the Chengdu High-Tech Zone recently launched the “Minshan Action” plan for major R&D institutions (new R&D institutions) that released the list: it is clear that 30 thousand will be invested million yuan in the construction of 50 new R&D institutions in the next five years, and the first batch of 14 will be launched. The demand list of major R&D institutions includes power semiconductors, optoelectronic integration, terahertz , cellular engineering, industrial Internet and other emerging fields. The presentation team can receive up to 100 million yuan in industry support funds, and there is no upper limit for the major new research and development institutions.

Chengdu Commercial Daily-Red Star News reporter Zou Yue

Original title: Why is Chengdu selected for the expansion of the national pilot area of ​​artificial intelligence innovation applications in the west?