Duke Kunshan hosted the Duke International Forum 2020 under the theme of “AI-Driven Industrial Innovation” on Dec. 4. The conference was jointly organized by Duke Kunshan, Duke Kunshan University Development and Promotion Center, and the Kunshan Industrial Technology Research Institute. Speakers at the forum included Al Bloom, executive vice chancellor of Duke Kunshan; Zhou Xudong, deputy secretary of the Kunshan Committee of the Communist Part of China, mayor of Kunshan and vice chairman of the Duke Kunshan University Council; and Tang Qizhu, vice president of Wuhan University.. Mike Schoenfeld, vice president for public affairs and government relations and chief communications officer at Duke University, welcomed participants in a video message. Also present was Li Hui, vice mayor of Kunshan.
At this year’s conference, business executives, investors, entrepreneurs, and scientists discussed artificial intelligence (AI) applications, smart finance, smart health care and next-stage development.
Zhou spoke highly of the conference. ‘Duke International Forum 2020, which focused on AI-driven industrial innovations that address today’s development needs, fitted well with Kunshan’s efforts to upgrade industrially, and provided a variety of perspectives and ideas that will benefit the city’s future development,” he said.
Tang noted that AI research has begun to attract considerable interest. This year’s Duke International Forum, with AI-driven industrial upgrading as its theme, will help to guide development and attract attention from people working in related areas, he said, adding that he expected the all-day forum to produce meaningful results.
In a video message, Schoenfeld said that since Duke Kunshan had begun hosting the forum in 2015 it had been committed to exploring global topics that benefit from a variety of perspectives, ranging from cross-border mergers and acquisitions to the green economy. Duke is proud of what Duke Kunshan has achieved in a short time, he added.
Forum host Li Xin, associate dean of research and director of the Data Science Research Center at Duke Kunshan, said in his opening speech, “AI is a strategic technology and a core driving force for industrial innovation, which has attracted global attention from academic fields and industry as a new engine of economic development and an accelerator of social progress.”
AI technology is advancing rapidly, with new breakthroughs being made consistently. In China and around the world, many well-known enterprises are leading the AI revolution.
Rui Yong, chief technology officer and senior vice president at Lenovo Group, as well as a member of the European Academy of Sciences and the Association for Computing Machinery, talked about how intelligent technology empowers high-end manufacturing across the whole value chain, and emphasized that the digital economy will lead to improved efficiency and reduced costs.
Improved efficiency comes from greater value produced by connecting intelligent technology and industry, he told the forum, and costs are reduced by lowering the price of intelligent technology itself through innovations in computing architecture and algorithms. It is worth thinking about how to build a new platform to fully apply intelligent technology vertically across industry to provide new momentum for the digital economy, he added.
Gao Xiqing, Hongtian Chair Professor at Beijing’s University of International Business and Economics, former vice chairman and president of China Investment Corp. and former vice chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, affirmed the importance of this year’s theme. He discussed the major changes in social governance models and greater convenience enabled by AI technology, and its complex implications for society. There are huge challenges in the way of healthy development in the field of AI, he said.
AI is accelerating the process of industrial upgrading across many industries and its impact in the financial sector is particularly deep, according to Zhan Yuyin, chairman of E-Fund Management and E-Fund International Holdings. He talked about the use of AI across four areas of investment, including AI-assisted marketing, AI-assisted investment decision-making, AI-assisted middle and back office operations, and AI-assisted supervision.
He said he hoped that with stronger support from the capital markets, AI applications will be further enhanced, focusing resources on where they are most needed and where they can generate value.
In a roundtable discussion on the opportunities and challenges of financial technology, or fintech, Li Xia, president and CEO of Geez Auto Finance, and other speakers discussed fintech from application, market segmentation and legal and regulatory perspectives. They also reviewed China’s fintech evolution, in which they said there are many new opportunities.
There have been many breakthroughs in AI technology, said Li Jie, a professor from Shanghai Jiao Tong University and a foreign academician at the Engineering Academy of Japan. Li shared his insights on smart cities, which he said had seen rapid development in the past decade using the latest information technology. Big data is an essential component driving the development of smart cities, he said, while the combination of AI and big data is both crucial and evolving.
Speakers presented a rich and rewarding discussion on AI investment and entrepreneurship. Li Zhaohui, managing partner at Tencent Investment and vice-president of Tencent Holdings, talked about three promising investment areas.
“The more obvious one now is interactive media driven by short videos, which is a big direction of AI investment with proven value,’ he said. ‘The second is e-commerce, which breeds myriad opportunities. The algorithms that can predict what products will be liked by different customers and provide recommendations are only a relatively preliminary AI application and more sophisticated solutions will emerge in the future.
‘The connection of AI and health care is not that deep and lags behind other areas,” he added. “To some extent, the source of data is still a problem. In contrast, I think data-driven applications are more promising, such as internet of things scenarios and typical usage scenarios of 5G, like autonomous driving.”
Wei Juan, executive director of China Venture Capital, said she believed that the barriers to entry for using AI can be categorized into horizontal and vertical. Horizontal applies to how a core technology can be used across platforms to produce software or standardization for finance, AI technology, databases or other areas. Vertical refers to building barriers in vertical markets by fully integrating with large clients. The more effective approach is to have both horizontal and vertical barriers, he added.
In addition to the financial sector, AI has also had a major influence on health care. Ding Jian, managing director and chairman of GSR Ventures Management, said the shocks and impacts caused by AI are equivalent to those of previous industrial revolutions. Artificial intelligence not only improves technology and brings with it benefits for society, it also brings changes to the business ecosystem. He illustrated these changes by talking about AI applications in health care, arguing that AI is a revolutionary technology rather than a straightforward IT tool.
Zeng Fanzhong, chairman of TCL Healthcare Equipment (Shanghai) Co., said he believed that in the field of medical equipment, Chinese companies lag behind some Western counterparts, while with AI technology, every player is standing at the same starting line. By leveraging China’s advantages, Chinese companies have an opportunity to take a lead in terms of using AI in the medical field, he said.
During the forum, Duke Kunshan formalized its strategic partnership with Lenovo Group and China Construction Bank, and unveiled a new laboratory named after Fubon Financial Holdings, following the signing of a donation agreement. The university also signed internship and training agreements with six enterprises in the Kunshan area. The Duke Kunshan University and Local Community Integrated Development Alliance, which aims to help the university expand its high-quality resources and strengthen talent training, was also started. In addition, the university announced the launch of joint courses with the Exam Institute for Information Science.
Through its collaborations, Duke Kunshan aims to leverage resources from partners to further pursue excellence in teaching, learning and research.
This year’s event, the sixth Duke International Forum hosted by Duke Kunshan, attracted people from different fields to discuss important AI issues from global perspectives and share their views and insights. In future, the Duke International Forum will continue to focus on front-of-mind issues, providing a platform for global ideas and interaction, and for working together with industry to figure out the best path forward.
