First,2017willbeabreakoutyearforartificialintelligenceinChina.Theterm“artificialintelligence”wasofficiallycoinedin1956atasmallbutnow-famoussummerconferenceatDartmouthCollegeinNewHampshire,U.S.A.Over60yearslater,abattlebetweentheAlphaGocomputerandworldfamousweiqi(“Go”)masterLeeSedolattractedglobalattentiontoAIandinspiredanewwaveofdevelopment.
Attheendof2016,theconsultingfirmMcKinsey&CompanyreleasedareporttitledTheRiseofRobots:ArtificialIntelligenceintheEyesofChineseExecutives.Accordingtothereport,thedevelopmentofartificialintelligencehasreachedacriticalpointanditsexponentialdevelopmentissettocreateaboomforhigh-techcompanies.Amongthe80Chinesecompaniesinterviewed,over90percentopinedthatAIwouldbecomeasubversivepowerintheirrespectivefields.
ManyenterprisesinChinaandabroad,includingGoogle,IBM,Facebook,Microsoft,Alibaba,BaiduandiFLYTEK,havesteppedupAIdevelopmentinmanysectors.Themostnoticeableimprovementshaveemergedinareassuchassmartcities,intelligenttransportation,healthcareandeducation.Thetrendhasshownnosignsofslowingas2017arrives.
Second,ArtificialIntelligencePluscouldreplacetheInternetPlus.Inrecentyears,technologiesinthefieldsofintelligentvoices,machinelearninganddeeplearninghavegraduallymatured.SomebasicAIsupporttechnologieshavebeguntoseekintegrationwithvariousapplicationsinothersectors.Forexample,theadoptionofintelligentvoicesinjudicialandshorthandwritingsectorswillprobablyreplacetraditionalrecordingmethods.Inaddition,AIwillalsocontributetomedicaldiagno-sesandtreatments.Analystspredictthatin2017,ArtificialIntelligencePluswillbegintograduallyreplacetheInternetPlusandbringbigchangestotraditionalsectors.Furthermore,AIwillgreatlypromotethedevelopmentandapplicationofothernewtechnologiesandacceleratethedigitaltransformationprocessofChi-neseenterprises.
Third,thedevelopmentofAIwillacceleratethearrivaloftheInternetofThings(IoT)era.TheIoT,aconceptthatemergedarelativelylongtimeago,needsAItomaturetotrulyblossom.Incontrastwiththeinternet,whichconnectspeople,thegoaloftheIoTistoconnecteverythingtofosterexchangesofinformationandcommunication.Today,however,AIproductsaretoofewandnotpopularenough,whichhasimpededthedevelopmentoftheIoTtoagreatextent.Surely,through2017andintothefuture,AItechnologiesrelevanttotheIoTwillseefurtherdevelopmentandconsiderableevolution,ultimatelyacceleratingthedawnoftheIoTera.