Ali Cloud keeps perfecting its computing platform, data resources platform and application support platform, according to the different scenarios during the operating of the city brain
ZHANG Jianfeng (张建锋), the president of Ali Cloud, said that “Alibaba would set some examples in the city brain industry, which could be massively copied and spread”. According to ZHANG, the city brain is a brand-new industry which has limited players. Almost all the players in this industry lack the related experience, so Ali needs cooperation with others.” ZHANG took the city brain as an example to interpret how could the Ali Cloud “be integrated”.
Ali Cloud began to build the city brain from 2016. After three year’s exploration and research, Ali Cloud achieved the commercialization of the city brain. According to ZHANG, Ali Cloud keeps perfecting its computing platform, data resources platform and application support platform, according to the different scenarios during the operating of the city brain. Ali’s partner could make use of the mature platform and productions to quickly integrate its service and applications.
Currently, the city brain has played an important role in the transportation field and is highly recognized by software developers and integrators. In terms of transportation, the city brain could offer data and smart service, high-defined maps and precise location service, visual intelligence service and the connection with IoT. With a city brain’s management, transportation efficiency could be greatly promoted.
According to ZHANG, many enterprises have made use of Ali’s city brain to build their own applications, including Enjoyor Co., Ltd (银江股份), Shumeng Factory (数梦工场), Banyun Technology (半云科技) and Shenma Integration (神马集成). With the intelligence of Ali Cloud city brain, these enterprises build their application layer efficiently and help the city to better its transportation situation. Citizens could enjoy the convenience directly from the cut down of the commuting time, the digital ID and better security service.
Currently, Ali Cloud city brain has explored many industries including transportation management, environment protection, meticulous management of cities. In Hangzhou, Quzhou, Suzhou, Macao, and Kuala Lumpur, Ali Cloud city brain has worked as an intelligent manager to cooperate with the government to better the transportation, environment and economic situation. In Hangzhou, the time people spent on transportation was cut down by 15% with the help of Ali city brain. At the end of 2017, the city brain was selected as one of “The new generation of national AI innovation platform” and was regarded as the “Project Moonshot” of AI industry. In the next decade, the city brain would be the most important research field for AI technology.
As the next “Project Moonshot”, the Ali Cloud city brain has initiated numerous world-class technologies. 3 academic papers of city brain have been selected into the ACM Multimedia, which is the world-class academic summit. In addition, the city brain refreshed the world record of KITTI many times, which is an authoritative evaluation platform of machine vision algorithms. The city brain’s accuracy rate of the city map is above 99%, and it has already incubated many intelligent products of machine vision including Tianyao (天曜), Tianqing (天擎), Tianji (天机) and Tianying (天鹰). In the future, with the updating and development of artificial intelligence technology, the city brain would play a more important role and the operating efficiency of the city could be largely improved.