EqualOcean reports that on February 11, the World Government Summit officially kicked off in Dubai. Themed "Shaping the Future Government", this year’s summit brought together heads of state, government leaders, representatives of international organizations, thought leaders, and experts from across the globe, setting a new record for international participation. At the summit, Baidu founder Robin Li took part in a main forum discussion with Omar Sultan Al Olama, UAE's Minister of Artificial Intelligence, where he shared his deep insights into the development of artificial intelligence.
In light of the recent stir caused by DeepSeek, Li acknowledged, “You never know when or where innovation will emerge.” The DeepSeek language model, a breakthrough technology requiring just 10% of the computational resources of GPT-4, has sent shockwaves through the industry. This development prompted Li, who had once declared that "China would not see another OpenAI" and that "closed systems are the only viable path for AI development", to publicly revise his stance on the future of AI. At the summit, Li explained that although closed systems still offer commercial value, open-source solutions might accelerate the democratization of AI. Third-party evaluations have shown that since DeepSeek was open-sourced in June 2024, global developer engagement has surged by 470%, sparking micro-innovations in sectors like healthcare and education.
Discussing the nature of innovation in AI, Li emphasized that historically, the essence of innovation has been in reducing costs and increasing productivity. Most breakthroughs in AI and IT have centered around cost reduction. Currently, the cost of inference for large AI models is decreasing by over 90% per year, with the pace of innovation outstripping anything seen before. Following Moore's Law, which suggests that computing performance doubles and prices halve every 18 months, the cost reduction trend for large models has become even more striking.
Li also touched on the rapid advances in autonomous driving, noting that robotaxis are at least ten times safer than human drivers, with their accident rate only 1/14th of that of human drivers. This technology, he said, has the potential to drastically reduce traffic-related fatalities. Baidu’s Apollo Go launched its sixth-generation autonomous vehicle last year, integrating Baidu's Apollo ADFM large model, making it the first large model in the world to support Level 4 autonomous driving. Baidu Apollo also provides 5 million RMB in insurance coverage for each autonomous vehicle and its passengers. As of October 28, 2024, Apollo Go has completed over 8 million autonomous rides without any significant accidents, and it is now operational in cities including Wuhan, Beijing, Chongqing, Shenzhen, and Shanghai, offering fully autonomous rides and conducting testing.
Picture Source: World Governments Summit