PAI is a US-led alliance which aims to foster the ethical development and deployment of AI technologies. Baidu was the only Chinese member.

The loss of Baidu’s expertise and any representation from China is devastating for PAI. Ethical AI development requires global cooperation to set acceptable standards which help to ensure safety while not limiting innovation.

Baidu has officially cited financial pressures for its decision to exit the alliance.

In a statement, Baidu wrote:

“Baidu shares the vision of the Partnership on AI and is committed to promoting the ethical development of AI technologies. 

We are in discussions about renewing our membership, and remain open to other opportunities to collaborate with industry peers on advancing AI.”

Directors from PAI hope to see Baidu renew its membership to the alliance next year.

Cooperation between American and Chinese firms

Cooperation between American and Chinese firms is getting more difficult as the world’s largest economies continue to implement sanctions on each other.

The US has criticised China for its handling of the coronavirus outbreak, trade practices, its mass imprisonment and alleged torture of Uyghur Muslims in “re-education” camps, and breaking the semi-autonomy of Hong Kong.

In the tech world, much of the focus has been on Chinese telecoms giant Huawei – which the US accuses of being a national security threat. Canada arrested Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou last year on allegations of using the company’s subsidiaries to flout US sanctions against Iran. Two Canadian businessmen that were arrested in China shortly after Meng’s detention, in a suspected retaliation, were charged with spying by Beijing this week.

An increasing number of Chinese companies, including Huawei, have found themselves being added to an ‘Entity List’ in the US which bans American companies from working with them without explicit permission from the government.

The US added six Chinese AI companies to its Entity List last October, citing their role in alleged human rights violations.

Earlier this week, the US Commerce Department made an exception to Huawei’s inclusion on the Entity List which allows US companies to work with the Chinese giant for the purposes of developing 5G standards. Hopefully, we can see the same being done for AI companies.

However, on the whole, cooperation between American and Chinese firms is getting more difficult as a result of the political climate. It wouldn’t be surprising to see more cases of companies like Baidu dropping out of well-intentioned alliances such as PAI if sensible resolutions to differences are not sought.

(Photo by Erwan Hesry on Unsplash)

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This year, Baidu’s stock price has dropped 36 percent. Li used the Game of Thrones phrase that “winter is coming” following a first-quarter loss.

Baidu has since not only been asking employees to fly economy rather than business, and not to stay in five-star hotels, but even to reduce the number of paper towels and cups they’re using in the office.

AI is expected to open up new revenue avenues for Baidu amid slowing growth in its traditional search business. Li said he’s an “optimist” when it comes to AI’s ability to make lives better.

Li was speaking at the plenary session of the sixth World Internet Conference (WIC) in Wuzhen, east China’s Zhejiang province.

During the conference, Li made a rather bold prediction:

“Artificial intelligence will not destroy human beings but will give people eternal life. Everything every person has said and done, even people’s memories, emotions and consciousness, can be digitally stored on network disks or the cloud.

Machines can learn people’s way of thinking. When there are new problems, people can talk to future generations across time and space via technology.”

Baidu, or any other company, is likely some way off from achieving Li’s prediction – but it’s a fascinating insight about AI’s potential direction from a tech leader nonetheless.

Self-driving cars, particularly robotaxis, is one area where Baidu is investing heavily. Last month, the company launched public trials in the Hunan province consisting of 45 autonomous taxis.

Li highlights that self-driving vehicles don’t just provide an opportunity itself but also has a knock-on effect of requiring “urban transport infrastructure, especially the software, to be updated.”

Baidu is also expanding its influence and sharing its AI expertise globally.

In July, AI News reported that Baidu will help develop Intel’s Nervana neural processor. The increasing scrutiny from the US over Chinese influence in Western companies and infrastructure, leading to an increasing number of Chinese firms being added to an ‘entity list’, may reduce such collaborations.

China’s growth and influence is hard to ignore, especially in AI. China’s State Council released a roadmap two years ago aimed at making the country a global AI leader by 2030 as it ramps up competition with the US.

With the full backing of the Chinese government, it’s understandable why Li continues to be bullish about Baidu’s AI investments.

(Image Credit: Fortune Global Forum 2013 by Stefen Chow/Fortune Global Forum under CC BY-ND 2.0 license)

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Announced during this year’s Baidu Create conference, the companies say they will focus on areas such as the smart home, intelligent connectivity, smart mobility, and e-commerce.

Geely is a privately held global automotive group headquartered in the city of Hangzhou and is most well-known for owning the Volvo and Lotus car brands.

The long-term goal of Baidu and Geely is to accelerate the adoption of connected vehicles in both China and the rest of the world. Li Shufu, Chairman of Zhejiang Geely Holding Group (Geely Holding), and Robin Li, Founder and CEO of Baidu, were at the announcement.

Li said: “The major advances in the history of mobility are accompanied by new changes brought about by cutting-edge technology. Geely Holding, through their years of achievements and innovations, has become a leader in China’s automotive industry.

“This strategic cooperation between Baidu and Geely, focusing on AI technology empowerment, will not only bring about more natural and convenient human-car interaction but also accelerate the intelligentisation of the automobile and mobility service industry, helping the Chinese automotive industry become a leader in the era of smart mobility.”

Shufu and Li interacted with Geely’s latest connected SUV, the Bo Yue Pro, on-stage during the event. The intelligent new vehicle is equipped with Baidu’s AI system through Geely’s SKU19 Smart Ecosystem which helps to connect people, cars, and homes.

Geely has plans to roll out the SKU19 across its portfolio.

Shufu commented: “China’s intelligent connected vehicle technology is now at the forefront of the world, bringing consumers a safe and convenient travel experience. Baidu is a leader within the AI industry in China, and also a pioneer in promoting industrial intelligence with their globally leading AI R&D capability and deep technical insight in the field of intelligent driving.

“Through strategic cooperation and resource collaboration, the two sides are committed to jointly building an intelligent mobility ecosphere to lead the future, and create a brand-new experience for users.”

Baidu continues to double-down on its AI efforts. Just last week, AI News reported that Baidu will lend its AI expertise to help with the development of Intel’s Nervana neural processor.

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Speaking on stage at the conference in Beijing, Intel corporate vice president Naveen Rao made the announcement.

“The next few years will see an explosion in the complexity of AI models and the need for massive deep learning compute at scale. Intel and Baidu are focusing their decade-long collaboration on building radical new hardware, codesigned with enabling software, that will evolve with this new reality – something we call ‘AI 2.0.’

Intel’s so-called Neural Network Processor for Training is codenamed NNP-T 1000 and designed for training deep learning models at lightning speed. A large amount (32GB) of HBM memory and local SRAM is put closer to where computation happens to enable more storage of model parameters on-die, saving significant power for an increase in performance.

The NNP-T 1000 is set to ship alongside the Neural Network Processor for Inference (NNP-I 1000) chip later this year. As the name suggests, the NNP-I 1000 is designed for AI inferencing and features general-purpose processor cores based on Intel’s Ice Lake architecture.

Baidu and Intel have a history of collaborating in AI. Intel has helped to optimise Baidu’s PaddlePaddle deep learning framework for its Xeon Scalable processors since 2016. More recently, Baidu and Intel developed the BIE-AI-Box – a hardware kit for analysing the frames of footage captured by cockpit cameras.

Intel sees a great deal of its future growth in AI. The company’s AI chips generated $1 billion in revenue last year and Intel expects a growth rate of 30 percent annually up to $10 billion by 2022.

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The group is called PAI (Partnership on AI) and has been formed amid fears about the potential impacts of artificial intelligence. Such concerns include the potential effect on jobs, discrimination, and the potential loss of life when AI us used in a military capacity.

PAI consists of more than 70 academic institutes along with civil groups and technology leaders including Google, Apple, Facebook, and Microsoft. In collaboration, the group will develop ethical guidelines.

Until Baidu joined, there has been a notable lack of Chinese partnership. As one of the leaders in AI, and the most populous country in the world, the involvement of China is vital.

Terah Lyons, Executive Director of the Partnership on AI, said:

“Admitting our first Chinese member is an important step toward building a truly global partnership.

The growth and scope of work on AI in China is extensive and any conversation about the future of AI that does not involve China is an incomplete conversation.

I look forward to seeing our members work together across borders, sectors, and disciplines to help shape the future of this critical technology, enabling the best possible outcomes for society.”

Xi Jinping, General Secretary of the Communist Party of China, has repeatedly iterated his desire for the country to lead the world in AI by 2025. Going by the pace of advancements by Chinese firms such as Huawei, it’s not hard to imagine.

Baidu is considered the ‘Google of China’ and similar to its Western counterpart is also developing things such as driverless cars and virtual assistants. The company’s decision to join PAI is a huge win for the consortium and its credibility.

Ya-Qin Zhang, President of Baidu, commented:

“As AI technology keeps advancing and the application of AI expands, we recognize the importance of joining the global discussion around the future of AI.

Ensuring AI’s safety, fairness and transparency should not be an afterthought but rather highly considered at the onset of every project or system we build.

The impact of a transformative technology like AI goes beyond borders, so we are looking forward to both sharing our own insights and learning from our international peers.”

While the militarisation of AI is somewhat inevitable, ethical safeguards can be put in place to prevent disasters. There’s almost widespread agreement that any final decision which leads to the loss of life must be authorised by a human operator to ensure accountability.

Below you can watch our video from the AI Expo in Amsterdam with Irakli Beridze, Head of the UN Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute (UNICRI) Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, discussing the potential impacts of AI:

PAI has now launched three Working Groups:

AI, Labor, and the Economy

Safety-Critical AI

Fair, Transparent, and Accountable AI

In addition to these Working Groups, further detail is forthcoming on the Partnership’s work within ‘Social and Societal Influences of AI’,’“Collaborations Between People and AI Systems’, and ‘AI and Social Good’.

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Many flagship smartphones are launching with dedicated AI chips — including, of course, Huawei’s very own Mate 10. Over the course of the next year, we expect these chips to be available in most high-end devices.

Research firm Counterpoint Technology forecasts that more than half a billion smartphones that will be shipped around the world in 2020 will have AI capabilities at the chipset level.

The current abilities of these devices are impressive, but limited. Huawei’s alliance with Baidu has the ability to unlock more of their potential. Robin Li Yanhong, Baidu’s chairman and chief executive, said the firm’s partnership with Huawei will “kick off the AI-powered intelligent devices era”.

Huawei and Baidu are specifically collaborating on an AI-powered platform alongside related technologies, internet services, and content.

“With our strength in research and development, Huawei will work with Baidu to promote industrial innovation and realise [the development] … of the next generation of smartphones,” said Richard Yu Chengdong, chief executive of Huawei’s consumer business group, in a statement.

Baidu has often been described as the ‘Google of China’ for its influence and innovation. Like Google, Baidu has been putting an increased focus on artificial intelligence.

Huawei, like many manufacturers, will be hoping to combat Apple in the AI-powered smartphone market. Counterpoint Research believes Apple will lead the world’s AI-capable chip market through 2020 as its Bionic chip gets adopted across its whole portfolio of devices.

What are your thoughts on the AI partnership?

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Feng Liu, Yong Shi, and Ying Liu put their test to AIs from Google, Apple, and Microsoft. The AIs scored as follows:

• Google: 47.28
• Baidu: 32.92
• Bing: 31.92
• Siri: 23.9

Google leads the pack comfortably according to the results. Baidu and Bing are a comfortable distance behind. Siri’s result is the most notable as it trails its competitors significantly with almost half the score of Google.

To calm those concerned about the potential AI apocalypse forewarned by the likes of Elon Musk — even Google’s score was relatively low compared to humans.

For comparison, the average score for a six-year-old in the researchers’ test is 55.5. For an 18-year-old, the average result is 96. This shows, at least for the time being, humans still have the advantage when it comes to general knowledge (…unless you’re under six, maybe.)

The gap is closing quickly, however. Earlier studies by the group show a rapid improvement over a relatively short period of time. Back in 2014, Google and Baidu put up scores of 26.5 and 23.5 respectively.

Once again, this posts Siri in a rather bad light. Google’s (and almost Baidu’s…) score back in 2014 was higher than Siri’s in the latest study.

The results are in-line with those found in another study posted by our sister publication IoT News. In that study, Siri also fell significantly behind Google and Microsoft in the ability to answer general knowledge questions.

The full research can be found here for your perusal.

What are your thoughts on the results of the study?

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Goldman Sachs, a leading global investment firm, highlights China’s resources and ambitious plans for an intelligent economy based on AI.

The report is titled “China’s Rise in Artificial Intelligence” and says both companies and the Chinese government are putting their weight behind AI. In fact, back in July, the Chinese government announced it will increase government spending on core AI programs to $22 billion in the next few years, with plans to spend nearly $60 billion per year by 2025.

“We believe AI technology will become a priority on the government’s agenda, and we expect further national/regional policy and funding support on AI to follow,” the bank said.

Chinese giant Baidu has made a name for itself as one of the leaders in AI development. The company is often seen as the Chinese equivalent to Google, a company which is seen to be leading AI development in the West.

Guidelines on developing AI

China’s State Council has issued guidelines on developing AI in China and set the goal to become a global innovation center by 2030. The output value of AI is expected to surpass 1 trillion yuan ($147.80 billion)

AI requires vast amounts of data, and this is an area where China thrives due to its large population. The country is also known for its ‘Great Firewall’ and control over what content is able to be accessed, and from what providers.

“China understandably generates (about) 13 percent of the digital information globally. By 2020, we expect this to grow to around 20 percent to 25 percent as China’s economy emerges as the world’s largest,” Goldman Sachs predicts.

The firm also predicts China will generate around 9 to 10 zetabytes (about 1 trillion gigabytes) of data.

In order to gain the full value of AI, Goldman Sachs has identified four areas needed: talent, data, infrastructure, and computing power. Goldman believes China meets these criteria and has a ripe opportunity to take a lead in AI.

Do you think China will overtake the US in AI development?

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