Amid industry boom, dozens of AI products debut at Shanghai AI conference

A robot performs shooting at the basket during the World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) 2023 in Shanghai, east China, July 6, 2023. (Xinhua/Fang Zhe) 

SHANGHAI, July 7 (Xinhua) -- With China's artificial intelligence (AI) boom, dozens of related products are making their global debut at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) 2023 in Shanghai.

A record number of enterprises are participating in the exhibition amid the industry frenzy triggered by ChatGPT that took the world by storm late last year.

More than 400 firms are attending the exhibition this year, which covers more than 50,000 square meters. Both figures are at their highest levels since 2018, when the annual event was inaugurated.

More than 30 cutting-edge products or services were launched or exhibited for the first time, becoming the spotlights of the three-day event that kicked off on Thursday.

Fourier Intelligence, a Chinese tech startup specializing in rehabilitation robotics and artificial intelligence, unveiled its first-generation humanoid robot.

Standing 1.65 meters tall and weighing 55 kg, the robot, named GR-1, is able to walk at 5 km per hour and carry a load of up to 50 kg. It can walk bipedally, avoid obstacles, ascend and descend a slope with stability, and withstand shocks.

With the help of cognitive intelligence provided by ChatGPT-like tools, the robot is capable of interacting with humans while performing a variety of movements and tasks.

Gu Jie, founder and CEO of Fourier Intelligence, said he expected general-purpose humanoid robots to gradually become a mainstream segment of the industry.

XtalPi Inc., a pioneering pharmaceutical technology company powered by AI and automation, debuted a drug discovery automation solution at the event.

Gu Liang, chief technology officer of XtalPi, told Xinhua that its AI technology can help break through the speed bottleneck in chemical synthesis, improve the success rate of drug development experiments, and shorten the development cycles of new drugs.

Shanghai Westwell Technology Co., Ltd, which uses AI to explore developments in autonomous logistics, brought its first battery-swapping driverless vehicle to WAIC.

The tractor is equipped with a 360-degree sensory system for traffic monitoring and driving guidance. It can fully recharge without human intervention and is able to carry up to 40 tonnes of objects.

The new product will be put into operation at several airports in the near future, according to Westwell. The company has earned a reputation for its full-stack intelligent port solutions and driverless container trucks. Its products have been exported to countries including Thailand, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, and Malaysia.

Fueled by a ChatGPT wave, AI-generated content, and AI large language models are hot topics at the WAIC. More than 30 large language models took the spotlight during the event, such as Huawei's Pangu, Baidu's Wenxin, and SenseTime's SenseNova.

During his speech at the WAIC, Hu Houkun, Huawei's rotating chairman, confirmed that the Pangu Large Model 3.0 is to be launched at Huawei Cloud Developer Conference on Friday.

Hu said that Huawei will help boost computing power to support the country's AI industry development and unravel innovations to allow AI to serve a wide range of industries as well as scientific research.

Among the high-profile participants of the conference is Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who delivered a speech via video during the opening ceremony. Musk pointed out that he expects China to have strong AI prowess in the future.

Musk's remarks were echoed by Liu Hongbin, executive deputy director of the Center for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics of Hong Kong Institute of Science &Innovation under the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Liu believes that given the number of people working in AI-related fields, the advantage of a huge amount of AI data, the advanced AI infrastructure, and government-supporting policies, China will become a world leader in AI by 2030.

The WAIC, a high-profile AI event in Shanghai, has developed into an influential platform for AI cooperation and exchange, as well as a catalyst for the city's AI industry.

It attracted over 600,000 offline visitors and witnessed the signing of 200 major industrial projects with a combined investment of 70 billion yuan (about 9.7 billion U.S. dollars) over the last five editions.