A Hi-Tech Feast

By Yuan Yuan

‘Hello everyone， I am an English artifi cial intelligence （AI） news anchor. This is my very fi rst day with Xinhua News Agency，” said an AI anchor in a video released on the opening day of the Fifth World Internet Conference in Wuzhen， east Chinas Zhejiang Province， on November 7. “I will work tirelessly to keep you informed as texts will be typed into my system uninterruptedly. I look forward to bringing you a brand new news experience.”

The virtual anchor， whose video fl ooded social media， is the fi rst human replica intelligent virtual host co-developed by Sogou and Xinhua News Agency. It looks so real that the lip movements and facial expressions perfectly match the voice.

A Chinese version of the AI anchor debuted on the same day， with another Xinhua anchor as its model.

The debut of the AI anchor is one of the latest technologies released at the three-day Internet conference， where more than 1，500 government delegates， international organization representatives， leading Internet entrepreneurs and experts from around the world were in attendance under the theme of Creating a Digital World for Mutual Trust and Collective Governance—Toward a Community with a Shared Future in Cyberspace.

Nineteen subforums held during the event covered a wide range of topics related to AI， 5G， fi nancial technology， cyber security， the digital economy， as well as the Internet and public services.

The Internet world

“The world is going through a broader and deeper scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation，” President Xi Jinping said in a congratulatory message to the conference. “We should speed up the development of the digital economy and promote the advancement of the global Internet governance system in a just and more reasonable way， so as to inject new impetus into the world economy.”

Xi called for concrete cooperation among different countries to advance mutual trust and collective governance in cyberspace and create a vigorous community with a shared future in cyberspace.

Yoni Heilbronn， Chief Marketing Offi cer of the Israeli cyber security fi rm Argus， applauded Chinas fast progress in Internet development in the past few years. He told China Daily that when China held the First World Internet Conference in 2014， the country was still establishing its position as an Internet powerhouse. Now， China is without a doubt a key world player.

Heilbronn suggested international cooperation to ensure cyber security improvement. “China brings more points of view and diversity that are needed in the modern world of the Internet，” he said.“China will have a more significant role in promoting cyber security and safeguarding global society online.”

Chinas AI industry has embraced rapid growth in the past fi ve years， making it one of the worlds leading experimenters at the application level， Wang Xiaochuan， CEO of Sogou， told China Daily.

“As the world finds itself in the era of the digital economy， AI can help our cities and enterprises to achieve revolutionary transformation so that our AI technology can meet global demands and needs instead of focusing on one specific country or area，” Tao Kaixing， President of Remark Media Inc.， said at the conference.

Future life

On two screens displayed by China Telecom at the Light of Internet Expo， a major part of the World Internet Conference， visitors could see a scene from South Africa and Wenzhou City in Zhejiang simultaneously.

They told the story of how Li Xue， who currently lives in South Africa， managed to transfer his hukou （household registration） from his old dwelling to a new one in Wenzhou through a video connection with the local public security bureau without having to return to China.

More than 430 enterprises and insti-tutions from 25 countries and regions gathered at the expo this year to show their innovative new technologies and products， from robots that can play rock-paperscissors with humans and e-books with a fl exible screen to virtual reality goggles and translators powered by AI.

A one-minute medical clinic that looks like a self-serve vending machine was on display where visitors could walk in and talk with a digital doctor by either voice or text. The doctor would then prescribe medication as needed and patients could get the medicine from a smart drug store.？

In addition， the top 15 latest scientifi c and technological achievements in the global Internet industry were unveiled on November 7. These were selected from over 400 technological achievements from more than 20 countries and regions in fi elds such as AI and 5G.

WeChat mini programs， small applications that function within the instant messaging platform， of Tencent were one of the 15. They free users from the trouble of downloading or installing apps.

Pony Ma， Chairman and CEO of Tencent Inc.， said that currently， more than 1.5 million app developers extract the core functions of their products and build them into mini programs without developing separate programs， which “offers a Chinese solution to the global problem of crosssystem app development.”

Ascend 310， an AI processor developed by Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei， can provide technological support for driverless vehicles and automatic production lines with the capacity to process thousands of pictures in a second.

The intelligent cyber security protection system of 360 Group， the automatic driving open-source platform Apollo of Baidu， the smart service of U.S. electric carmaker Tesla， the fully-integrated 5G NR Millimeter Wave （mmWave） & Sub-6 GHz RF Modules of U.S. chip giant Qualcomm， the supET Industrial Internet Platform of Alibaba Cloud， and technological support for smart homes from Microsoft and Xiaomi were all among the top 15.

As the next generation of mobile communication， the latest applications of 5G mobile telecom technology， self-driving vehicles and robots got the most attention. With 5G， doctors can do long-distance B-scan examinations for patients who are being transported by ambulance.

A report titled China is Poised to Win the 5G Race released by global consultancy Ernst & Young in early November showed that China is expected to have 576 million 5G users by 2025， or over 40 percent of global consumption. It is estimated that Chinas 5G capital expenditure will hit 1.5 trillion yuan （$223 billion） between 2019 and 2025.

As of last year， the conference began releasing the World Internet Development Report and the China Internet Development Report. On November 9， as the World Internet Conference wrapped up， the two 2018 editions were published.

The major economies in North America， Europe and Asia have the highest average level of Internet development， while developing countries and regions in Latin America and sub-Saharan Africa are increasing efforts to develop the Internet， the World Internet Development Report 2018 found.

It said that the world is in a historic convergence period in which a new technological and industrial revolution is breaking out. Information technology， which is represented by the Internet， has deeply integrated with peoples production and lives， becoming the leading force behind innovation and transformation， as well as accelerating the reconstruction of the new global economic landscape.

The world and the China Internet development index systems were also launched with the reports. The systems have six indicators： infrastructure， innovation capacity， industrial development， Internet application， network security and Internet governance.

The world index system has been improved and optimized this year by expanding the scope of countries evaluated from 38 to 45， covering the major economies on the fi ve continents.

Second only to the United States， China， with its new achievements such as its upgraded information infrastructure， advanced network information technology and strong digital economy， is one of the worlds leading countries in Internet development with a score of 53.23 in the index system.

“The United States invented the Internet and has led many technological innovations，” said Wang Yiwei， Director of the Institute of International Affairs at Renmin University of China . “However， China has a large population and our application capability is very strong. Many companies use the World Internet Conference as a platform to display their own inventions and seek the application of technologies， which will in turn improve productivity.”