Leveraging AI: Big names debate AI future trends and applications

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By CGTN's Zhao Lingfeng

Leading artificial intelligence (AI) experts from China, Europe and the US are gathering in the Chinese water town of Wuzhen for a five-day forum titled “Future of Go Summit.” Aptly so after Chinese Go player Ke Jie was defeated by computer program AlphaGo.

The forum is seeing some heated discussion on the future relations between machines and humans, and AI utilization.

Most leading experts at the event agree humans and machines can live in harmony, even as robots develop intuition. And that kind of concept is fueling a booming industry. The AI sector is growing at an unprecedented pace, up 40 percent to over 10 billion yuan (1.45 billion US dollars) last year. The growth rate in the AI sector in China is expected to surpass 50 percent in 2017.

Image of recognition translation tool. /CGTN Photo

Industry insiders say this fast development can bring solutions to some of the world’s greatest challenges within reach. Demis Hassabis, CEO of the company behind AlphaGo, says the world is in desperate need of solutions to climate change, economy and diseases -- and AI can help to solve all these problems.

Demis Hassabis speaks at the forum. /CGTN Photo

And in terms of where the new money lies, Eric Schmidt, the executive chairman of Alphabet, Inc, says the quickest way to make money at the moment is to study a problem in health, business or government, and use AI.

Eric Schmidt speaks at the AI forum. /CGTN Photo

So far, the only field where AI has been proven to work commercially is online advertising and recommendations. Experts at the forum share a common view that AI applications in autonomous healthcare and genetics, as well as education, are promising. But it remains to be seen how the technology can be transformed into something viable.