Do you still remember the first car you owned? In the memory of many people, their well-off life became clear with the speed of the wheels. The former Xiali, Santana, and Fukang… were the active attempts of Chinese automakers to bring cars into people’s lives, and also marked the beginning of the diversified production of automobiles in New China.

　　From the height of an era, these cars that have now entered the museum show a living historical section of China’s economic take-off since the reform and opening up. And people also feel their lives and struggles intertwined with the development of the country in these base colors of the rolling wheels of the era…

The earliest and last "Poussin"

　　The heat of midsummer has not dampened the enthusiasm of Shanghai citizens to "breathe" on weekends. On a blazing Sunday, the parking lot in front of the Shanghai Automobile Museum in Anting Town, Jiading District, was full of private cars of various brands and styles from visiting citizens. If you want to look for the imprint of the beginning of China’s family car era, if you want to find the imprint of China’s family car era, you can find it in this automobile museum. The two Santana cars called "Old Pusang" on display here have witnessed the unforgettable development of China’s automobile industry and China’s family car.

　　The Chinese must be no stranger to the Volkswagen Santana sedan. For many people who are a little older, the Volkswagen Old Poussin is the "divine car" in their minds, which is a kind of hard-to-part feeling. Their memories of private cars began with the old Poussin.

　　A black Santana sedan on display in the museum is as charming as an old gentleman from Shanghai. The license plate of the "1983 SAN" indicates its identity – it is a Santana assembled in Shanghai in 1983 in all imported parts. A lot happened in 1983, and the biggest event for the Chinese auto industry was the establishment of a joint venture between Shanghai Automobile Factory and what was then West German Volkswagen, called "Shanghai Volkswagen", and the first product of the joint venture was the Santana. At that time, no one could have predicted that the name of this car originated from a whirlwind in California called "SANTANA", which actually blew the whirlwind of family cars in China and became popular for nearly 30 years. It opened the door to the dream of owning a car for countless Chinese families, became synonymous with family cars, and changed people’s life patterns.

　　The overall shape of this Santana, produced 37 years ago, is not much different from the old Poussin we later saw on the market. The lines and corners of the whole car are square, but there are differences in some details such as lights and grille. There is a special "Shanghai" logo on the front intake grille of this Poussin, indicating that the vehicle is assembled at the Shanghai Automobile Factory. Although the internal configuration of this car is really the same as that of today’s family cars, such as the four-speed manual transmission and mechanical steering wheel, there is not so much auxiliary technology, but it can be said to be very excellent at the level of the year. Due to the high chassis, high horsepower, and a large fuel tank that can hold 60 liters of gasoline, Santana was very suitable for driving in China’s unsatisfactory road conditions at that time, and the advertising slogan "Own Santana, you are not afraid of traveling all over the world" also spread to thousands of families.

　　Xin Chang, a full-time lecturer at the Shanghai Automobile Museum, told reporters that all the parts of the first batch of Santana assembled in Shanghai were imported from Germany, which was actually no different from imported vehicles. Santana, which inherited German quality, also started its own brand at that time with solid leather and durability. At that time, the price of Santana assembled with imported parts was also relatively expensive, costing nearly 200,000 yuan a piece, which was not affordable to ordinary people. However, with the domestic ability to produce parts independently, the price of Santana was gradually reduced, and eventually became the most classic "national car" for Chinese families. Xin Chang remembers that Poussin sold for 55,000 yuan a piece at its cheapest.

　　Santana opened the prelude to the development of Chinese automobiles in the way of "joint venture production, market for technology", from the initial semi-bulk assembly, to the production of each manufacturing link to gradually achieve high standards, and then to achieve full localization and reach the international manufacturing level, laying the foundation for the independent development and joint venture of China’s automobile industry. Shanghai Volkswagen has launched Santana 2000, Santana 3000 and Santana Vista models one after another through technical research and digestion of Santana, but the sales of Pusang are still unable to shake. Just before the production is about to stop in 2012, there is even news that Pusang will increase the price to pick up the car, which is enough to see Pusang’s status in people’s hearts.

　　From the original Poussin, to the Poussin, which was constantly upgraded in technology and configuration, Santana has always been the kind of square-headed image, during which many other car brands are rising and declining, but Santana is still the classic Santana. In the past 30 years, Poussin has been the responsibility of Volkswagen’s domestic sales in China, creating a total sales miracle of 3,213,710 vehicles. The total sales volume of the whole series has exceeded 5 million vehicles, making Santana the highest-owned car brand in China.

　　A dynasty always comes to an end. Due to the appearance and accessories that could not keep up with the development of the times, in 2012, Shanghai Volkswagen officially discontinued the Poussin model. This classic model with a high chassis and a square front face was officially withdrawn from the market, replaced by the new Santana developed on a new platform. In the Shanghai Automobile Museum, a white Poussin that was the last batch to be discontinued in 2012 became the last witness of the "Poussin Dynasty".

　　The earliest and last Pusang are transformed into a time-space tunnel spanning three decades in the Shanghai Automobile Museum. Those days with Santana are like a flood in the memory of visitors. Mr. Gao, a visitor, said of his former car, Santana: "He is an important friend that I will never forget in my life."

　　In the early 1990s, at the age of 30, Mr. Gao decided to quit his original unit and go into business, and the Poussin he bought was his most loyal partner in family life and business. The Santana had been in operation for nine years. During these nine years, he worked hard for the Gao family "full attendance", but later the needs of business made Mr. Gao have to bid farewell to the old friend. He said: "When I saw its second owner drive it away, my heart was sore." He looked at the white Poussin in the exhibition hall, and his eyes seemed to see the old friend who had accompanied him again. It was a simple but deep feeling.

　　The Poussin in the exhibition hall reminded some Santana owners of their own struggles, and some people who had never owned Santana also inexplicably developed an emotion for it. It was not so much that people were reluctant to part with Santana, but rather their own stories and feelings about youth and struggle along the way.

　　Next to the Shanghai Automobile Museum is the "EV-AI Smart Port", which shows the life of the most fashionable electric vehicles at present, and the Expo Road at the entrance is also the test section of autonomous driving of Shanghai’s intelligent networked vehicles. Inside and outside the museum are the historical records and future visions of Chinese family car life. If Pusang had eyes to see out the window, he should be relieved.

Drive to a well-off life

　　In the 1990s, Santana, Jetta and Fukang were collectively referred to as the "old three" of domestic cars and were the main force in the domestic family car market. Tang Guohua of Changsha, Hunan Province, has collected the first Fukang car that rolled off the production line in his "Hexi Automobile Exhibition Hall".

　　In the late 1990s, Tang Guohua was transferred from the Air Force to the position of deputy director of the labor bureau in a district. After learning about machine repair during his time in the army, Tang Guohua, who had car dreams, did not follow the steps to become his director. Instead, he plunged into the automobile distribution industry, began selling Dongfeng auto parts, and gradually developed the business into automobile dealership. Today, the Hunan Lantian Automobile Group he founded is firmly in the top three in Hunan’s automobile dealership industry. The cars displayed in the Hexi Automobile Culture Center are some of the vehicles collected by the Lantian Group during its 20-year development.

　　Since the start of his career benefited from "Dongfeng", in the early days of founding the automobile sales group, Tang Guohua only did "Dongfeng Department". By chance, Tang Guohua went to Dongfeng Group to work, and a friend told him that the first Fukang sedan jointly produced by Dongfeng and Citroen was thrown in the wind and rain in a corner of the Xiangfan factory. When Tang Guohua, who liked to collect vehicles, heard about it, he immediately went to the relationship and looked for the relevant certification records of this car. Finally, it was determined that this was indeed the first Fukang produced by Dongfeng Citroen. After a conversation with the senior management of Dongfeng Company, the other party was moved by Tang Guohua’s enthusiasm and agreed to hand over the car to Tang Guohua for collection.

　　According to historical records, on September 4, 1992, the first CKD-assembled "Fukang" sedan was officially rolled off the production line at the Xiangfan Dongfeng Automobile Assembly and Trial Plant. The car was the first car assembled and produced by Shenlong Automobile Co., Ltd., a joint venture between Dongfeng Automobile and Citroen Automobile, using parts imported from the Ornai General Assembly Plant in France. Its name in the origin market was Citroen ZX, and after being introduced to China, the Chinese name was designated Shenlong Fukang.

　　In 2017, Tang Guohua, who was like a treasure, shipped the white Fukang car with number 00001 back to Changsha, and after some rectification, it was displayed in his car culture exhibition hall. Because the first 4S store operated by Lantian Group was the Dongfeng Citroen brand, this Fukang was of special significance to Tang Guohua, and it was almost the "treasure of the town hall".

　　In fact, the reason why Tang Guohua has a soft spot for Fukang is also because the first car he bought in 1999 was also Fukang.

　　"Back then, I was driving it to run business and drag accessories. It accompanied me throughout the difficult journey of starting my business in the early stage…" Looking back on the road to entrepreneurship, Tang Guohua, 57, is full of emotions. "At that time, it was a very face-saving thing to be able to drive a Fukang car." Tang Guohua said that this car accompanied the start and take-off of his entrepreneurial road. "Driving to talk about business can bring more trust to customers." Tang Guohua said with a smile. At that time, he ran business, not afraid of hardship or tiredness, and he also drove to Guangdong, Hubei and other places regardless of day and night. In addition to the province, he often drove to Guangdong, Hubei and other places, and each time the Fukang car did not disappoint him.

　　He gave the Fukang car that accompanied Tang Guohua’s business to his younger brother and nephew one after another. It was not until 2018 that the "classic car" that ran nearly 400,000 kilometers was honorably retired and was collected by Tang Guohua in his automobile culture center.

　　In charge of a car group with tens of billions of yuan in revenue, Tang Guohua has achieved "car freedom". After Fukang, he bought Dongfeng Citroen C5, Dongfeng Nissan Loulan, Infiniti, Mercedes-Benz S and other cars. When changing cars, the old cars were not sold, and they all became his collection. Tang Guohua wants to treat his treasure of the year as an element of car culture and share it with riders. In his opinion, this is not only to remember the original intention of hard work, but also because used cars "have temperature and stories". Of course, his favorite is the Fukang sedan that accompanied him to start from scratch 21 years ago.

　　"A car should not be just a tool, but an element of life." As an entrepreneur, Tang Guohua has a deep fascination with "car culture". In the Changsha Hexi Automobile City he built, not only do dozens of 4S shops operate, but the completely free "Hexi Automobile Culture Center" attracts people who love car culture. In addition to the first domestic Shenlong Fukang, Tang Guohua’s Fukang, and Dongfeng Citroen C5, there are also various precious models of different eras such as Mercedes-Benz steam cars, Beetles, Red Flag courtesy cars, Shanghai brand cars, Willis, etc., as well as engines, car chassis and car-related cultural objects.

　　Although more than 100 million yuan has been invested in the vehicle collection, Tang Guohua said that dreams have nothing to do with money. He hopes to make more young people love cars, understand history and cherish the present. Tang Guohua told reporters that the car culture exhibition hall has been declared to the Hunan Provincial and Changsha Municipal Cultural Tourism Bureau as "Hunan Vehicle Museum", and it is estimated that it will be approved soon. By then, this will be the real first automobile museum in Hunan. (Reporter, Liu Zhaohui)

　　Beijing, April 2 (Reporter Ma Chuang) According to the Voice of China "News Vertical and Horizontal" report, after Didi stopped sending orders to non-Beijing brand vehicles in the Third Ring Road last Monday, from yesterday (1st), Didi stopped sending orders to non-Beijing brand vehicles throughout Beijing. Data show that after the implementation of the new policy, Beijing’s standard online car-hailing will drop to 10% of the previous. In the face of Didi’s new policy, how do non-Beijing car owners who do not meet the requirements respond? In the face of concerns about "whether it will return to the difficulty of hailing a taxi", what new measures will Didi take?

　　On March 20, Didi stopped sending orders to non-Beijing brand vehicles in Beijing’s Third Ring Road. Nine days later, Didi sent a notice to drivers on the client side, announcing that it would stop sending orders to non-Beijing brand vehicles throughout Beijing from April 1.

　　Didi Chuxing staff said that the successive adjustments to the policy were to implement the relevant regulations in the Beijing online car-hailing rules. "According to the regulations of the Beijing online car-hailing rules, Didi will stop sending orders to the whole Beijing area, including those outside the Sixth Ring Road, before April 1."

　　Some non-Beijing drivers have started looking for new jobs after the new rules were issued. Didi suggested that non-Beijing drivers go back to the place where the license plate belongs to continue to take orders, or participate in the recycling of used cars, discounted car purchases, and discounted car rental schemes. Some non-Beijing car owners expressed difficulty in this regard. "Sending a message is like an advertisement, which will definitely affect the driver, because my job is gone, I plan not to run, there is no way. There is definitely no business going back to the local area, and I will not recycle the newly bought car."

　　In December last year, the Beijing Municipal Transportation Commission and other departments jointly issued the "Detailed Rules for the Administration of Online Booking Taxi Business Services in Beijing", requiring that online car-hailing must be "Beijing people drive Beijing cars". At that time, Beijing gave a five-month transition period to facilitate drivers and online car-hailing platforms that meet the standards to submit applications and accept assessments. According to the regulations, engaging in online car-hailing services requires participating in national and local exams. Only after passing can you register for employment, and the valid period for registration of professional qualifications is 3 years.

　　Although the exam questions were generally not difficult, Master Wei, the driver, said that he was a little unable to take the exam. "If you want to drive, you must first get a license, and you must take the online car-hailing driver’s license and service license. How can we pass the exam? If you ask me to participate, I will not participate."

　　Didi’s new policy may be difficult for non-Beijing car owners to buy it. Zhu Wei, deputy director of the Communication Law Research Center of China University of Political Science and Law, said that although the implementation of the new policy may lead to some contradictions at the beginning, in the long run, the Internet sharing economy is still the general trend. "In the future, the market supply and demand may be unbalanced, and the supply will continue to decrease while the demand is still very large, so the price may rise in a short period of time, and it is very likely that you will not be able to get a car. This is the negative impact of the implementation of the new policy. At present, the sharing economy has just emerged. Including the friction between traditional industries and the sharing economy, it may require legal regulation. Conservatively speaking, it may be conducive to social stability."

　　After Beijing stopped sending orders to non-Beijing-licensed vehicles, how are the current business conditions of online taxi drivers and taxi drivers who meet the standards? Many people are worried that they will face the problem of difficult taxi hailing again in the future. How will Didi respond to this?

　　According to media reports, previously in Beijing, about half of the online car-hailing vehicles operated by foreign license plates used to account for about half. Now, coupled with the requirements of vehicle wheelbase, license plate and household registration, it is estimated that the online car-hailing cars that meet the requirements may only account for 10% of the current stock. Didi staff said that there will be new ways to deal with it in the future. "Since the reduction of transportation capacity may affect the success rate and waiting time of users in some areas and some times, we apologize for this. At the same time, we have also taken various measures to improve efficiency and hope to meet user requests as much as possible."

　　In Beijing, many passengers have already felt that it is becoming more and more difficult to order a car. Some industry insiders believe that the impact of Didi’s suspension of foreign-brand cars will be felt soon, and this part of the impact will be mainly on express and special cars. Unlike the worried non-Beijing-brand drivers, many "Beijing-brand" online car-hailing drivers who meet the detailed regulations are full of expectations for the future. "Suddenly there are not so many cars, can you not live much? These days, it is obvious that there is more life, but the delivery distance is far. It is time for Didi to start promoting and rewarding drivers, which is the key."

　　Some Beijing taxi drivers believe that the new method of dispatching orders will ease traffic congestion to some extent. "Big cities are already very congested, and traffic in Beijing will be much better after the new policy. It is long overdue to stop them. At that time, the review will be very strict, and it will definitely be safe. Taxi companies are also in the background, and they are all safe to a certain extent. It is difficult to say whether private cars are safe or not."

　　With the implementation of the new policy, only 10% of the stock of online car-hailing that meets the standards is left, which may not pose a threat to the traditional taxi market for the time being, and taxi companies do not have to exclaim "the wolf is coming" as before. As for the future development of online car-hailing, Zhu Wei said that the only thing left is to carry out refined operations in the public sector, and ways such as ride-hailing, data economy, and cooperative entrepreneurship may inject new blood into the online car-hailing industry. The development speed may not be as fast as in the past, but deep cultivation under the legal framework is the only way to consolidate the foundation of the enterprise.

　　Zhu Wei analyzed that the first way to develop more is to add more hitchhikers, because the current proportion of hitchhikers may be relatively small, and their own vehicles, fixed routes, and usually can bring a few more people. This kind of behavior may exist in large numbers in the future, and it is also worth encouraging. The second is the data economy. Under the current model of the sharing economy, including vehicle information and vehicle route information, it must be counted in the big data platform of smart travel and smart cities. In the future, Didi will integrate and communicate data with the government and taxi companies in this regard, and there will be many good directions for the entire Beijing travel in the future. Third, Didi will have some travel, including a business plan to cooperate with drivers. At present, Didi, including the implementation measures for the implementation of the new policy in the future, must take the current law as the bottom line. If there are new situations and new problems when "Internet +" develops in the future, the country may further refine it, and there may be changes in legislation and law enforcement.

In order to ensure the speed and quality of new car delivery, on October 13, Yu Chengdong, executive director of Huawei, CEO of End Point BG, and chairperson of Automotive Intelligent Solutions BU, reappeared in the Sailis Smart Factory to personally supervise the speed and quality of vehicle production.

According to reports, for the fast and high-quality delivery of the new M7, Huawei and Cyrus have long been prepared. Huawei empowers quality control to ensure quality, Cyrus intelligent manufacturing is responsible for ensuring delivery, and the entire supply chain has added more than 1 billion yuan. Yu Chengdong said at the factory: "We are working overtime, several shifts are starting production in a row, so that everyone can drive the new car home as soon as possible!"

"The order has exceeded 60,000"! Yu Chengdong personally went to the Cyrus factory to "screw"

Recently, the new M7 has been a hit, and sales have continued to soar. Since its release on September 12, orders have exceeded 50,000 + in just 25 days. The surge in orders will face the phenomenon of delivery climbing, and many users will begin to worry about whether it can be delivered on time.

Previously, Yu Chengdong revealed in WeChat Moments that since the release of the new M7 on September 12, the first sale has exceeded 50,000 Dading in only 25 days. According to Yu Chengdong’s latest disclosure, the first sale of the new M7 has exceeded 60,000.

Hot sales have also put huge pressure on Sailis to deliver. Some consumers said they have been waiting for 14 days and refresh the website every day to see if there is a new delivery schedule.

In order to ensure that the M7 can be delivered on time and with high quality, Yu Chengdong also took personal action.

On October 13, Yu Chengdong reappeared at the Cyrus Smart Factory to personally supervise the production speed and quality of vehicles.

Yu Chengdong said: "Our orders have been very good recently. The first sale has been ordered for 60,000 units. Thank you very much for your support! We are working overtime to carry out high-quality production and delivery. We have now invested another 1 billion yuan in the entire supply chain. The entire supply chain has added 20,000 workers, and the factory has also added production shifts. 22 hours a day. We are going all out to let everyone drive the new car home as soon as possible!"

Delivery may take 4 to 6 weeks.

"The delivery of the new M7 is expected to take 4 to 6 weeks. At present, because there are too many orders, although the factory has been producing 24 hours a day, you still need to be patient." Recently, the reporter visited the Huawei Smart Life Museum in Luohu Jinguanghua Plaza in Shenzhen, and a salesperson told the reporter.

"On the National Day, I was so busy that I didn’t even have time for lunch." The salesperson said that there were too many customers to see and test drive the car. Although the delivery time of the car has been extended, there are still many new customers willing to wait. "If you want to pick up the car earlier, it is recommended to make an order as soon as possible."

The reporter learned that the current delivery time of various new energy brands also varies.

Among them, the delivery time of Tesla Model Y is 2 to 8 weeks, and the delivery time of different models is also different. The delivery time of the rear-wheel drive version is 2 to 6 weeks; the delivery time of the long-life version with dual-motor all-wheel drive is 6 to 8 weeks, and the delivery time of the high-performance version is 2 to 6 weeks.

The delivery time of Li Auto, the representative of the new car manufacturing force, is currently relatively stable. The current estimated delivery time of the brand’s three models is 2 to 4 weeks.

Intelligence becomes the focus of competition

On October 13, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers released a brief analysis of the production and sales of new energy vehicles in September 2023.

Data show that in September 2023, the production and sales of new energy vehicles were completed 879,000 and 904,000, respectively, an increase of 4.3% and 6.8%, respectively, an increase of 16.1% and 27.7% year-on-year. From January to September, the production and sales of new energy vehicles were completed 6.313 million and 6.278 million, respectively, an increase of 33.7% and 37.5% year-on-year.

In September 2023, among the main varieties of new energy vehicles, compared with the previous month, the output of pure electric vehicles decreased slightly and the sales volume increased slightly. The production and sales of plug-in hybrid vehicles increased by double digits, and the output of fuel cell vehicles increased rapidly and the sales volume decreased significantly. Compared with the same period of the previous year, the production and sales of pure electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid vehicles increased to varying degrees, and the production and sales of fuel cell vehicles decreased significantly. From January to September 2023, among the main varieties of new energy vehicles, the production and sales of the three major categories of vehicles all increased by double digits compared with the same period of the previous year.

At present, intelligence has become the focus of competition for new energy vehicles.

"Connected and intelligent vehicles are increasingly being recognised by everyone, especially as assisted driving is becoming an important factor for consumers to consider when buying a car," said Xu Lin, rotating president of Cyrus Automotive.

Market analysis points out that after years of cultivation, China has the ability to lead the world in the field of automotive electrification. In recent years, our country’s automotive industry has made breakthroughs in high-performance on-board chips and intelligent driving systems, which has strongly promoted the improvement of the level of automotive intelligence. After electrification, intelligence is becoming the "second half" of competition. As the focus of user attention, intelligence will also become the focus of competition among car companies.

On October 27, the 15th China (Chongqing) Hot Pot Food Culture Festival was grandly opened, and Ba Qi Juice Soda appeared at the Hot Pot Festival, attracting much attention and signing contracts on the spot.

Signing of major projects(Photo provided by the organizer)

"Spicy Solution Research Institute": Challenge Baqi Spicy Solution Value

In the red sea of the hot pot festival, a touch of "Ba Qi Cheng" is particularly eye-catching. The Jieshan Ba Qi juice soda launched by the first branch of Yuxin Group has become a hit at the hot pot festival. Modern Fan’s slogans "Boss, let’s have a bottle of lime Ba Qi", "Boss, let’s have a bottle of orange Ba Qi", "I like to eat spicy food, and I have a feeling of being blown away"… It has attracted the attention of young consumers, and they have signed up to participate in the Ba Qi Jieshi Spicy Value Challenge.

On-site consumers said that Youzhiliang drinks Ba steam juice soda, which is slightly bubbly and refreshing. Juice + soda opens a double spicy experience, which is really enjoyable!

Ba steam juice soda(Photo provided by the organizer)

Deep cooperation: empowering Chongqing hot pot industry

Yuxin Group is a local private enterprise in Chongqing. After 40 years of development, it has become a comprehensive industrial group focusing on beer brewing, food and beverage, whisky and foreign wine Product Research & Development, production, sales, domestic and overseas commercial property development and operation. As one of the earliest private beer and beverage manufacturers in China, it has reached in-depth cooperation with Chongqing Hot Pot Association to deeply empower Chongqing Hot Pot Industry.

According to statistics, the Ba Qi Spicy Research Institute received thousands of visitors on the first day of its launch, collected more than 300 pieces of customer information, and reached a number of signed customers on the spot. After in-depth understanding of the customers present, they expressed their optimism about Ba Qi and showed a high degree of cooperation intention.

Relevant analysts said that Ba Qi juice soda products have shown a broad market prospect during this hot pot festival, which will definitely inject new momentum into the hot pot industry and make new contributions to the promotion of Chongqing hot pot "food + drink" brand.

Artificial intelligence (AI) has been developed for more than 60 years since its birth. In recent years, AI has become a hot spot in academia and industry around the world. Start-up companies are surging, huge investments are emerging, tech giants are constantly up the ante, and scientific research, capital and talent are moving closer to AI. So, some people will inevitably ask, have we ushered in the best era of artificial intelligence?

The Challenge of Good Times

Looking back today, 2017 may be an important node in the development of artificial intelligence in China. In 2017, "artificial intelligence" was written into the government work report of the National People’s Congress for the first time. Premier Li Keqiang said that it is necessary to fully implement the development plan for strategic emerging industries and accelerate the research and development and transformation of new materials, artificial intelligence, integrated circuits, biopharmaceuticals, and fifth-generation mobile communications. Artificial intelligence has also been hotly discussed by deputies to the National People’s Congress and members of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference.

At the same time, at the 2017 Wuzhen Go Summit, AlphaGo defeated the world’s No. 1 Go champion Ke Jie with a total score of 3:0, which attracted the attention of the whole people. "Whether artificial intelligence has completely surpassed human beings", "Will artificial intelligence replace human beings" and other issues have also become hot topics.

It was also from that year that artificial intelligence was surging. Overnight, it seemed that all companies had become artificial intelligence companies. Capital and talent quickly poured into the field of artificial intelligence. "Artificial intelligence" became one of the hottest and most sought-after words in the technology, academic and corporate circles. Major Internet companies have vigorously promoted artificial intelligence research and development. Tencent founder Pony Ma has also publicly stated that if he can only invest in one field, starting from his own industry, he is most concerned about the AI industry related to information technology. Internationally, tech giants such as Google and IBM have been researching artificial intelligence for more than a decade, and some research results have entered commercial applications in recent years.

From these perspectives, artificial intelligence can be said to have ushered in a very good era, but there are also problems behind the excitement. For example, this boom is more driven by the industry and investment community, while the academic and basic research fields have not revolutionized, and the talent gap has not been really solved.

At the same time, AI still faces many challenges in practical application and implementation, especially data issues. The various types of data required for AI research are scattered in different enterprises, and the ideal "big data" that people often say does not exist, but the actual situation is that there are a large number of "small data" and "data islands"; in addition, data security, privacy, compliance and other issues have always existed. In 2018, the European Union officially implemented the strictest data protection regulation in history – the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), and on January 21, 2019, Google became the first US technology company to be heavily punished under this law, fined 50 million euros… These problems make the implementation and development of AI look less good.

Deeply empowering industry

In 2019, Premier Li Keqiang talked about artificial intelligence for the third time in the government work report. It is worth noting that this year, the Premier specifically proposed in the report to build an industrial Internet platform, expand "intelligent +", and empower the transformation and upgrading of the manufacturing industry.

At present, the innovative achievements of artificial intelligence have been applied in various fields, promoting technological progress, efficiency improvement and business model change in all walks of life. Among them, the financial industry is one of the most promising AI application fields, and AI + finance is the top priority of "intelligence +".

On the one hand, the information construction of the financial industry started earlier, and the industry attaches great importance to the standardization and standardization of data collection, so it has a large amount of accumulated data, which provides a solid foundation for the application of artificial intelligence; on the other hand, taking banks, insurance, securities companies as an example, the main business of the financial industry is based on large-scale data development, a large number of cumbersome data processing work, the urgent need for automation and intelligent change to liberate manpower; in addition, financial inclusion and scene-based innovation, also need new technical means to provide support, and the combination of artificial intelligence and finance undoubtedly provides more possibilities for financial innovation.

The author takes the practice of WeBank in the field of AI + finance as an example to introduce. Starting from demand, returning to business value is the core of self-researching AI. WeBank is an Internet bank serving small and micro enterprises and the general public. The most difficult part is the high service cost caused by the large number of scattered and large, lack of collateral, and imperfect guarantee system.

Therefore, the AI team of WeBank applies "AI + service" to actual business links. For example, three application systems are created based on the three major engines of "natural language processing engine", "voice engine" and "vision engine" – "intelligent nuclear system", "intelligent customer service system" and "intelligent quality inspection system", covering the whole process of business consultation, identity verification, data review, operation and lending. At present, through this set of AI robot combination boxing, we allow customers to complete all the online from consultation to application to borrowing, without offline account opening or paper materials, to maximize the solution to the problem of difficult and slow loan processes for small and micro enterprises, and to help enterprises innovate and develop.

The launch of the new national asset management regulations and the inclusion of the Chinese market in the MSCI index have had a profound impact on China’s asset management industry. WeBank is also making efforts in the field of "AI + asset management". It is currently developing alternative data based on satellite remote sensing image data, drone image data, mobile location data and public opinion text information. It can create an AI-driven asset management platform through artificial intelligence technology, which can not only monitor the macro economy in real time, but also predict the trends of listed and bond-issuing companies and different industries. Build an AI + Alternative Data-driven ESG (environmental, social and corporate governance) index, so as to provide investment decisions for asset management companies, fund companies, rating companies and other fields.

In the face of data silos and privacy concerns, where does AI go?

As mentioned above, the complexity, isolation, privacy and security of data are the key factors that plague and restrict the deepening development and application of AI, including the financial industry. How to solve these data problems, break down data silos, and establish true "big data" while better protecting data privacy and security has become a problem that must be solved in the current development of AI.

The author believes that in the face of these problems, we can have a new way of thinking – federated learning (Federated Learning), whose purpose is to protect user privacy and data security. Federated learning, as the name suggests, is to build a virtual "federal state" to unite large and small "data islands". They are like a state in this "federal state", which not only maintains a certain degree of independence (such as trade secrets, user privacy), but also can jointly model and improve the effect of AI models without sharing data.

Essentially, it is a distributed encryption machine learning technology where all parties involved can build models without disclosing the underlying data. This is also a win-win machine learning method. It breaks down the data dimension walls on the top of the mountain, revitalizes large and small "data islands", and connects into a win-win AI continent.

In the field of finance, federated learning can be used to analyze potential fraud; in the field of insurance pricing, it can accurately analyze the attributes of users in more dimensions. For enterprises, the application of federated learning can save costs more effectively, and it can also make user classification more accurate. In addition, for some very sensitive data scenarios, such as the medical field, different hospitals can also share sensitive medical data through federated learning technology.

The future AI new generation of machine learning algorithm framework should be based on privacy protection, security compliance, reasonable interpretation, and transparent reasoning mechanism to ensure the healthy development of artificial intelligence. The development and practice of federated learning provides new ideas for the industry. Of course, the construction of AI ecology and the construction of big data also requires different enterprises, scholars, and research institutions to join forces, share technology, share data, and unite forces to jointly solve data silos and user privacy issues.

AIFuture: Basic research still requires continued efforts

So, what is the current development of AI in China, and what are the future prospects? Ma Songde, former vice minister of the Ministry of Science and Technology, and many other experts and scholars have said that China’s application of AI will be the largest in the world, and the prospects are very good, but continued efforts are needed in basic research.

The author believes that in recent years, China’s AI map has been "dots" one by one, but it has not been able to form a "face". In other words, a deep AI application ecosystem that can open up the industrial chain has not been established, and there is still a lack of system level and infrastructure building.

At present, the industry’s understanding and application of AI is more limited to the single-function product level. For example, an enterprise introduces AI assistance in certain process links, such as human-machine interaction and facial recognition, but such an enterprise cannot be said to be an artificial intelligence enterprise. The entire industry should have a deeper understanding of AI, so that AI can drive the optimization of the core decision-making system of the industry, and maximize the advantages and revolutionaries of AI.

It is hoped that in the future, China’s AI colleagues will pay more attention to basic research and work together to truly drive the development and implementation of core, in-depth, and industrialized AI.