by Xiong Weisheng

 

BEIJING, Dec 15 (China Economic Net) – As artificial intelligence (AI) continues to redefine industries worldwide, China’s leading academics, officials and enterprises convened on Saturday at the 10th Chinese Congress on Artificial Intelligence (CCAI2024) in Beijing, in an aim to share latest research advances and industry applications in global AI landscape.

 

Organised by the Chinese Association for Artificial Intelligence (CAAI) with the support of the Beijing Municipal Science & Technology Commission, and the Administrative Committee of Zhongguancun Science Park, the annual gathering featured over ten leading academicians and over 100 experts from academia and industry.

 

A highlight of the opening ceremony was the release of the Beijing Artificial Intelligence Industry White Paper (2024). The document, prepared by the Beijing Municipal Science & Technology Commission and the Administrative Committee of Zhongguancun Science Park, projects the city’s AI industry to surpass 3,000 billion yuan ($412.3 billion) by the end of 2024, a milestone reached a year earlier than projected. The city’s AI ecosystem, according to the paper, is buttressed by 36 unicorn companies and an active financing environment. In the first three quarters of 2024 alone, AI-related social financing reached an estimated 320 billion yuan.

 

 

The white paper highlights Beijing’s leadership in fostering AI innovation, supported by a robust ecosystem of academic institutions, research platforms, and cutting-edge enterprises. The city is home to 30 universities offering AI programs and numerous national-level labs, driving breakthroughs in fields like large-scale model training and multi-modal systems. Beyond research, the capital is advancing real-world applications, with AI-powered solutions already making an impact in education, healthcare, and public services, solidifying its role as a global hub for AI development.

 

In parallel, the conference launched the “Super-Node Computing Cluster Innovation Consortium,” bringing leading tech companies such as Inspur and Alibaba Cloud, research institutions, and government bodies to pioneer a “super-node” AI infrastructure. Designed to overcome existing computational bottlenecks, this initiative targets the demands of trillion-parameter models by advancing high-performance, interconnected systems.

 

 

At the openning ceremony, Keynote sessions explored topics like large AI models, emergent intelligence, and intelligent decision-making. A panel on “AI for Math & Math for AI” highlighted the fusion of Chinese mathematical traditions and AI innovation, showcasing unique approaches to practical challenges and policy-driven advancements shaping the future of AI.