Baidu, Inc. (NASDAQ:BIDU) held Baidu Create 2019, its annual AI
developer conference, where the company unveiled new partnerships
and AI-powered solutions to drive the intelligent transformation of
industry and connect enterprises with technologies. Robin Li,
co-Founder, Chairman and CEO of Baidu, said in his opening speech
that AI is awakening all things and, as it is integrated into all
facets of life, it will launch a new era of industrial
intelligence.
At the two-day conference starting July 3, which
was attended by more than 7,000 developers, partners and media from
around the world, Baidu showcased the milestones that are driving
the intelligent transformation of industry in China and around the
world.
- Baidu announced it has entered a
strategic partnership with China’s leading automaker Geely. Robin
Li and Li Shufu, Chairman of Zhejiang Geely Holding Group,
personally announced the partnership at the conference in a strong
demonstration of the intelligent transformation of the automotive
industry and the popularization of smart vehicles.
- Baidu and Pudong Development Bank
debut “Xiaopu” - the first virtual customer service representative
developed by the two partners’ joint laboratory of deep learning.
“Xiaopu” aims to transform the traditional banking industry through
the integration of AI.
- Baidu announced a collaboration
between deep learning platform PaddlePaddle and Huawei’s Kirin
Chip.
- DuerOS 5.0 includes an all-new
‘full-duplex’ feature, allowing Xiaodu devices to respond without
the need for a wake word.
- Baidu showcased its first L4
autonomous passenger vehicle production line in collaboration with
Hongqi of leading carmaker FAW Group.
In addition to these highlight announcements,
Baidu gave an in-depth look at how its expansive AI-driven
technologies are serving as sources for both good and growth in an
age of intelligence.
Baidu Brain Strengthens Integrated AI
Platform CapacityThe intelligent transformation of
industry is backed by Baidu’s continuous technological
breakthroughs in AI. As a global leading open AI platform, Baidu
Brain was officially upgraded to Baidu Brain 5.0 at Baidu Create
2019, becoming an integrated AI software and hardware platform for
mass production that achieves a synergy of innovation from AI
algorithms, computing architecture and application scenarios. To
support this transformation, Baidu also announced that its deep
learning platform PaddlePaddle has partnered with Huawei’s Kirin
Chip to collaboratively lay a foundation for the future development
of AI in China.
At the algorithm level, PaddlePaddle has
upgraded its core algorithms for vision, voice, language and
knowledge. At the computational level, Baidu has released the
latest iteration of its AI Chip, "Honghu," which is developed for
remote voice interaction and can adapt to diversified scenarios,
such as in-vehicle voice interaction and smart homes.
A Robust Mobile Ecosystem Bolsters Core
Baidu Business With the continuous evolution of AI
technology breakthroughs, Baidu’s AI-driven applications are
becoming increasingly ubiquitous and authoritative. To date, the
number of daily active users of Baidu App has reached 188 million
and the number of monthly active devices running Baidu mobile apps
has reached 1.1 billion.
With its open-source approach, Baidu Smart Mini
Program has brought a unique mobile ecosystem to the industry and
now counts 250 million monthly active users across its 150,000
Smart Mini Programs. More than 100 brands have joined on to Baidu’s
Smart Mini Program platform thanks to the e-commerce solution plan
created in collaboration with Youzan. After using the Baidu App to
search or browse the desired products, users can now complete a
full-cycle transaction loop directly within the ecosystem of the
Smart Mini Programs.
DuerOS-Powered Devices Drive
Commercialization of Consumer AI Products After two years
of rapid development, DuerOS has made substantial headway. As of
June 2019, the DuerOS voice assistant install base had surpassed
400 million and monthly voice queries on DuerOS exceeded 3.6
billion (not including those from Baidu’s apps). According to three
independent research institutions including Canalys, the shipment
of DuerOS-powered Xiaodu Smart Speakers in the first quarter of
2019 ranked third globally and first in China, growing at a rapid
pace.
Baidu featured its upgraded DuerOS 5.0 and
leading capabilities including full-duplex ability, home
information feed function, family communication and notification
function, DLNA screen projection technology and more. On top of the
ability to realize continuous conversation without a wake word,
Xiaodu’s full-duplex comes with a key function that enables Xiaodu
to recognize when to reply and execute commands and when to just
listen and not to respond or react.
Baidu also announced three brand-new smart
devices including Xiaodu smart speaker ‘King Kong’ (equipped with
infrared control and DLNA screen projection technology), Xiaodu
smart speaker “Play” and “Xiaodu at Home 1C 4G” battery
version.
Apollo Platform Cements Leading Position
in China’s Autonomous Driving IndustryBaidu also announced
Apollo 5.0, the latest iteration of its autonomous driving
platform, including upgrades to both Apollo Open Platform and
Apollo Enterprise that bring more capabilities and solutions to
developers and partners. A host of Baidu Apollo milestones were
highlighted onstage, including: 1) surpassing 2 million kilometers
for L4 road testing, with Baidu accounting for 91% of the total
road tests in Beijing, the leading city for autonomous driving in
China, in 2018; 2) accumulating 438 patents in autonomous driving
in one year - more than any other company in China; 3) being issued
over 100 public road test licenses for autonomous driving,
including newly-issued T4 license from the Beijing Municipal
Commission of Transport, which represents China’s highest-level
permit signifying that an autonomous vehicle possesses the ability
to drive on complex urban roads, tunnels, school zones and other
complicated scenarios; 4) starting mass production on the first
batch of L4 autonomous passenger vehicles, in collaboration with
Hongqi, which are slated to be deployed as robotaxis in Changsha,
Hunan province; and 5) the unveiling of the Apollo Go robotaxi
project, which will be debuted in Changsha in the end of 2019.
The 5.0 iteration of the Apollo Open Platform
also released new data pipelines, reducing calibration time for
each vehicle from one week to 30 minutes, which means more than a
hundred vehicles can now be calibrated within one week. Apollo
Enterprise has launched two new solutions, Robotaxi and Intelligent
Communication and Control.
In the connected car space, Geely will begin to
equip its cars with a GKUI19 system, which is powered by DuerOS for
Apollo. Baidu’s Apollo intelligent transportation solutions have
also been deployed in cities, with the company’s intelligent
transportation information control system already helping to reduce
traffic delays by 20-30% in Baoding, Hebei province.
Baidu Cloud Sees Unprecedented Growth as
Baidu Expands AI2B Offerings In the wave of intelligent
transformation of industries, Baidu Cloud is growing rapidly and
has achieved a number of major successes, with quarterly revenues
recently surpassing RMB 1 Billion in a record time amongst all
cloud providers in China. According to IDC and other international
authoritative market analysts, Baidu Cloud has secured a position
in the top tier of China's public cloud market. To date, Baidu
Cloud has served thousands of customers across several sectors,
including agriculture, manufacturing, services and others. "Cloud +
AI" is becoming one of the most important tools for Baidu to
empower intelligent transformation.
Baidu’s Commitment to “Do Better” with
AIBaidu is continually breaking barriers in AI
technological innovation, realizing its industrial applications and
using technology to solve wide-ranging social problems. Baidu AI
Xunren has now helped more than 6,700 families reunite. Baidu is
also helping the blind to communicate with the world through AI
voice technology.
“We have been making great efforts to promote
the advancement of AI technology and open it up to millions of
developers. We hope to serve people and contribute to society with
technology,” said Robin Li.
“Do Better – create a better world through
technology!” Robin Li’s closing remark, which echoed the overall
sentiment of his keynote speech, emphasizes Baidu’s commitment to
making the world a better place with technology along with
developers and industry partners from around the world.
Baidu and Intel deepen AI
collaborationMore big news from Baidu Create 2019 came
from Naveen Rao, General Manager, Artificial Intelligence Products
Group at Intel, who announced that the two companies would be
collaborating based on the Intel® Nervana™ Neural Network Processor
(NNP-T for Training) and a deep-learning training solution
developed with PaddlePaddle. The two companies will work together
on optimizing the second generation of Intel Xeon Scalable
Processor based on the PaddlePaddle deep-learning model, and
focusing on the improvement of computing power and visual computing
solutions (Movidius VPU). Alongside enhancing the performance of
big data storage (Intel® Optane DC Persistent Memory), Intel will
also work with Baidu’s secure computing team (MesaTEE) in customer
data privacy and security protection using Intel SGX (SGX-Software
Guard eXtensions) technology.
Baidu AI ecosystem partner exhibitions
onsiteA number of Baidu’s key AI partners also featured
exhibits outside of the main conference, including:
Inspur, a globally leading cloud computing
solution and cloud service provider, which has formed a
comprehensive solution service capability covering IaaS, PaaS, and
SaaS. With high-end servers, mass storage, cloud operating system
and information security technology, Inspur has built a leading
cloud computing infrastructure platform for customers and provided
IT products and services to more than 100 countries and regions
around the world.
The AI Science and Technology Park of Wuhan
Development Zone aims to create an industrial cluster of AI
research, development and application. It introduced the Baidu ABC
Institute (Based at the AI Science and Technology Park of Wuhan
Development Zone) and an AI training room to jointly build an
industrial talent cultivation system. It also featured Baidu
Apollo, Neolix autonomous vehicles and other products to empower
intelligent park operations, making it a vivid showcase of Baidu’s
intelligent industry ecosystem.
About BaiduBaidu, Inc. is the
leading Chinese language Internet search provider. Baidu aims to
make the complicated world simpler for users and enterprises
through technology. Baidu’s ADSs trade on the NASDAQ Global Select
Market under the symbol “BIDU.” Currently, ten ADSs represent one
Class A ordinary share.
Media
ContactIntlcomm@baidu.com
A photo accompanying this announcement is available at
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