Author: Zhang Yifan
Editor: Shen Siqi
Source: Hard AI
From July 4th to July 6th, 2024, the three-day World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) was held in Shanghai. Despite the continuous high temperatures, it did not dampen everyone's enthusiasm. Even as the temperature kept rising, the venue was still crowded with people.
Elites from academia and industry engaged in in-depth discussions on key issues such as the development prospects, challenges, and governance of AI. From Tsinghua University's Xue Lan, Zhou Bowen, to Synopsys CEO Gai Sixin, to Blackstone Group founder Su Shimin, and three Turing Award winners Roger Reddy, Manuel Bloom, and Yao Qizhi, the experts at the conference examined the importance of AI from different perspectives.
Gai Sixin - CEO of Synopsys
In the next 8-9 years, AI will drive the semiconductor industry to double its growth
He shared insights from the perspective of the semiconductor industry. He pointed out that AI is driving rapid growth in the semiconductor industry, with sales expected to double from $500 billion to $1 trillion within 8-9 years. Gai Sixin also emphasized the importance of considering security, compliance, and energy efficiency in chip design.
Su Shimin - Chairman, CEO, and Co-founder of Blackstone Group
AI is changing the way companies are valued, and the impact of AI on investment targets should be evaluated over a 5-10 year period
Blackstone Group founder Su Shimin shared the impact of AI on the investment field. He believes that AI is changing the way companies are valued, with some benefiting from AI integration while others face challenges.
Su Shimin emphasized the importance of considering the long-term impact of AI in investment decisions, suggesting evaluating the potential impact of AI on investment targets over a 5-10 year period. He pointed out that investors need to be vigilant about the disruptive changes that AI may bring, while also recognizing the new opportunities created by AI. Su Shimin advised investors to focus on companies that can effectively integrate AI, while also being cautious of industries that may be eliminated due to AI development.
However, in addition to growth, participants also highlighted the risks behind AI.
Three Turing Award Winners - Roger Reddy, Manuel Bloom, and Yao Qizhi
Roger Reddy: AI may bring several times growth in productivity and GDP
Roger Reddy called for a balanced view of AI development. He pointed out that every new technology brings opportunities and challenges, and development should not be abandoned due to potential risks. He predicted that AI may bring several times growth in productivity and GDP. He emphasized the importance of AI as a tool, calling for more attention to how to use AI to enhance human capabilities. Reddy stressed the need for investment in research to explore how to better utilize AI technology, making AI a tool to enhance human intelligence and help improve work efficiency by 10-100 times.
Manuel Bloom: CTM model provides inspiration for AI development
Manuel Blum shared his insights in the field of consciousness studies for over 20 years. He introduced the &#34;Conscious Turing Machine&#34; (CTM) model developed with his colleagues. This model compares the brain to a theater, where there are audiences (neurons) listening to what is happening on stage (conscious thoughts). There are people on stage speaking, asking questions, answering, broadcasting to all audiences. When consciousness occurs, all listeners hear the conscious thoughts being broadcast. Blum emphasized that the uniqueness of the CTM model lies in the absence of a central decision-maker, allowing each &#34;participant&#34; to contribute important information. This model provides a new perspective for understanding human consciousness and also inspires the development of general artificial intelligence.
Yao Qizhi: Focus on the risks brought by AI and study how to coexist with it
Yao Qizhi focused on discussing the potential risks and governance issues brought by AI. He categorizes AI risks into three types:
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Expansion of cybersecurity risks
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Unknown risks brought by rapid social structural changes
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Risks of survival or existence
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Yao Qizhi pointed out that as a computer scientist, he particularly focuses on the first and third types of risks. He emphasized that the emergence of AI poses challenges to cybersecurity similar to those faced 40-50 years ago, requiring expert attention. At the same time, he also expressed concerns about the risks of existence that AI may bring, believing that humans have created a new species that may be much more powerful than themselves, posing a significant challenge on how to coexist with it.
Xue Lan - Dean of the Schwarzman College, Tsinghua University, and Director of the International Governance Research Institute for Artificial Intelligence at Tsinghua University
The dual nature of artificial intelligence: positive and negative
Xue Lan used the 169 specific indicators of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as an example, pointing out that artificial intelligence may have a positive impact on 134 of them (79%), but may also have negative effects on 59 (about 35%), including technical inherent issues, data security, algorithmic discrimination, all of which need to be managed through effective governance.
Zhou Bowen - Director of the Shanghai Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, Huixian Visiting Professor at Tsinghua University
Balancing AI security and performance
He proposed the concept of &#34;AI 45-degree balance rate.&#34; He emphasized the need to find a balance between the security and performance of AI, and proposed the technical path of &#34;the ladder of causality for trustworthy AGI,&#34; including three stages: broad alignment, intervenability, and reflectivity

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