2017 Baidu Alliance Summit: Robin Li proposed new thinking in the AI ​​era

The "new generation of technological revolution" with artificial intelligence as its core is taking off, becoming the beginning of another new transformation and development of human society. For the vast number of entrepreneurs, how can they embrace the changes of the times and take advantage of the trend to develop? The 2017 Baidu Alliance Summit with the theme of "Ecological Evolution of the Intelligent Revolution" was held in Chongqing on May 23. Baidu founder, chairman and CEO Robin Li, Baidu senior vice president and president of Baidu Search Company Xiang Hailong and many senior executives came to the summit to discuss the way of thinking in the AI ​​era and the ecological evolution of the Baidu Alliance with hundreds of alliance partners and Internet entrepreneurs. Taking this summit as a starting point, the 15-year-old Baidu Alliance is striving to create a new ecosystem of borderless wisdom and win-win, driving AI to empower 800,000 alliance partners, and driving all walks of life to open the door to the new world of artificial intelligence.

Thinking in the AI ​​Era

"The Internet is just the appetizer, and artificial intelligence is the main course." At the 2017 Baidu Alliance Summit, Robin Li proposed the epoch-making significance of the era of artificial intelligence. He said that before the advent of the Internet, people could communicate with each other, but people could not communicate with things. After the advent of the Internet era, the efficiency of communication between people has been improved. However, the era of artificial intelligence has fundamentally solved the problem of communication between people and all things.

From abandoning the remote control to watch smart TV with just your mouth and no hands, to using facial recognition to pay for shopping even without money; voice technology is no longer limited to mobile phone use but has expanded to daily home use, and visual technology has finally moved from online to offline. Artificial intelligence is sweeping the lives of ordinary people at an astonishing speed. But for Baidu, the pace of "using technology to make the complex world simpler" does not stop there. From the "Apollo" project that allows driverless cars to "fly into ordinary people's homes" to Baidu's search for people to help lost families reunite quickly, all of these confirm Baidu's new positioning and mean that the future of artificial intelligence has arrived.

"The future has already arrived, but you are not part of it. What will happen then?" Faced with the typical anxiety of entrepreneurs, Robin Li shared his new way of thinking in the AI ​​era.

Mobile phones will continue to exist for a long time, but the opportunities for mobile Internet are limited. The AI ​​era has arrived, and latecomers who only do some "conventional practices" based on mobile phones can no longer keep up with the new era.

From think mobile to think AI. Li Yanhong took an internal meeting as an example, saying that the product manager of mobile products would pay more attention to fonts, buttons and other user-friendly aspects, while the product manager of AI products would directly pull out a chip from his pocket to explain the technology application when introducing the product. Their ways of thinking are completely different.

The combination of software and hardware awakens everything. In the PC and mobile era, Internet companies paid more attention to software, but in the AI ​​era, they need to think more from the perspective of technology and experience. The microphone technology in voice interaction and sensors such as laser radar in driverless cars are the embodiment of the "combination of software and hardware".

Data beats algorithms, and algorithms drive social progress. In the AI ​​era, the more "clean" data there is, the stronger the AI's deep learning ability will be, so Baidu engineers came to the conclusion that "data beats algorithms". But Robin Li said, "It is algorithms, not data, that really drive social progress." Watt reinvented the steam engine, which really promoted the progress of the industrial revolution.

Using AI thinking to create Internet products can achieve dimensionality reduction attacks. For example, compared with typing input, voice input is a dimensionality reduction attack. Li Yanhong said that if you change your way of thinking as early as possible, you can stand at the forefront of the times.

Four major enabling forces to achieve win-win results in the Internet of Everything

In the era of intelligent interconnection of all things, every device, every content, and every scene has huge potential to reach users. However, it is necessary to overcome the pain points caused by fighting alone, such as imperfect media capabilities, single coverage channels, fragmented data, weak intelligence, and few advertising resources. Otherwise, the ability to monetize traffic resources will be greatly limited.

Xiang Hailong introduced that Baidu Alliance will open up four major capabilities to build a new alliance with intelligent multi-screen and multi-terminal connections, help more partners participate in this marketing revolution of "Internet of Everything", and share huge business opportunities: through media capability empowerment, expand content production and distribution channels for online and offline partners, and consolidate the foundation for monetization; based on powerful online data acquisition and processing capabilities, and complete offline software and hardware layout, form a complete user portrait that runs through online and offline to guide advertising; open up industry-leading marketing technologies, including giving partners intelligent means such as two-way interactive technology and cross-channel linkage to improve advertising effects; share Baidu's massive advertiser resources accumulated over more than ten years, one-stop platform tools and perfect service capabilities. With its long-term accumulation in the field of marketing and advertising, Baidu will empower the majority of alliance partners to the greatest extent, help eliminate pain points, and add powerful wings to traffic monetization to achieve rapid growth.

Building a new alliance ecosystem in the AI ​​era

Deng Mingsheng, general manager of Baidu Alliance, pointed out that over the past fifteen years, Baidu Alliance and its partners have shared weal and woe and grown together. So far, it has distributed RMB 40 billion to alliance partners, with the distribution reaching RMB 14.2 billion in 2016 alone, setting a new record. Among them, 20 top club members of the alliance have received distribution exceeding RMB 100 million.

In line with the belief of "making partners stronger", Baidu Alliance will continue to output the core capabilities accumulated over the past 15 years, establish an intelligent ecological alliance in the AI ​​era, and lead partners to accelerate the embrace of artificial intelligence. Deng Mingsheng said that Baidu Alliance partners in the AI ​​era will include web media, content partners, mobile phone manufacturers, operators, apps, and will cover ubiquitous screens and terminals. With the help of Baidu's AI core technology, Baidu Alliance will aggregate screens and terminals in all scenarios, provide capabilities for online and offline media connections, realize that all terminals are media, and help partners achieve intelligent evolution. In addition to technology, Baidu Alliance will also create a four-in-one "AI entrepreneurial new ecology" for partners in terms of resources, operations, and management, and discover and cultivate more AI entrepreneurial heroes.

Under the new cooperation ecology, Baidu Alliance will continue its high profit-sharing plan. At the summit, Deng Mingsheng announced a new profit-sharing policy of "two hundred percent, one diversification": partners of content sharing and Baidu Juping will enjoy 100% profit sharing; in addition to providing partners with CPI and CPA cooperation models, Baidu Mobile also provides a hybrid cooperation mode of CPA+CPC, allowing partners to continue to benefit from the rapid development of Baidu Mobile.

Working with partners for 15 years from 0 to N

As China's earliest, largest and most influential Internet industry ecological alliance, Baidu Alliance has been around for 15 years. Many partners have relied on the alliance to complete the accumulation from 0 to 1, achieved the leap from 1 to N, and moved from start-up to maturity. "From mature to giant, the past 15 years are not only the 15 years of China's Internet development, but also the 15 years of Baidu's development, and the 15 years of our alliance partners working together with Baidu. Alliance partners and Baidu have worked hand in hand to create countless miracles and also experienced countless storms." Baidu Vice President Wang Lu said.

At the scene, representatives of partners who have worked hand in hand with Baidu Alliance from the PC, mobile, and artificial intelligence eras took the stage one after another to talk with Wang Lu about the alliance's 15-year journey of ups and downs.

Standing at the entrance of the new world of artificial intelligence, Baidu Alliance adheres to the open-minded thinking of "embracing all rivers and being tolerant", integrates all wisdom, and achieves a win-win ecosystem. It empowers partners in various industries with the most cutting-edge artificial intelligence technology, explores, upgrades, and expands new and cutting-edge, borderless business models, which will drive the intelligent upgrade and leap of the entire Internet industry and even the entire society.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.