Professional competence and industry value IBM's commercial artificial intelligence practice in China

ZD to the top network server channel April 14 news news (text / Li Xiangjing): Now the artificial intelligence is hot, can be comparable to the original cloud computing. Both Internet vendors and IT vendors have launched their own artificial intelligence strategies. Following the official announcement of the transition to “cognitive business” in China last year, IBM recently further defined the strategy of developing “commercial artificial intelligence” at the 2017 IBM China Forum, which was held on the theme of “Tiangong Kaiwu, People and Machines”. And from the "help industry transformation" and "professional empowerment" two aspects of IBM's breakthrough development on a global scale as a leading cognitive solutions and cloud platform companies, as well as a series of local partners with China Cooperation results in industries or fields such as energy, education, automotive, pharmaceuticals, high-performance materials and related services.

Three factors drive cognitive computing development Chen Liming, chairman of IBM Greater China, said that in this year, IBM's cognitive computing has fully applied and fully developed in the industry. Cognitive computing can be so rapidly developed in this era, thanks to the promotion of three factors.

Chen Liming, Chairman of IBM Greater China

First, the general increase in computing power. The popularity of computing power and the gradual maturity of cognitive computing conditions, such as the understanding, reasoning, deep learning and interaction of unstructured data, make cognitive computing the most reliable guarantee in technology, this is the first The amount changes to qualitative change.

Second, the growth of data. The emergence of the data universe relies on traditional calculations. There is no way to conduct such large-scale analysis. Cognitive computing is in this situation, and it is the most important task. Big data also provides the best for artificial intelligence and cognitive computing. The raw material, this is the second from quantitative to qualitative.

Third, the technology of artificial intelligence is constantly improving, and the driving force of commercial applications is becoming larger and larger.

"It is precisely because of these three quantitative changes that we believe that the explosion of artificial intelligence in this round is real, it can bring us great commercial value." Chen Liming said, "China can be artificial intelligence. Play a very important role. The most complete industrial system, high-level Internet infrastructure, and rapidly growing data resources provide excellent conditions for the development of cognitive computing in China."

What is the difference between IBM's commercial artificial intelligence? For industry-leading companies, acquiring cognitive insights through artificial intelligence and maintaining sustainable advantages is no longer a future vision, but an imminent priority strategy. The deployment of data, industry capabilities and the cloud is the three “infrastructures” that enterprises need to pay attention to when building their own “commercial artificial intelligence”:

First, the way to store and manage data is a prerequisite for building “commercial artificial intelligence.” The accumulation of large amounts of data and the business model built around data are the core resources for implementing cognitive business.

Second, the formation of industry expertise is the key. Applied cognitive technology requires companies to have an in-depth understanding of cognitive technology and business, and have excellent insight and imagination in data.

Third, an open and controllable cloud environment is the foundation. The cloud is IBM's preferred infrastructure for IT services, and IBM Watson's cognitive capabilities will be delivered through the cloud.

Unlike "general artificial intelligence," IBM's "commercial artificial intelligence" is born to solve business problems, dedicated to enhancing human intelligence, changing industries and professions to achieve new value.

“Commercial Artificial Intelligence” fully applies cognitive technology to enhance the capabilities of people, expand the scope of professional knowledge, and develop new potentials through the collaboration of people and machines for professional vertical industry needs. The “commercial artificial intelligence” system enables people to interact safely and effectively with machines and participate in the entire business cognitive system to accomplish more professional and complex tasks. IBM has always focused on professional domain research and solving industry problems through “commercial artificial intelligence,” such as how to minimize the impact on the economy while finding effective ways to manage atmospheric environmental problems, as well as using cognitive technologies to solve problems. Difficulties in disease risk prevention and treatment.

The original intention of IBM to develop and apply artificial intelligence and cognitive systems was to solve business problems. "Watson is an AI platform for business." Bruno Di Leo, senior vice president of IBM, defines Watson.

In 2011, IBM launched Watson in the Americas. By 2016, Watson covered 1 billion people and more than 1 million developers used Watson on the IBM cloud. Bruno Di Leo said that Watson's real difference is that it is more about business or industry data, helping companies to realize the value of data. At the same time, Watson can also handle unstructured data from the Internet, as well as Internet of Things data. IBM Watson is a leading commercial artificial intelligence application platform.

“Artificial intelligence itself is not enough to solve the problems facing the business, which requires more integration with the industry. Because of this, IBM Watson is committed to being an artificial intelligence platform that provides insight and industry expertise to a wide range of industries,” said Bruno Di Leo. .

Based on IBM's rich accumulation of artificial intelligence for more than 60 years, IBM Watson has evolved into the only new generation of enterprise-class AI cloud platform, providing enterprises and partners with the most mature commercial AI available.

First: Watson is designed for commercial artificial intelligence. AI is different, many AI systems are first applied, in order to apply to the industry, then add applicability transformation and optimization. Watson has four powers of URLI: Watson understands, reasones, learns and interacts with humans through natural language. It has transcended the boundaries of language and speech, reaching into the realm of vision, emotion (specific to Watson) and discovery (specific to Watson).

Second, IBM and the industry have the deepest combination, the most experience, and the most cases. Cognition is born for service business, the most specialized in the industry: accumulate the most powerful professional data in the vertical industry, combined with IBM's experience of providing industry consulting services for large customers, integrating cognitive skills into the industry AI platform . It enables deep learning in vertical areas, enabling customers to develop and maintain their own insights and patterns.

Third: IBM Cloud is the most flexible open cloud platform. IBM's cloud is "Enduring", which guarantees high reliability and high availability over time - the cornerstone of support for commercial applications. This is one of the differences between commercial AI applications and Internet applications.

Focusing on real business and vertical industry IBM's commercial artificial intelligence in China's landings As cognitive business is widely recognized, changing the world's many industries and professional fields, IBM is also continuing to promote the development of commercial artificial intelligence in the Chinese market, through the construction of a complete Cognitive solutions and cloud computing platforms continue to accelerate the transformation and innovation of the industry through the use of cognitive systems by global customers and partners, including Chinese companies.

At this conference, IBM demonstrated a series of new practices created with domestic and foreign companies, reflecting the new business value of applying "commercial artificial intelligence" in various industries or fields:

In the electronics industry, Shensi Electronics, the provider of software and hard integration solutions in the field of intelligent identification in China, is the first to adopt IBM Watson Explorer (WEX). Based on analytical insight, reasoning and natural language understanding, it focuses on two long-term services, finance and medical. The industry has locked in three areas of “smart customer service”, “physical service robot” and “self-service intelligent upgrade” to transform service processes, reduce labor costs, and improve service quality and efficiency.

In the energy field, Longjitai and IBM have cooperated with IBM to build a comprehensive energy cloud platform using the Internet of Things and artificial intelligence technology through the Watson platform, to build a 360-degree view of customer energy consumption for industrial and commercial enterprises, and to continuously build high-energy-consuming enterprises. It can predict and analyze the energy efficiency level, improve the interaction experience with customers, enhance the stickiness with customers, deepen the value of cloud platform services, help Longjitai and achieve breakthroughs in traditional energy service models, and build a smart energy service system.

In the field of education, IBM has created a "Children's English Speaking Recognition and Evaluation System" based on IBM artificial intelligence for the world's foreign language primary and secondary schools (referred to as Shanghai Shiwai) in Shanghai, Hangzhou, Ningbo and other places under Shanghai Shiwai Education Group. In the next few years, it will transform the English teaching model and open up the intelligent process. The system will help students aged 6-15 learn English more easily, and it is the first time IBM's artificial intelligence has landed in the local education industry. In the future, IBM and Shanghai Shiwai hope to introduce IBM Watson's complete ability in "understanding, reasoning, learning, interaction" on the basis of evaluating students' oral pronunciation and rhythm, and create multi-modal, multi-level personalized English. Teaching mode.

In the service sector, Hejia Co., Ltd. and IBM jointly announced the launch of a blockchain-based pharmaceutical procurement supply chain financial service platform to help improve the security, transparency and operability of supply chain finance. The platform, called the easy-to-see blockchain technology application system, is a licensed blockchain platform using the super-books Fabric, which is currently in production and is commercialized by He Jia with a number of participants including a drug dealer, hospital and bank. transaction. The introduction of this system will eliminate some of the challenges faced by the pharmaceutical industry in financing.

In the fine chemicals industry, Merck, the world's leading technology company focused on three areas of pharmaceutical health, life sciences and high-performance materials, is using IBM IoT technology to create a new intelligent logistics and smart factory for cylinders that need to properly store and transport products. Intelligent management. Through cylinder sensor data collection and analysis, IBM helps Merck implement monitoring and managing the number, location and temperature of cylinders in the plant or in transit to ensure timely recovery of empty cylinders; and real-time insight and prediction of future use of cylinders and returns The inventory situation, in order to scientifically and rationally purchase to meet future needs. This not only helped Merck achieve automatic monitoring and tracking of cylinders, but also increased the accuracy of the results obtained, saving manpower and time, and greatly improving the overall efficiency of plant operations.

In the automotive industry, FAW-Volkswagen will adopt IBM's big data, cloud computing, cognitive computing and other technologies to build the Foshan Innovation Center and build a smart factory, focusing on “smart manufacturing”, “smart community” and “intelligence”. The five areas of “office”, “smart logistics” and “visual management” revolutionize the products, services, processes and businesses of the company, create new value for the enterprise, and promote digital transformation of the enterprise.

In addition to its efforts in the industry, IBM "Business Artificial Intelligence" is also helping professionals gain enhanced intelligence, work efficiency and business level. At present, the IBM Watson system has entered more than 60 professional fields such as law, medical, education, finance, retail, fashion design, etc., showing its amazing efficiency, accurate results, sophisticated perception and strong self-learning ability.

At the same time, IBM Watson is also defining and demonstrating how "commercial artificial intelligence" works with professionals in all fields to free professionals from repetitive, cumbersome, and massive time consumption, with more energy to focus on humans. The scope, such as communication with customers, enhances emotional, aesthetic, intuitive judgments, exploration of unknowns, etc.:

Assist doctors to complete massive literature retrieval analysis and medical image judgment analysis;

Help lawyers to study a large number of legal cases and documents, and conduct natural semantic analysis on legal questions of specific users, and provide artificial intelligence services that “provide the most appropriate legal opinions”;

Help marketers gain insight into thousands of customers while meeting their needs as quickly as possible, providing a delightful customer experience and building new competencies;

To help teachers evaluate each student's knowledge points, to understand the students' learning situation more comprehensively and in a timely manner, and to achieve personalized and real-time feedback;

Help fashion designers to grasp the latest trends by identifying and analyzing texts, images, and social data, and find new combinations in fabrics, textures, silhouettes, and colors to inspire design inspiration.

Written at the end As I said earlier, IBM Watson was originally designed to solve business problems, that is, commercial artificial intelligence. Today, IBM Waton has covered 45 countries and regions. Together with Siemens, GM, Whirlpool and other companies, it has been widely used in 20 industries including medical, environmental protection, energy, finance, manufacturing and education. More than 200 Watson application cases.

This innate and industry-integrated trait makes IBM Watson an AI platform unique, and the industry development with Chinese characteristics provides IBM Watson with a rich choice of landing options in China. With the signing of a strategic cooperation agreement between IBM and Wanda Group, IBM's "commercial artificial intelligence" and cognitive computing are expected to develop in China.