Baidu, Inc. successfully opened Baidu Create 2021, the first day of a three-day annual flagship developers’ conference on its metaverse app XiRang. The event was China’s first-ever metaverse technology symposium.
The XiRang platform enables up to 100,000 online attendees to interact simultaneously in the same space. Speaking at the opening of the conference ̶ held under the theme Creators’ Spirit, Baidu Chief Executive Officer, Chairman and Co-Founder, Robin Li, said that the era of man-computer symbiosis had arrived, and that creators would usher in a Golden era of AI over the next 10 years, calling the technology a powerful tool that will change the world.
Baidu released smart cloud digital avatar platform XiLing
At the convention, Baidu Chief Technology Officer Haifeng Wang released Baidu AI Cloud digital avatar platform XiLing, which is a platform level product integrating digital avatar generation and content production. It can provide creation and operation one-stop services such as virtual host, virtual idol, brand spokesperson creation and operation for radio, television, Internet, brand and other customers.
AI toolkit: PaddlePaddle gathers over 4 million developers
A great proponent of open source and openness, Baidu began research and development (R&D) into AI 11 years ago. Organizations and creators without IT resources and R&D capabilities have been able to access Baidu’s technology platforms to help drive AI applications.
Baidu Brain’s approach relies on standardization, automation and modularization for industrial mass production, which allows it to evolve into an AI mass production platform. “Wenxin” (文心), Baidu Brain’s recently-released technological breakthrough, is the world’s first knowledge-enhanced 100-billion-scale pre-trained language model and the largest Chinese-language monolithic model.
Baidu’s open-source deep-learning platform PaddlePaddle has garnered 4.06 million developers, served more than 157,000 enterprises and units, covered dozens of industries, and created almost 500,000 models. PaddlePaddle’s combined market share ranks first among China’s deep-learning platforms.
Nurturing 5 million AI talent in 5 years
Innovation requires talent with fresh perspectives and creativity. Baidu continues to invest in the training of AI talent.
The Baidu Scholarship was established in 2013 to recognize Chinese students with great potential and excellence in AI research around the world. Li awarded Baidu scholarships to 10 outstanding young students at the conference. He said, looking at these students, he sees “innovation” in these bright minds. He also sees their determination and unrelenting efforts towards realizing their dreams in scientific research and their imminent bright future.
In addition, Baidu has created a new model in jointly training AI talent with governments, enterprises, and universities. In August this year, Baidu established the “Baidu Pinecone Academy”, built on PaddlePaddle to integrate basic AI courses, practical teaching, technical competitions, industry training, and scientific research funds to create an AI talent training platform.
