AI and big data technology will change every traditional industry we know, and many problems in real life can be solved with "code", such as in the transportation industry, said Robin Li, founder, chairman, and CEO of Baidu, at the 2020 Digital China Construction Summit on October 12.
With the empowerment of AI technology, cities will have "car freedom", he said.
Li said the public's focus on unmanned vehicles is actually a lot of traffic movement efficiency that can be improved by AI before driverless vehicles become commonplace.
"We have made estimates and also proved in nearly 20 cities that AI technology can improve our current traffic efficiency by 15 to 30 percent, bringing an absolute contribution of 2.4-3.8 percentage points to GDP," he said.
With the continuous improvement of the construction of an intelligent transportation system, after five years, the city will no longer need to limit traffic and purchase, after 10 years can basically eliminate congestion, he said.
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Li also said that intelligent transportation is one of the benchmark industries for industrial intelligence, and intelligent upgrades in areas such as medical care and industrial production have also accelerated significantly.
In medical care, for example, due to the support of intelligent technology, the digitization of a large amount of life information, the speed of new drug research and development will be greatly accelerated, the past ten or fifteen years to grind a drug, it is likely to become two or three years to complete a new drug research and development cycle, he said.
New diagnostic tools will detect all types of cancers four years earlier than the existing means, thus significantly increasing the cure rate, he said.
Li talked about how there are very many opportunities for industrial intelligence in all areas. In the past, low labor costs were an advantage for Chinese manufacturing, and there is now a lot of concern that manufacturing will move to countries with lower labor costs in Southeast Asia.
"But we can still maintain that advantage if we improve our production efficiency through smart technology. So many of the problems we encounter in production can find new solutions in the code," he said.
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