Unprecedented Attendance and Engagement
From 7-9 July, the World Artificial Intelligence Conference 2024 (WAIC 2024) took place in Shanghai. According to official data, as of 2pm on 9 July, the number of offline visitors exceeded 300K, while online engagement surpassed 1.9 billion, marking a 90% increase compared to the previous year and setting new records. This year’s conference featured over 500 companies and more than 1,500 exhibits, with main attractions being LLM applications and humanoid robots.
Evolution of WAIC
The first WAIC was held in 2018, just two years after AlphaGo defeated a human chess player, at a time when many still lacked a comprehensive understanding of AI. By 2024, a wide array of Generative LLM technologies and applications have emerged, with AI governance becoming the central theme of the conference.
Showcasing the “Treasures” of WAIC 2024
Compared to complex algorithms and high-end forums, the annual “treasures” of the conference are the latest applications for everyday users. The eight “treasures” of WAIC 2024 are:
- Tongyi Lingcode of Aliyun (阿里云通义灵码)
- AI Yuanqi of Lenovo YOGA Book 9i
- Alipay Intelligent Assistant
- SenseTime Vimi Controlled Character Video Generation LLM
- Tesla Cyber Cross-Country Wagon
- Zhipu AI LLM
- Intelligent Flying Vehicle Display Area
- “18 Buddha’s warrior attendant” (十八金刚) Humanoid Robots
Highlight on AI Assistants
AI assistants integrated with LLM were a significant highlight among these treasures. For instance, the Alipay Intelligent Assistant, based on Ant Group’s self-developed LLM, offers over 8,000 digital life services in areas such as travel, health, government, and finance. Tongyi Lingcode of Aliyun, proficient in more than 200 programming languages, assists in writing, reading, debugging, and optimizing code. It has been downloaded over 3.5 million times, helping developers generate code on a daily basis.
Embodied Intelligence and Humanoid Robots
The concept of embodied intelligence is a major trend this year. As quoted by NVIDIA founder Jensen Huang, embodied intelligence represents the next wave of AI, characterized by intelligent systems that can understand, reason, and interact with the physical world. This focus brought humanoid robots into the spotlight at the conference, with the “18 Buddha’s warrior attendant” humanoid robots attracting many visitors.
Public Focus on AI Innovations
Two related topics from the conference made it to Weibo’s Hot Searches:
- #Kuaishou Kling AI Ushers in the Strongest Update# garnered 14.8 million views. Kling, Kuaishou’s video generation LLM, can transform text into high-definition video or animate old photos. The topic #CCTV Reporter Tests AI That Animates Old Photos# amassed 11 million views, with over 500K people already queuing up for Kling’s internal testing.
- #Shanghai Issues First Licences for Completely Unmanned Vehicles# received 2.2 million views. At the conference, Shanghai issued the first batch of demonstration application licences for driverless intelligent networked vehicles. This allows the four licensed companies to deploy fully unmanned vehicles on select roads in the Pudong district, Shanghai.
AI Governance and Public Sentiment
Several related topics from the conference dominated public opinions. Bilibili’s popular science influencer, Dr. Tang Cheng, expressed a desire for AI to be more modest, resonating with many netizens. The Weibo topic #Famous Influencer Hopes AI Will Be More Modest# garnered 4.9 million views.
Baidu Chairman and CEO Robin Li criticized the waste of computational power in the rampant development of LLM but acknowledged the impressive results. Last year, Elon Musk highlighted safety concerns regarding full-scale artificial intelligence, predicting that robots would eventually outnumber humans. Consequently, AI governance has become a focal point this year, with the European Parliament adopting the Artificial Intelligence Act (AI Act) to regulate AI effectively.
