China's Baidu decided Thursday to make its artificial intelligence (AI) system's core capabilities and underlying technology available to program developers, start-up entrepreneurs and traditional companies to help develop AI for the public good.
The company will launch two AI platforms for public use, PaddlePaddle and ai.baidu.com, to help companies develop AI systems for their own sectors, according to Baidu chief scientist Andrew Ng, speaking at the Baidu Technology Innovation Conference.
AI will be a core tool for remarkable changes in daily life, just as electricity was over a century ago, said Robin Li, founder, CEO and chairman of the search engine titan.
As a pioneer in developing AI, the company has developed an AI system called the Baidu Brain, featuring state-of-the-art technology for recognizing and processing speech, images, words as well as building user profiles based on big data analysis.
Baidu Brain's ability to recognize speech and faces is up to 97 percent and 99.7 percent accurate, respectively, according to Li.
Baidu has used its AI technology to develop intelligent mapping, translation and advertising services. The company's driverless car's core operating system is enabled by the Baidu Brain to offer high-precision electronic mapping, positioning, sensing, decision-making and control services.
Leading visual computing technology firm NVIDIA announced at the conference it will deepen its partnership with Baidu in developing cloud-based autonomous driving technology and platforms.
Baidu aims to commercialize the driverless technology by 2018 and achieve mass production of the cars by 2020.
Li, who is also chair of the B20 employment task force, a forum under the G20 framework, said that possible job losses due to AI development could be addressed via technology and innovation.
The B20 employment taskforce proposed an initiative called SMART, which calls for sustainable innovation, a massive public platform, accessible networks, revolutionary reform and technological innovation to pool knowledge for shared growth.
