Drivers for Future AI Growth
By Eric Xu
Huawei Rotating Chairman
Huawei outlines ten changes related to AI
technology, talent, and industry development that
will lay a solid foundation for future AI growth.
Huawei Rotating Chairman Eric Xu’s keynote
address at HUAWEI CONNECT 2018 addresses
these changes. He also announced Huawei’s AI
strategy and its full-stack, all-scenario artificial
intelligence (AI) portfolio.
AI is the overall outcome of 60 years of
development in ICT
I
n 1956, the concept of artificial intelligence was
proposed at the Dartmouth Workshop organised
by John McCarthy, an Assistant Professor of
Mathematics at Dartmouth College. That was
more than 60 years ago. Since that time, we have
seen two AI winters, when funding and interest
in AI research reduced sharply. Despite these
setbacks, AI has never stopped advancing.
In 1971, Intel introduced the fir st
microprocessor. That was almost 50 years
ago, and Moore’s law has continued to hold
true throughout the robust development of the
Information and Communications Technology (ICT)
industry.
If we overlay graphs of AI and ICT development
cycles over the past 60 years, it is clear that
advances in AI and ICT are closely related.
Academic research findings and engineering
advances go hand in hand.
In the past, we went through two AI winters
because expectations for AI were way beyond the
engineering capacity of the ICT industry at the
time. The good news is that each winter eventually
gave way to spring, marking a new beginning for AI.
Today, we again find ourselves in a season of
harvest, one made possible through six decades of
commitment and collaboration between academic
and industry stakeholders in ICT domains.
Moving forward, we need to make full use of AI
technology. We need to start reaping the benefits
sooner rather than later, and work hard to expand
its value. We have to do what we can to extend this
harvest season. Let’s plant AI along the equator,
so to speak, to create an environment where it can
continue to blossom and thrive.
AI is a new general purpose technology
We cannot fully unleash the value of a technology
unless we properly define its positioning. This is
essential for us to truly understand and adopt AI
technology.
At Huawei we recognise AI as a combination
of technologies that, together, form a new general
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