New Offerings Shared at Baidu World 2021 Set to Widen Access and Application of AI Technology
Baidu showcased its strengths in artificial intelligence technology with the launch of Baidu Brain 7.0, the start of mass production of its 2nd generation Kunlun AI chip, Kunlun II, and the demonstration of industrial applications using Baidu AI Cloud. Shared at Baidu World 2021, Baidu’s annual flagship technology conference, the announcements represent the depth of Baidu’s expertise in AI technology and industrial practice, and its efforts to make AI technology more accessible.
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“AI technology is growing increasingly complex, and integrated innovation has made AI more powerful,” said Haifeng Wang, Baidu’s Chief Technology Officer at Baidu World 2021. As AI technology plays an expanding role in a wider range of industries and drives a new era of technological revolution and industrial transformation, it is increasingly important to lower the threshold for different real-world applications and to increase accessibility to AI development platforms.
A key infrastructure supporting industrial applications of AI and Baidu Cloud, Baidu Brain is one of the world’s largest AI open platforms. The newly upgraded Baidu Brain 7.0 offers greater integration of a wide array of knowledge sources and deep learning, including language comprehension and reasoning, using numerous combined technologies to enable output across language, voice and visual formats.
Working together with Baidu Brain 7.0’s software capabilities is the new Kunlun II AI Chip, providing an improved hardware foundation for a new generation of AI applications. Independently developed by Baidu, Kunlun II offers 2-3 times more processing power than the previous generation, using the world’s leading 7nm process and equipped with Baidu’s own second-generation XPU architecture.
The chip can be applied in multiple scenarios, including cloud, terminal, and edge, able to empower high-performance computer clusters, biocomputing and intelligent transportation and autonomous driving. Specifically optimized for AI technologies such as voice, natural language processing and images, the new Kunlun chip supports deep learning frameworks such as Baidu’s open source platform PaddlePaddle. This diverse range of uses gives the 2nd generation Kunlun AI Chip a powerful potential role in powering AI applications ranging from Internet core algorithms to smart cities and smart industry.
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Both Baidu Brain 7.0 and Kunlun II allow for significantly enhanced accessibility and ease of use. Together with Baidu’s PaddlePaddle, the bundled AI platform offers a diverse product system to help different types of developers use AI technology quickly and efficiently, providing a wealth of tools to simplify the development and implementation of AI in real world scenarios.
To date, more than 3.6 million developers around the world have developed 400,000 AI models through PaddlePaddle, serving over 130,000 enterprises and institutions across a range of fields and industries. Applications have helped water management systems run more efficiently, helped improve quality control in manufacturing, and even helped athletes achieve greater precision in their training.
As part of Baidu’s efforts to increase the accessibility of AI technology, the company also announced the launch of Songguo Academy at Baidu World 2021. Providing a full set of educational resources, from long-term courses of study and training seminars to competitions, Songguo Academy draws on support from both the tech industry and academia to build a platform for training a new generation of AI professionals.
Baidu believes that the potential of AI is bright and limitless. Baidu Brain, the Kunlun II AI chip, PaddlePaddle and other software and hardware are a powerful combination delivering transformative AI technologies, which are set to serve us everywhere in the future. In this era of great change, Baidu is pursuing innovation AI applications that will benefit humanity and improves the lives of all in the future.
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