While global attention on AI large models often focuses on their conversational or creative capabilities, a significant shift is underway in China. The development and application of AI are moving decisively from technological exploration to deep integration with the real economy, entering a new phase characterized as "going deeper into practical, real-world applications." This trend was prominently showcased at the 2023 World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC), where leading Chinese tech companies, particularly Huawei, unveiled initiatives signaling this industry-wide pivot towards solving tangible industrial problems.
Substantive Impact: Large Models Land in Real-World Industries
The true value of AI is being proven by its capacity to address core challenges across diverse sectors. Huawei Cloud's Pangu large model 3.0, as a flagship example, demonstrates remarkable efficacy:
Industry and Manufacturing: The model can generate a 3-day production plan for a manufacturing line in one minute, a task that previously took hours. In the coal mining sector, it covers over 1,000 operational scenarios, enabling remote operation and significantly improving safety and efficiency. For railways, it accurately identifies dozens of freight car types and hundreds of fault types, serving as a powerful digital assistant for inspectors.
Science and Services: In meteorology, the Pangu weather model has achieved higher precision than traditional numerical forecasting, reducing the prediction time for a typhoon's 10-day path from 5 hours on a supercomputer to just 10 seconds on a single server. In finance, it automates process guidance, cutting average handling time by over 5 minutes. Perhaps most strikingly, in pharmaceutical research, it assisted scientists in discovering a new class of antibiotic, compressing the lead drug development cycle to one month and reducing costs by 70%.
These cases underscore a critical evolution: AI large models are transitioning from performing technical feats to solving fundamental industry pain points and generating tangible economic value.
Strengthening the Foundation: Building a Robust Technological Base
This deep industrial integration is underpinned by significant advancements in China's AI infrastructure. The country's core AI industry scale has reached 500 billion RMB, with its computing power capacity now ranking second globally. The adoption of AI in smart factories has yielded measurable benefits, including an average reduction of approximately 20.7% in R&D cycles and an increase of about 34.8% in production efficiency.
Companies like Huawei are fortifying this foundation by developing "root technologies." This includes building AI computing cloud platforms based on indigenous chips like Kunpeng and Ascend, and creating full-scenario AI frameworks. Huawei's recent launch of its Ascend AI cloud service and the scaling of its Ascend AI cluster to 16,000 cards—an industry first—exemplify this drive. Such infrastructure can now train a large model with 175 billion parameters in half a day, providing the powerful engine needed for continuous innovation.
Fostering an Open Ecosystem: Collaboration for Win-Win Growth
The sustainable development of the AI industry relies on an open and collaborative ecosystem. Huawei's approach, through opening its technologies and initiating the "Ascend Partner Network," has fostered a cooperative environment. This ecosystem now supports thousands of industry solutions, and notably, about half of China's large model innovations are built upon the Ascend AI foundation. Broader collaborative efforts are also taking shape, such as the establishment of the "Large Model Industry Working Group" and the "Large Model High-Quality Data Alliance," which aim to jointly tackle challenges related to technology implementation, application孵化 (incubation), and data quality.
Conclusion: A Path Focused on Real-World Value
The trajectory of AI development in China is clearly oriented towards deep synthesis with the real economy. From optimizing industrial manufacturing and logistics to accelerating scientific breakthroughs in healthcare and climate science, the focus is on generating practical solutions and substantive value. As highlighted by Huawei's Rotating Chairman, Hu Houkun, the future lies in building a powerful computing foundation and, most importantly, ensuring AI genuinely serves and transforms all industries and scientific research. This path marks a new chapter for AI in China—one defined by grounding technological prowess in the practical needs of economic and social advancement.
