Mar. 27 (NBD) -- The development of the Internet needs new engine, Robin Li, chairman and CEO of China's largest search engine Baidu Inc., commented at the China Development Forum 2018 held on Monday.

At the high-level forum hosted by the Development Research Center of the State Council, Li noted that over the past five years, China's economic growth has benefited, to a large extent, from the development of the Internet. But the country's future economic growth will likely depend more on the advancement of artificial intelligence (AI) technology.

Robin Li (Photo provided by the China Development Forum) 

Expanded applications of AI expected

As Chinese Premier Li Keqiang laid out the governments’ priorities for 2018 in the annual work report delivered to the National People’s Congress in Beijing, he called for expanded use of AI applications and pushing the "Internet Plus" business model in medical services, care for the elderly, education, culture and sports and other industries.

Globally, the significance of AI has been prevailing in many domains as such technology is widely applied in many fields.

Google CEO Sundar Pichai gave an example of AI's application in agriculture at the forum.

Growing crops and producing food require the expertise which is only known to the minority and is hard to be spread widely. For instance, cassava, one of the most widely planted crops in the world, is pretty vulnerable to insect attacks which can only be detected by the most experienced experts in early stages of the insect damages.

However, it would be a different story with the application of AI. Pichai introduced that farmers take photos of crops and then AI technology helps them to supervise and detect possible insect attacks. AI technology can also be adopted in breeding milk cows, finding diseases as early as possible and improving the efficiency of cow breeding.

IBM chairman, president and CEO Ginni Rometty pointed out at the same event on Monday the good use of AI in the medical sector, saying that IBM has forged cooperation with several Chinese hospitals in applying IBM's voice-activated Watson Assistant, an artificial intelligence-based system. 

Protection of data privacy and safety called for

While new technologies like AI is creating ample opportunities for industries, an increasing number of people are concerned about data privacy and safety.

As Rometty said, in the era of technology, a good management of technology can bring benefits to society and to the world. More and more people are paying attention to how data is used, data safety and how the algorithms of AI is formulated, according to Rometty.

Recently, Facebook has come under intense scrutiny from users, lawmakers and investors following allegations from a whistleblower that it allowed British political consultancy Cambridge Analytica to improperly use data and build voter profiles.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg took out full-page ads in several newspapers in the U.S. and UK on Sunday to apologize for his company's involvement in the Cambridge Analytica data scandal.

Rometty commented on Monday, "If you're going to use these technologies, you have to tell people you're doing that, and they should never be surprised. (We have to let) people opt in and opt out, and be clear that ownership of the data does belong to the creator."

In Rometty's opinion, to make people accept a new technology, such technology should be first explained clearly to people. People start to know and to trust the technology before they accept it. IBM is devoted to making AI explicable and transparent, Rometty added.

China has become increasingly aware of data privacy protection, and the relevant laws and regulations have been enforced more strongly, noted Robin Li.

Email: gaohan@nbd.com.cn