The Turing Award is the highest international award in the field of computer science, known as the "Nobel Prize of the computer world". It is a computer award established by the American Computer Society (ACM) in 1966, and its name is taken from the British scientist Alan M. Turing, the "father of computer science", and the "father of artificial intelligence", The name is taken from Alan M. Turing, the British scientist, "father of computer science" and "father of artificial intelligence".
○The purpose of this award is to honor individuals who have made significant contributions to computing.The requirements for the award are extremely high, the evaluation process is extremely strict, and the award is generally given to only one computer scientist per year. Academician Yao Zhizhi is the only scientist of Chinese descent to have received this award to date, and the only winner in the Eastern Hemisphere.
○ Not long ago, General Secretary Xi Jinping wrote back to Academician Yao Zhizhi, sending him sincere greetings and offering great hopes. When the news reached the Turing Institute of Artificial Intelligence, everyone was very excited, because it was also an affirmation and incentive for all science and technology workers.
Yao Zhizhi, Academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the only Chinese Turing Award winner, Dean of the School of Artificial Intelligence at Tsinghua University, and Director of the Institute for Cross-Information Studies (ICSIS), has taught at American universities for a long time, and returned to China to teach at Tsinghua University in 2004, and organized the "Yao Class" in 2005, and took the lead in founding the Institute for Cross-Information Studies (ICSIS) at Tsinghua University in 2010.
In 2018, Yao Zhizhi is again pondering the establishment of an artificial intelligence research institute to further promote the transformation of scientific and technological achievements in the field of artificial intelligence and the development of industrialization.The only domestic artificial intelligence research institute named after "Turing" is located in Nanjing Qixia Hi-tech Zone.
○ Suxia District to build China (Nanjing) Smart Valley, which is now home to a large number of AI companies and has become one of the AI industry bases in Jiangsu Province with the highest degree of agglomeration, the strongest innovation momentum and the best comprehensive support.
01What does a CEO really do?
○ Li Qiang, a professional manager named by Yao Zhizhi, runs the Turing Institute for Artificial Intelligence, which he leads. Sitting in his office, he often thinks of an interview he had in Yao's office years ago.
○ This was the first time Li Qiang met the prestigious academician.
○ In an hour, Li Qiang strongly felt that Yao Zhizhi was more concerned about whether or not he held an interest in AI and Turing Institute, and whether or not he could make running Turing Institute an important event.
○ Li Qiang said, "Artificial intelligence is a major wave of the future. It's not realistic to turn back the clock, to go back 20 years and not choose to study communication and information and re-study AI, but Turing Academy gave me the opportunity to start over."
Perhaps it was Li Qiang's bluntness that moved Yao Zhizhi's heart, and that day Yao also spoke quite a bit about his orientation and expectations of Turing Institute."Now that I've done it, I only have the option of doing it right."Yao Zhizhi's words gave Li Qiang great encouragement.
○ This interview put a stone in both parties' hearts.
○ So, what exactly does a CEO of the Turing Institute do?To summarize in one sentence.Help these scientists, who are the best at doing research and the most afraid of minutiae, move scientific and technological achievements from the bookshelf to the shelf.
○ Li Qiang believes that the development of artificial intelligence does not require a very long manufacturing line, or close proximity to raw material supply bases, but rather talent is the most important.Nanjing has always been known for its science and education, with a number of institutions of higher learning, and has made significant efforts in science and innovation over the years.
At the beginning of the establishment of the Turing Institute, the government of Qixia District set up a special "Turing Service Group" to help the Institute solve the problems encountered in the early stage of the landing, and also provide five-year rent-free carriers and directional support funds, and in the form of shares to realize the depth of binding cooperation.02Incubated and invested in over 60 companies
○ The Turing Institute has done two main things since its establishment:One is to form its own research team; the other is to serve as an incubator to support startups in the field of artificial intelligence.
○ The Turing Academy has uncovered a number of high-quality projects and helped them match technology, market, and capital, and soon incubated a number of AI companies in vertical fields.
○ For example, Suikun Intelligence, an AI+innovative biomedical R&D platform company that utilizes AI algorithms to discover disease targets and improve the efficiency of new drug screening, was established under the incubation of Turing Institute.
Within six years, Turing Institute has incubated and invested in more than 60 companies, and nearly 30 incubatees have landed in Qixia alone.
The Turing Institute has also encountered bottlenecks in its development.Fortunately, Yao's support for the Turing Institute is as strong as ever, and he has always maintained close communication with Nanjing and emphasized the development of the Turing Institute.
○ As the team's scientific research capability matures, Turing Institute now receives tens of millions of dollars worth of horizontal projects every year, so that the Institute itself has a self-blood-supporting function.
○ In addition, the development of big models has also brought new opportunities for the AI industry, good projects continue to emerge, and some of the projects that originally encountered bottlenecks have also turned around.
○ For example, an AI medical enterprise incubated by Turing Institute in the past specialized in medical image recognition, but it was very vertical and could only do image recognition of cancer cells in a specific organ of the human body, and it was difficult to migrate the recognition capability to other organs. After the introduction of large models, the enterprise has more room for development.03Targeting young talent earlier
○ On a nice afternoon, a tent was set up on the grass of the Zidong Eco-Conference Center near the Turing Institute, with tables full of fruits and tea, and visitors chatting animatedly, all of them entrepreneurs from startups in the field of artificial intelligence.
○ Sitting in a seat not far from Li Qiang was a young man, wearing a dark polo shirt like Li Qiang, spirited and eloquent. This is Zhou Rui, who is still a PhD student at MIT and one of the residents of the third phase of the Turing Entrepreneur-in-Residence (EIR) base set up by the Turing Institute.
○ As the AI field becomes more popular, startups have more options for incubation platforms.How can we go earlier to target young AI talents who are still in school and give them support in all aspects of entrepreneurship?That'sLaunch of the Turing Entrepreneur-in-Residence (EIR) baseThe significance of the
○ Zhou Rui started his own company, Bear Star Technology, during his sophomore year in 2020. After cooperating with the Turing Institute, the other party not only accessed the adapted technology to the project, but also docked many customer resources in related fields. At present, Zhou Rui has been approached by a number of automobile enterprises in the Yangtze River Delta, and his main focus in the future is to reduce costs and increase efficiency for automobile enterprises through artificial intelligence.
In the past few years at the helm of Turing Institute, Li Qiang has made new observations about the AI industry. He noticed that when AlphaGo appeared in the past, people were amazed, but most of them were still spectators and couldn't experience it, they could only read the news; but nowadays, everyone can use the big models and feel the change of AI to the world, and they are more supportive of the development of this industry.
Recently, Turing Institute and Qixia District Government signed the second phase of the cooperation agreement. Compared to the first phase of the agreement, which focused more on scientific research, this time there are more industrialized indicators, such as the size of the incubated companies in the future, or even whether they can grow into a unicorn company.
In Li Qiang's view, now the market has come to the real harvest time, if the previous is "hatching seedlings", now more should do is "breeding trees", which is also in line with Mr. Yao's expectations of the Turing Institute.
