ZTE Corporation, a leading provider of global information and communication technology solutions, made a significant impact at the AI for Good Global Summit, held from July 6 to 7 in Geneva, Switzerland. Organized by the United Nations International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the summit brought together AI experts from academia, enterprises, UN agencies, and NGOs worldwide to explore the technological trends and social implications of AI, as well as discuss how AI can contribute to sustainable development and trustworthy governance.
As a long-standing participant in the AI for Good initiative, ZTE showcased its expertise in driving data-driven intelligence at the summit. Under the theme of "Data-driven Intelligence for the Future," ZTE's booth captivated attendees with its cutting-edge AI applications, featuring innovations such as smart factories, the naked-eye 3D smart pad and AI open-source projects. The exhibition became a focal point, drawing attention to groundbreaking AI technologies, including those demonstrated by the remarkable bionic robots.
The significance of ZTE's presence at the summit was further highlighted by the distinguished guests who visited the ZTE booth. Ambassador Chen Xu, Permanent Representative of China in Geneva, and Doreen Bogdan-Martin, Secretary-General of the ITU, personally experienced ZTE's advancements and commended the company for its achievements.
ZTE's participation in the ITU AI for Good 2023 Summit reaffirms its unwavering commitment to harnessing AI technologies for the betterment of humanity. By leveraging data-driven intelligence, ZTE aims to drive innovation, contribute to sustainable development goals, and ensure responsible and trustworthy governance of AI.
Cognitive Intelligence, Driving Digital Transformation
Wang Xinhui, vice president and general manager of standards and industrial relations at ZTE, was invited to participate in the Leader Lounge Stage of the summit and delivered a speech titled "Bridging the Last Mile for Digital Transformation with Artificial Intelligence."
During his speech, Wang Xinhui highlighted that digital transformation serves as the core driving force to achieve the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals, with artificial intelligence representing the final and most crucial step of this transformation. By leveraging data-driven cognitive intelligence, the value of data across all industries can be fully harnessed, leading to significant cost reduction and efficiency improvements for enterprises.
Wang emphasized the importance of an architecture-first approach to digital transformation, where infrastructure, such as 5G, serves as the cornerstone and technologies like artificial intelligence act as the backbone. This enables the seamless integration of data acquisition, transaction, analysis, and application, ultimately driving value-oriented digital transformation. He further illustrated the positive impact of AI on society through examples such as autonomous networks, smart factories, and smart cities.
"With the rapid development of generative AI models, we are witnessing the dawn of generalized AI. AI is emerging with remarkable intelligence and will be a disruptive force in digital transformation," he stated. However, he also underscored the significance of AI governance, stating, "Establishing a global consensus on the regulatory and governance aspects of AI is crucial to ensure the responsible and ethical deployment of AI technology."
AI Endogenizes ICT Infrastructure to Empower a Sustainable Future
Summer Chen, vice president and general manager of branding and PR strategies at ZTE, was invited to speak at the SDG Stage of the AI for Good Summit on the topic of "Building a Green and Intelligent Society: AI-Driven ICT Infrastructure Evolution," sharing ZTE's practice of utilizing AI to empower sustainable development.
During her speech, Summer Chen mentioned that the gradual deepening of the integration of ICT technology with traditional industries has brought about technological changes in the industry and the optimization of the industrial structure. This integration is key to reducing global carbon emissions. However, it also presents the challenge of carbon emissions from ICT itself. Therefore, building a green and low-carbon ICT infrastructure has become an urgent task, with AI as the core driving force.
She proposed a 3C trifecta of steps to build a sustainable future based on AI. The first C is to build a cornerstone, which is an end-to-end ICT infrastructure endogenous to AI. This entails realizing energy savings and emission reductions in the ICT infrastructure through AI-driven solutions. Summer Chen comprehensively introduced ZTE's technical solutions, such as building a green energy system with technologies like iEnergy and SmartLi, addressing the energy consumption problem of 5G RAN with Powerpilot, and securing a green data center with iDCIM.
The second C is to use the catalyst, a sustainable and highly efficient AI system, to reduce the large amount of resource consumption caused by the training and inference of AI itself. She provided an example of ZTE's open-source project, Adlik, which is incubated at the LF AI & Data Foundation. Summer Chen shared how this project enables a faster and more economical AI inference process.
Lastly, the third C is Culmination. Summer Chen emphasized the importance of utilizing AI to empower various industries and realize overall smart and green development in society. She stated, "Our ultimate goal is to help society as a whole reach the dual-carbon goal. We have already had extensive practice in sectors such as electricity, manufacturing, metallurgy, transportation, and others. In the future, AI technology will drive further sustainable development, and this requires us to embrace cooperation and innovation together."
Driver of the Digital Economy: Practicing AI for Good
The summit also featured two high-level roundtable discussions, bringing together representatives from UN agencies and ambassadors in Geneva for in-depth discussions on various topics, including AI cutting-edge science and technology, AI governance and regulation, and AI for sustainable development.
During the ambassadorial roundtable, Tian Li, director of the standards strategy department at ZTE, spoke as a corporate representative. He provided insights into the prospects and challenges of AI application from an industrial perspective and shared ZTE’s practices in AI application and corporate social responsibility (CSR). His remarks resonated with the attending guests.
As AI technology continues to evolve, the pursuit of AI for the greater good has become a shared global objective. ZTE, recognized as a "Driver of the Digital Economy," considers it a responsibility to bridge the digital divide. Moving forward, ZTE will collaborate with partners to explore, innovate, and drive the development and application of AI technology. The company is committed to achieving universal sharing and promoting human-centered artificial intelligence.