"China Sound Valley" opens the "gate of intelligence" (Sankei Observation·Decoding Advanced Manufacturing Cluster ③)
Opened the report card of the intelligent voice cluster in Hefei, Anhui, known as the "Valley of China" in 2020. There were 1024 enterprises in the cluster and an operating income of 106 billion yuan.
After more than 8 years of development, "China Sound Valley" has achieved the goal of "Double Thousands".
In terms of volume, "China Sound Valley" is really "small", and in terms of status, it was selected into the first batch of national advanced manufacturing clusters.
Why does "China Voice Valley" become a smart voice advanced manufacturing cluster?
The reporter walked into Hefei City, Anhui Province to conduct field investigations.
Smart products continue to emerge
Every building hides the "most powerful brain", efficiently serving users who are separated by thousands of mountains and rivers
Walking into the First People's Hospital of Anqing City, Anhui, I saw a long line in front of the self-service registration machine.
This device is called a contactless self-service registration machine. It is developed by Dongchao Technology. It uses interactive holographic aerial imaging technology, so that the patient can directly "sign" in the air without touching the screen or pressing buttons to complete the registration. , Payment and other operations.
The camera turns to the Sanjue Town Central Hospital in Shou County, Huainan City, Anhui Province. Quan Xunzhi, a villager in Dongbu Village, is seeing a doctor.
"I have been dizzy for more than a week, and I have no strength in my right leg. Doctor, please help me see..." After some inquiries, Yu Zhongping, the doctor on duty, initially diagnosed Quan Xunzhi as "insufficient blood supply to the brain."
However, when Yu Zhongping entered Quan Xunzhi’s past symptoms and current symptoms in the case system, the system popped out a red prompt box: "The patient is suspected of having a'cerebral infarction.' CT examination is recommended." Yu Zhongping hurriedly arranged a CT examination, and the result was It shows that Quan Xunzhi really suffers from "cerebral infarction."
This system to avoid misdiagnosis is a "smart medical assistant" developed by iFlytek.
In 2017, the "Smart Medical Assistant" passed the national clinical practice physician written test with 456 points, and the score exceeded 96.3% of the human candidates, and he was a proper "student tyrant".
Today, "Smart Medical Assistants" have assisted in consultations in 200 districts and counties in China, helped 50,000 primary-level doctors in more than 30,000 primary-level medical institutions, and provided over 400,000 assistive diagnosis suggestions every day, benefiting 50 million patients .
At the 220kV amusement substation in Hefei, which is about 70 kilometers away from Huainan, the automatic early warning system is helping: "Please note! The voltage of batteries No. 88 and 89 is abnormal!" "...
This substation "general practitioner" is jointly developed by Hefei Zhongke Brain Intelligence Technology Co., Ltd. and a joint co-construction unit. It has its own sense of sight, smell and hearing like human beings.
Its "eyes" are a series of sensory cameras and inspection robots, which can continuously check the various conditions of the substation; its "nose" is a variety of sensors, which can sensitively detect 17 kinds of harmful gases; its "ears" It is an intelligent voiceprint device that uses voiceprint recognition technology to determine the operating status of the device. Not only that, it is also equipped with a brain-like edge box, which is equivalent to having a "brain" that can process all information in real time and accurately locate faults. An alarm was issued for a moment.
According to reports, the Hefei Power Supply Company plans to complete the full coverage of 123 substations in the urban area by "general practitioners" within this year to improve the reliability of urban power supply.
Dongchao Technology, HKUST iFLYTEK, and Zhongke Brain, these companies all have a common "home"-"China Sound Valley".
The smart products produced here are not limited to medical and industrial use, but also serve personal consumption.
"I want to buy a high-speed rail ticket from Shanghai to Beijing tomorrow." Hold down the voice button of the mouse and speak, and the browser will automatically open the relevant page, allowing you to easily buy the ticket.
Wear a Huami smart watch to measure blood oxygen, heart rate, sleep, and pay offline.
From the lowest level of algorithms and computing power, to application development, to software and hardware for maintaining data and network security, every inconspicuous building in "China Sound Valley" hides one or even several "most Powerful brain" to efficiently serve users who are separated by thousands of rivers and mountains.
As my country's first national industrial base positioned in the field of artificial intelligence, "China Sound Valley" has served power, logistics, medical care, education, public services and other fields, helping artificial intelligence products connect thousands of cities and hundreds of industries and enter thousands of households .
"Great Makers" Drive "Little Makers"
Driven by a leading enterprise to form an industry, and then grow into an ecosystem
Looking back on the development history of "Sound Valley of China", its establishment, germination, and growth are inseparable from a company-iFLYTEK.
It can be said that this is driven by a leading enterprise to form an industry, and then grow into an ecological cluster.
——The "big maker" incubates the "small maker", and the intelligent voice industry takes root.
More than 20 years ago, after graduating from the University of Science and Technology of China, Liu Qingfeng led a dozen young people to found the University of Science and Technology iFlytek, and plunged into the development of voice technology.
With the growth of the company, Liu Qingfeng realized that only by opening up his resources and capabilities, forming an industrial chain and ecological system, can it continue to thrive.
Therefore, in 2010, HKUST IFLYTEK formally established an open voice platform.
The establishment of the platform has ignited the enthusiasm for entrepreneurship among many employees of iFlytek.
"There are many artificial intelligence related technologies such as speech recognition and speech synthesis on the Xunfei platform. I am eager to turn these technologies into products." In 2015, Feng Haihong resigned from Xunfei in the 1980s and founded Mi Mouse Technology in one fell swoop. It has received investment from the old employer, iFlytek, and has grown rapidly all the way.
Up to now, iFLYTEK’s artificial intelligence ecosystem has supported 4,000 companies, 150 platform-incubated companies, and strategic investment in nearly 80 companies.
—— "Leading Goose" attracts "distant customers", and the intelligent voice industry grows stronger.
"We were attracted by iFLYTEK." said Yu Yanxing, general manager of Anhui Shengxun Information Technology Co., Ltd. In 2014, the team he led won the second prize of the "Xunfei Cup" National Intelligent Voice Application Developer Contest. This is an opportunity to enter "China Sound Valley".
Nowadays, hands-free conference shorthand machines, intelligent voice reading lamps for eye-protection and reading, and intelligent voice high-speed cameras that can be scanned directly by shouting "photograph"... Voice information products have been involved in many fields.
There are many entrepreneurs like Yu Yanxing.
Up to now, the iFlytek Open Platform has gathered more than 2.19 million developer teams, opened 434 platform capabilities, and has a total number of applications exceeding 1.15 million.
The intelligent voice industry of "China Voice Valley" has also become a national leader, with an output value accounting for 44.2% of the industry's total output value. Its intelligent voice technology-based smart office, smart education, smart medical and other industry application products have a domestic market share of 70 %.
—— "Yiyejing" is exchanged for "Baiyetong", and intelligent voice opens the door to the intelligent industry.
To accompany the growth of iFLYTEK, the University of Science and Technology of China established the Advanced Technology Research Institute (hereinafter referred to as the Advanced Research Institute) in 2012, focusing on the transformation of innovative achievements and committed to becoming an incubation base for high-tech industries.
Zhongke Brain is an artificial intelligence company that grew up on the basis of the University of Science and Technology of China.
The brain-like intelligence open platform it launched has gathered 180 world-leading engineering algorithms and 150 high-value data sets to lower the threshold for artificial intelligence learning and improve development efficiency.
Liu Haifeng, the chairman of China Science Brain, made a vivid analogy: "The platform is like a kitchen, the basic computing power is the kitchen stove, the massive data is the material, the machine learning algorithm is the seasoning, and the developer is the chef. As long as you enter the kitchen, everything The materials are all complete, and chefs can easily use them, which greatly improves development efficiency."
Expanding from a single intelligent voice industry to the entire field of artificial intelligence, an artificial intelligence innovation ecology has been formed, and the development of "China Voice Valley" is booming.
In the field of consumer goods, Huami Technology’s own-brand smart bracelet shipments rank fourth in the world; in the field of network security, Xin H3C has occupied the number one market share of network management software for four consecutive years; in the field of smart cities, Anhui Aerospace Information The "Smart Taxation" service hall will soon be opened to the public.
Hefei ranks fourth in the country and 47 in the world in the "2020 list of the most innovative cities in the world in artificial intelligence", and has become an important position for innovation in the global artificial intelligence industry.
Strong policy support
Build a platform, set up funds, gather talents, and let cluster enterprises show their vitality
The six founders’ real estates were all mortgaged, but the loans they borrowed were only enough to pay wages; after the real estate was mortgaged, even small loan companies were reluctant to lend.
Who would have thought that this is the dilemma that Huami Technology, a listed company, encountered in 2013.
"Special thanks to the Hefei government department for using credit guarantees to help us obtain several million yuan in bank loans, which solved the urgent needs of the enterprise." said Zhang Xiaojun, vice president of Huami Technology, although the amount of this loan is far less than later. The amount of investment given to Huami by investment institutions, but this time "sending charcoal in the snow" Huami will never forget, "We have grown, but we will not leave Hefei."
The cultivation and growth of advanced manufacturing clusters is inseparable from the formation of "visible hands" and "invisible hands".
During the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, the operating income of "China Sound Valley" will reach 500 billion yuan, and this joint force will be greater, more stable, and more sustainable.
The establishment of funds, the development of the industry ran out of "acceleration."
From the beginning of its establishment, "China Sound Valley" has actively used industrial funds to leverage the development of clusters.
In December 2018, an intelligent voice and artificial intelligence industry development fund with a total scale of 5 billion yuan was formally established to fully support the construction of "China Sound Valley".
At present, the first 1 billion yuan of the Industrial Development Fund has been fully invested, 733 million yuan has been invested, and the second phase of the fund is in preparation.
In addition, "China Sound Valley" and other financial institutions such as China Construction Bank jointly launched "China Sound Valley Credit Loan", so that cluster enterprises can obtain bank loans more conveniently and with higher amounts and reduce financing costs.
As of the end of 2020, the cumulative loan amount of this credit loan has exceeded 1 billion yuan.
"We hope that by building a financial service system in the park, we can better explore projects with growth potential and introduce competitive external projects, so as to comprehensively promote the development of the cluster artificial intelligence industry." Hefei High-tech Zone Shenggu Artificial Intelligence Industry Promotion Center Qi Dongfeng said.
Build a platform to unleash new vitality in industrial development.
For start-up companies, developing markets and manufacturing samples are often difficult problems.
According to Qi Dongfeng, "China Sound Valley" has invested in the construction of a manufacturing center to provide cluster companies with product design, intelligent assembly, 3D proofing, testing and inspection services, and solve the problem of "sending south to north" in enterprise product trial production, and set up offline under the name of cluster Experience stores and online flagship stores open up sales channels for enterprises.
"Starting a business in'Sound Valley', as long as you can think of it, we will help you make it and sell it." Qi Dongfeng said.
Gathering talents, the development of the industry is confident.
In "Sound Valley of China", the founders of many star companies are from the University of Science and Technology of China and the Hefei Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
The Advanced Research Institute of the University of Science and Technology of China has incubated 271 companies and applied for more than 200 patents.
It can be said that colleges and universities are a treasure trove of talents in the "Sound Valley of China".
NavInfo came to Hefei with the word "talent".
"Hefei has a comprehensive talent type structure and abundant talent pool, which is very in line with the company's development strategy. This is the most attractive place." said Song Tiehui, general manager of Hefei NavInfo.
"The development of'China Sound Valley' has reserved multi-faceted, high-quality compound talents for the city. This is a major achievement of the cluster development and the basis for the future development of the cluster." Pan Ruoyu, deputy director of the Hefei Municipal Bureau of Economy and Information Technology, introduced. In order to attract more talents, "China Sound Valley" is also accelerating the construction of innovation platforms.
As of the end of 2020, there have been 16 national technology innovation carriers, 42 national enterprise technology centers, 30 national incubators and crowd-creation spaces, and are actively striving to create a smart voice national manufacturing innovation center.
"Let more college graduates stay in Hefei and attract more software engineers to take root in Hefei, so that the'China Voice Valley' can always be the first to win."
Our reporter Zhu Sixiong Ran Yongping Lu Yanan Li Xinping