On July 5, Zhang Bo, academician of Chinese Academy of Sciences and honorary dean of Artificial Intelligence Research Institute of Tsinghua University, was invited to give the first lecture for“GIFT Distinguished Lecture”with the topic of“The Opportunities and Challenges of AI in the Era of Large Models”.
Zeng Xiaoqin, Dean of Institute of Science and Technology Development of Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU); Lv Baoliang, Executive Dean of Clean Energy Research Institute of SJTU; Yang Lei, Executive Dean of Nanjing Qingzhan Artificial Intelligence Research Institute; Yang Ming, Secretary of the Party Committee of GIFT; Wang Chong, Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee; Xin Hongyi and Qu Xin, Assistants to the Dean of GIFT; representatives of GIFT’s faculty; scholars of GIFT Future Scholar Program, as well as teachers and students from various colleges of SJTU participated in this Lecture.
Dean Zeng Xiaoqin delivered a speech before the start of the lecture. First of all, he expressed warm welcome and heartfelt thanks to Academician Zhang Bo on behalf of the university and introduced recent research of the university in the field of Artificial Intelligence and other cross-disciplines from the perspective of Scientific Research Institute at SJTU. He encouraged the students of GIFT to learn from the spirit of Academician Zhang Bo, dare to take the road not travelled by the predecessor and break into the new field of scientific research, and become the leading talents in the future.
In his talk, Zhang Bo introduced the two main schools of AI, pragmatism and intrinsicism, and retraced the development of the three generations of AI. He stressed that it is necessary to promote the third generation of AI in order to develop safe, controllable, trustworthy, reliable, and scalable AI technology. He pointed out that large model technology, as an important representative of the third generation of AI, makes full use of the four elements of knowledge, data, algorithms and arithmetic power to realize the transformation from data processing to knowledge processing. Through vivid and easy-to-understand cases of ChatGPT, a third-generation chatbot, writing poems, questions and answers, and scripts, Zhang Bo led the audience to analyze the underlying logic of the development and optimization of AI technology, and explored its limitations as well as the ethical issues it may bring.
Afterwards, Yang Ming, on behalf of GIFT, presented a certificate of appreciation to Academician Zhang for his support to GIFT.
Finally, Yang Ming made closing remarks. He said that as a student of Zhang Bo, he was deeply influenced by his mentor, and thus chose to follow in his footsteps, to concentrate on scientific research, and to teach and educate people. Listening to Zhang Bo’s lecture again today, he felt as if he had returned to his student days. He pointed out that the establishment of “GIFT Distinguished Lecture” is aimed at encouraging students to focus on the frontiers of the industry and develop the depth and breadth of knowledge. Zhang Bo’s wonderful lecture made a flying start for this series, and he hoped that students could gain inspiration from it, learn from the master, pay homage to the master, and be firm in their scientific research ambition.
Attending students actively interacted with Professor Zhang Bo during the lecture, which went on smoothly.
