Huawei Cloud executive: AI sovereignty concerns China's survival in the digital world

AI sovereignty has become a buzzword, blending elements of geopolitics, industrial development, and technological competition. It has also become a tool for AI companies to secure more government subsidies and support while building their national brand image. This makes it particularly interesting to hear entrepreneurs in the AI field discuss AI sovereignty.

Compared to American companies, Chinese companies tend to discuss AI sovereignty less frequently. However, at the "Artificial Intelligence Empowering New Productivity Development Forum" during the 2024 World Internet Conference in Wuzhen on November 21, Jacqueline Shi (石冀琳), President of Global Marketing and Sales Services at Huawei Cloud, delivered a keynote speech in which she shared Huawei’s insights and practices on the significance of AI sovereignty for China, the differentiated path of China's AI sovereignty development, and the global AI business ecosystem.

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Co-creating Practical Value for Industries and Advancing into the Era of Comprehensive Intelligence

AI as a Global Focus and National Strategy

Over the past year, AI has remained a global hotspot, evolving from an industrial and sectoral strategy to a national one. Investment in AI and the number of AI startups worldwide have repeatedly hit new highs, with the intelligent economy emerging as a robust engine driving global GDP growth. An increasing number of countries have released AI-related goals and plans.

At the same time, AI has accelerated the interaction and integration of the physical and digital worlds. The rapid development of AI technology is reshaping the boundaries of national sovereignty. AI sovereignty is not just about a nation's politics and economy; it is also concerned with preserving its history, culture, and beliefs, as well as its prosperity and survival in the digital world. Without AI sovereignty, a nation lacks a voice in the digital realm.

China’s Path to AI Sovereignty

As early as 2017, China elevated AI to the level of a national strategy. From AI data centers in various provinces and cities to the national training facilities under construction today, China has consistently cultivated fertile ground for AI development.

In terms of GDP composition, the tertiary sector, including the internet, has become the main engine of China's economic growth. China leads globally in internet penetration, economic scale, and technological advancement. Simultaneously, the secondary sector, dominated by industry, remains a significant part of China’s industrial structure. China boasts the most comprehensive industrial system, the richest industrial scenarios, and the largest volume of industrial data worldwide.

As a dual powerhouse in the internet and traditional industries, China’s AI industry has vast potential and an opportunity to forge a differentiated path. On the one hand, China should increase investment and capabilities in the highly competitive Internet sector, especially in conversational AI and multimedia applications. On the other hand, China must leverage its advantages in industrial scenarios and data to actively develop industrial AI, integrating AI into production systems to drive industrial upgrades and transformation.

Technological Innovations Driving AI Development

Over the past year, China has made consistent progress in foundational technologies, including AI chips, computing architectures, learning frameworks, and core algorithms, contributing to the sustained and healthy development of the AI industry. As a major participant and key force in building China’s AI capabilities, Huawei is actively developing foundational technology capabilities and creating an AI-based technological ecosystem.

Huawei focuses on innovation in foundational technologies such as Kunpeng, Ascend, HarmonyOS, Euler, and CANN. Through Huawei Cloud, the company integrates computing power, models, tools, data, and ecosystems to support diverse applications and offer better choices for the world.

In 2024, Huawei Cloud established three major AI computing power centers in Gui'an, Ulanqab, and Wuhu, providing enterprises with cost-effective AI computing power and a full-chain cloud-based toolset through cloud services. Huawei Cloud also launched the Pangu Model 5.0, achieving new upgrades in general-purpose capabilities, multimodality, and advanced reasoning.

Empowering the Real Economy with AI

In the real economy, Huawei Cloud's Pangu Model focuses on solving challenging problems in industrial scenarios. It reconstructs core business systems in various industries with AI, leading China on a path to industry-oriented AI leadership. Deploying large models in industries is a highly complex systematic project. Each industry-specific large model represents a leap in productivity for that industry. Huawei Cloud looks forward to working with more industry experts and ecosystem partners to empower the real economy with AI and build new productivity across various industries. In the secondary sector, Huawei aims to establish China’s unique differentiated advantages.

The Pangu Model has been deployed in over 30 industries and 400 scenarios, combining with core business systems to maximize AI value:

In the steel industry, the Pangu Steel Model has helped Baosteel predict blast furnace conditions and guide production adjustments, significantly reducing energy consumption per ton of molten iron.

In the high-speed rail industry, Huawei Cloud and its partners developed intelligent inspection robots based on the Pangu High-Speed Rail Model, capable of accurately covering six key workstations and over 350 complex fault scenarios with a 99% accuracy rate, improving inspection quality.

In the energy sector, the Pangu Mining Model addresses fragmented application scenarios in mining with capabilities like on-the-fly learning, zero-sample development, and anomaly detection, enabling Shandong Energy to cover over 1,000 sub-scenarios across seven business systems with a single model. This supports safer, unmanned, and highly efficient mining operations, allowing coal miners to "work in suits and ties."

Huawei Cloud hopes that the Pangu Model will contribute even more to various industries in the future. It also looks forward to seeing more AI application scenarios take root in China, building new productivity across industries.

Building a Global AI Ecosystem

In terms of ecosystem development, Huawei seeks to use cloud as a carrier, integrating foundational technologies such as Kunpeng, Ascend, HarmonyOS, and Euler to build a ubiquitous, leading, and globally shared AI ecosystem that offers better choices for the world. The valuable experiences and achievements of Chinese enterprises in intelligent upgrading can bring unprecedented transformations to industries worldwide, while also providing better support for Chinese companies venturing abroad.

Embracing the Wave of Intelligence

The wave of intelligence is upon us. We are embarking on a grand and pioneering journey. In the wave of AI, we are not just witnesses but active participants and drivers. On the road to intelligence, Huawei hopes to work hand-in-hand with customers and partners to innovate continuously, co-create practical value for industries, and embrace the era of comprehensive intelligence."