The 4th World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) was held from July 8 to 10, 2021. Themed "Intelligent Connectivity, Inspirational Cities", WAIC 2021 reflected the trend of globalization of AI technology, industry, and application. The main conference “Frontiers of Science Plenary” was jointly organized by the Global Artificial Intelligence Academic Alliance (GAIAA) and Shanghai Artificial Intelligence Laboratory brought together top scientists and university presidents in AI and related crossover fields from home and abroad to give keynote speeches and exchange their ideas Moreover, some open-source platforms were also launched on the forum. The plenary session mainly consisted of the following 6 parts.

Online Signing Ceremony: HKU and HKUST Joined GAIAA

The past three years have witnessed the steady progress of the Global Artificial Intelligence Academic Alliance (GAIAA). In the plenary session this year, the University of Hong Kong and the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology joined GAIAA. President Lin Zhongqin of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, a representative of the founding members of the alliance, welcomed the representatives of the two new members­­­—President Zhang Xiang of the University of Hong Kong and President Shi Wei of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. They signed an agreement online marking HKU and HKUST’s joining GAIAA.

(Online signing ceremony)

Dialogues between Principals: Cultivation of Innovative AI Talents

In this session, presidents of various schools, including Chen Jie, the president of Tongji University and an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, Bao Xinhe, the president of the University of Science and Technology of China and an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xu Ningsheng, the president of Fudan University and an academician of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lin Zhongqin, the president of Shanghai Jiao Tong University and an academician of Chinese Academy of Engineering, Duan Chongzhi, the president of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and Lan Qinyang, the vice president of Nanyang Technological University, discussed the topic of the “cultivation of innovative AI talents”, exchanging their views on the talent structure of AI innovation, multi-disciplinary construction of AI, and so on.

（Dialogue between principals）

Frontiers of Science 1

Gong Ke, president of the World Federation of Engineering Organizations, gave an in-depth analysis of the development of AI so far, especially in breaking through the three bottlenecks of data, efficiency, and interpretability. Besides that, he also expressed his hope that AI technology can serve the public interest and benefit humanity. Prof. E Weinan, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said that with AI, scientific research will be transformed from the model of a "small-scale peasant economy" to the model of "Android", and that the traditional scientific research field is becoming the main battlefield of AI.

（Gong Ke: Observation on AI Development—Making Great Progress While Awaiting Further Breakthrough）

（E Weinan: AI for Science）

Release Ceremony

Shanghai Artificial Intelligence Laboratory has released OpenXLab, an open-source platform system, with the debut lineup including two open-source platforms: the new generation OpenMMLab and the newly released OpenDILab. As the most influential open-source algorithm platform in the field of computer vision in the deep learning era, the upgraded OpenMMLab covers a wider range of algorithms and application scenarios, realizing the value of the whole chain from training to deployment. OpenDILab is the first international decision intelligence platform covering a wide range of academic and industrial needs, which will strongly promote the leap of artificial intelligence from perceptual recognition to cognitive decision-making.

Qiao Yu, director of the Science and Technology Development Department of Shanghai AI Laboratory, Lin Dahua, professor of Shanghai AI Laboratory, as well as Chen Kai and Liu Yu, two research scientists of Shanghai AI Laboratory released OpenXlab together.

Frontiers of Science 2

The integration process of biomedicine and AI is accelerating. Professor Michael Levitt, Nobel Laureate in Chemistry, delivered a keynote speech entitled Protein Folding, Structure Prediction & Biomedicine. Protein folding and protein structure have great significance in biological research, and as the accuracy of AI prediction of protein folding continues to improve, biological intelligence will trigger significant changes.

（Michael Levitt: Protein Folding, Structure Prediction & Biomedicine）

How to use artificial intelligence to face the complex life system? Zhao Guoping, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences said: “As the medical research system evolves from image restoration to systems theory, the life sciences also move from experimental science to theoretical science. And the use of a large amount of data in recent years has triggered computational biology.” He pointed out that to realize the full potential of AI, we should not only combine data from research in systems biomedicine, translational medicine, and precision medicine and those from biomass, genetics, and cell biology also build an AI knowledge graph.

(Zhao Guoping: Big Data in Biomedicine and Artificial Intelligence)

The application of artificial intelligence in healthcare continues to progress, and the pharmaceutical and technology industries have continued to expand their investment in the AI market since the outbreak of COVID-19. Wang Lei, Executive Vice President of AstraZeneca, delivered a keynote speech titled “AI + Healthcare, Leading New Trends in Digital Healthcare”. He saysAI has been applied throughout AstraZeneca's new drug development and patient disease management (integrated case management) so far.

(Wang Lei： AI + Healthcare, Leading New Trends in Digital Healthcare)

Dialogues Between Pioneers: Artificial Intelligence and the Well-being of Mankind

In this session, professors from various schools, including Zhang Chengqi, Vice President of the University of Technology Sydney, Yang Qiang, a Chair Professor of Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and Chief AI Officer at WeBank, Professor Wu Feng, Director of Department of Information and Intelligence from University of Science and Technology of China, and Tao Dacheng, a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science (FAA) discussed concerning topics,such as human well-being and AI governance from the perspectives of industry, agriculture, environment, pollution, and resources.