Special article for Shanghai Free Trade Zone （FTZ）
Topics: Inside Shanghai FTZ
Original title：Zhangjiang “Dreamers”: This is a stage for innovation and a “blessed place” to realize dreams
Source: China News Service
Written by: Li Shuzhi, Yu Mei
“Biological version of ChatGPT” can “generate” macromolecular drugs with one click and conduct verification experiments; a large sign language model digital human driven by artificial intelligence (AI) becomes a personal interpreter for the hearing-impaired, whether it is assisting with medical treatment or daily life, it They can all do the job; putting on cool-looking “mechanical armor”, paralyzed patients can get out of their beds and go out for activities… These fantastic ideas are gradually becoming reality in the hands of Zhangjiang’s “dreamers”.
Ten years ago, the China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone (hereinafter referred to as the Shanghai Free Trade Zone) was established. Two years later, the 37.2 square kilometers of Zhangjiang High-Tech Park was included in the Free Trade Zone. When the power of scientific and technological innovation is combined with the advantages of free trade, the Zhangjiang area of the Shanghai Free Trade Zone has become an innovation stage and a “blessed place” for countless “dreamers” to realize their dreams.
The emergence of ChatGPT allows ordinary people to feel the “magic” of AI. “Drug research and development is a long and complex process with long cycle, high investment, and high risks. Everyone has been looking for ways to speed up and increase efficiency.” Wang Mingtai, vice president of Jingtai Technology, told China News Service reporters that whether AI can be used “one “Key to making drugs” is a question that practitioners in the biomedical industry have been exploring.
According to Wang Mingtai, relying on current technology, AI can predict and design molecules, but in order to truly become a drug, lengthy verification experiments are needed. “These experimental steps are cumbersome and the rules are detailed. If only traditional methods are used, a large number of R&D personnel’s time and energy will be spent on some simple and repetitive basic work.” Wang Mingtai said, therefore, Jingtai Technology proposed “intelligent computing, automation The trinity of innovative ideas of “experimentation and expert experience” has built China’s largest “dry and wet integration” intelligent automated drug research and development team.
In the Jingtai Technology Drug Innovation and R&D Center, you can see this scene: in each independent automated robot workstation, the robotic arms move back and forth, left and right, and are synthesizing and manufacturing molecules designed and generated by AI. They are like tireless assistants, helping scientific researchers to accelerate the acquisition of “tomorrow’s stars” among ideal drug molecules.
“Zhangjiang is a highland for innovation and a stage for self-expression.” In Wang Mingtai’s view, Jingtai Technology’s rapid growth is inseparable from Zhangjiang’s industrial advantages. “Whether it is a top multinational pharmaceutical company or a start-up company in the biomedical industry, they are all gathered in the Zhangjiang area.” Wang Mingtai said that at the same time, as an artificial intelligence-driven biopharmaceutical company, upstream and downstream partners are all in Zhangjiang. If you can find people, meet them, and talk to them, “only in this way can you create more sparks of innovation.”
“Pudong New Area actively promotes the development of the artificial intelligence industry around basic support, technological innovation, and forward-looking layout,” according to Xia Yuzhong, deputy director of the Science and Technology and Economic Committee of Shanghai Pudong New Area. By the end of 2022, there will be more than 600 key artificial intelligence enterprises in Pudong. , the scale of artificial intelligence enterprises above designated size exceeds 120 billion yuan, and Pudong’s artificial intelligence industry is showing a trend of agglomeration and leading development.
“Zhangjiang is our ‘blessed place’.” Zhang Chaohua, CEO of Dijing Digital, lamented.
In his opinion, for the Metaverse industry where Duijing Digital is located, Zhangjiang has gathered a complete industrial layout from front-end to terminal; on the other hand, the officials here attach great importance to opening up and cultivating the industrial ecology. “For example, the Yuanverse Industry Alliance established by Zhangjiang last year can allow companies at different positions in the industry chain to jointly explore cutting-edge topics in the Yuanverse and help companies overcome pain points and difficulties in the industry chain,” Zhang Chaohua said.
Zhang Chaohua said that a series of policies piloted in the Zhangjiang area of the Shanghai Free Trade Zone have not only allowed start-ups like Dijing Digital to reap dividends in areas such as intellectual property protection, tax incentives, and talent introduction; more importantly, this “experimental field” “It also provides scientific and technological enterprises with opportunities to explore and transform high technologies into business scenarios.
The digital twin city in the 4.1-square-kilometer core area of Zhangjiang is a project implemented by Duijing Digital based on the self-developed digital twin base system. Based on a real-time rendering engine, the digital twin city summarizes massive data of “people, places, things, objects, and emotions” and can realize functions such as immersive 3D navigation and regional traffic flow simulation. According to Zhang Chaohua, this digital twin base system has now gone out of Zhangjiang and entered the urban operation center platform of multiple districts in Shanghai.
By opening up the “industry-university-research-application” chain, Zhangjiang has pressed the “accelerator button” for the transformation of innovative achievements. According to Zhang Chaohua, the cooperation between Dijing Digital and Shanghai University of Science and Technology will soon produce another “remarkable result” – a large model digital human in sign language.
The main way for hearing-impaired people to obtain information is through vision, and the way of self-expression is sign language. When hearing-impaired people go to the hospital for treatment, they need volunteers to accompany them from pre-diagnosis to registration, consultation, examination, payment, and dispensing of medicines. “Each volunteer can only serve 8 to 10 deaf-mute people a day. And there are only 28 such volunteers in Shanghai.” Zhang Chaohua said.
“The artificial intelligence large language model we jointly developed with the Shanghai University of Science and Technology first collects the sign language and mouth movements of deaf-mute people, and then cleans and trains the multi-modal data to achieve a basic sign language model.” Zhang Chaohua introduced , in the future, this “Sign Language ChatGPT” refined from a large model will be able to realize automatic recognition and conversion between sign language, speech and text. “I hope that with the help of technology, hearing-impaired people can see a doctor, handle various businesses smoothly, and integrate into social life as smoothly as able-bodied people,” Zhang Chaohua said.
Wearing “mechanical armor” can “recover” the lost functions of the body. This is the dream of Gu Jie, the founder of Shanghai Fourier Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd. Zhangjiang is Gu Jie’s choice as the “place to realize his dream.”
In 2015, Shanghai’s first rehabilitation robot startup, named after the French mathematician Fourier, was founded in Zhangjiang, aiming to bring the “rehabilitation magic” of “robots” to disabled people or the elderly with limited mobility.
“We found an incubator in Zhangjiang, which provided us with a very convenient physical space. My entrepreneurial partners and I can focus all our energy on breaking through core technologies.” Gu Jie said, whether it is government-guided funds or investors’ Venture capital, “In Zhangjiang, it is not difficult to find funds for good projects.”
Zhangjiang Robot Valley, where Fourier Intelligence is currently located, is one of the first batch of characteristic industrial parks in Shanghai and is also a concentrated area for the “intelligent manufacturing” hard-core industry. Many intelligent robot partners in the park, including leading robotics companies such as ABB, innovative companies, and innovative institutions, are both good neighbors and good partners.
The left hand is real financial and policy support, and the right hand is like-minded industrial partners. “We have found the most suitable industrial innovation ecosystem for growth in Zhangjiang,” Gu Jie said.
In the eight years since it took root in Zhangjiang, in the hot land of the Free Trade Zone, Fourier Intelligence has completed its transformation from a “dreamer” to a unicorn enterprise. Up to now, the company has more than 30 products on the market, exported to more than 40 countries and regions around the world, and settled in more than 2,000 hospitals and institutions. (Enditem)
