Huawei Builds a Smart Future with AI Prowess

5G marks a new era in human history. Its high speed, large capacity, and low latency will revolutionize communication, boost efficiency, and reduce costs across the board. 5G is the key to a more intelligent and better society.

But we are still far from realizing the full potential of 5G. Network construction alone is not enough. It will take a comprehensively developed ecosystem with full computing and storage capabilities to fully capitalize on 5G. The power of 5G, artificial intelligence, and big data will remain untapped until we meet these basic requirements.

Internet and high-speed networks suffice to meet the needs of today, but the world of tomorrow will require a network with mobile connectivity, intelligent perception, big data, and intelligent learning. Powerful computing and storage are vital components in creating this new network.

Huawei has established itself in the communications industry as one of the world’s leading telecom device and solution providers. It is also one of the world’s largest software companies. Huawei is combining both of these strengths to create the world’s most powerful computing ecosystem.

Huawei webcasted the Huawei Developer Conference 2020 (Cloud) in Shenzhen from March 27–28, 2020, showcasing its rapidly growing computing ecosystem and its strategy as a global leader of ICT enterprises.

AI will transform the future

Huawei looks to build on its strong presence across the communications industry with AI development. The powerful computing, storage, and communications of Huawei require an anchor point to take services and applications further. Pervasive AI is that anchor point. AI can be built into systems, chips, and even the application layer. It can also be deployed into the bottom layer to expand the boundaries of performance even further.

AI will become integral to every facet of society. It is already used for smart city projects, the Industrial Internet, and smart applications for manufacturing, electric power, finance, healthcare, logistics, agriculture, and housing. All data analysis and learning that originally required human oversight can now be accomplished through the power of AI. AI offers unlimited power to improve technology.

Huawei is laying the groundwork today for the AI of tomorrow. The foundation it is setting will support both AI growth and Huawei’s transformation into a leader of the AI industry.

AI will Improve computer vision

Continuous innovation drives technology forward. Computing ecosystems exemplify this idea. Innovative AI requires an innovative mindset.

Dr. Tian Qi, the chief scientist of computer vision at Huawei, unveiled the Huawei Computer Vision Plan at HDC.Cloud.

“Huawei will continue extensive investment in basic research and tackle three fundamental obstacles which stand in the way of efficient data mining, visual recognition model designing, and data representation and storage. Overcoming these obstacles will drive general intelligence,” Dr. Tian said.

The Vision Plan incorporates six sub-plans:

 Data Iceberg: A small amount of annotated data will tap the potential of mass unannotated data and support model training in small sample scenarios.

 Data Magic Cube: Multi-modal quantification, alignment, and fusion strategies will enhance the learning capability of models in practical scenarios.

 Model High Touching: Large models on the cloud will allow exploration of the performance limits of various vision tasks.

 Mode Slimming: Efficient computing models on the device side will help various chips complete complex inference.

 Generic Vision: Vision pre-training tasks will build generalized vision models.

 V-R Integration: Direct computer vision will create real artificial intelligence.

Dr. Tian extended Huawei’s invitation to global AI researchers to join the Vision Plan for collaborative innovation and exploration of the future. The powerful computing platform of Huawei Atlas AI will further accelerate the Vision Plan. Atlas research results will be fully implemented on the AI computing framework of Huawei’s all-scenario MindSpore and open to every AI developer in the industry.

The Vision Plan has a universal appeal to AI developers because it creates practical value with the most cutting-edge technology in the industry.

The Vision Plan represents an important breakthrough for Huawei AI. 5G, smart transportation, and smart cities will all require computer vision. The total number of cameras in China is expected to exceed 3 billion by 2030. Computer vision will be the only way to analyze their collected data. AI is integral to this new technology and a future where reactions and services are instinctive to machines.

Open source software will advance the AI industry

Computer vision is not Huawei’s only objective in the AI industry. An equally important goal is to use open source suites to promote AI software and hardware.

Dr. Chen Lei is the chief scientist of Huawei MindSpore and an IEEE Fellow. He recently announced that the AI computing framework of Huawei’s all-scenario MindSpore will go open source on Gitee. This is a key component of Huawei’s global plan for an open source community to create a thriving ecosystem for AI software and hardware.

MindSpore natively adapts to each scenario (including device, edge, and cloud scenarios) and supports collaboration on demand. It enables AI Algorithm As Code for user-friendly development to significantly reduce model development time and thresholds. MindSpore includes cutting-edge technologies and co-optimization with Huawei Ascend’s AI processors to streamline run-time and computing performance. MindSpore also supports other processors like GPU and CPU.

HUAWEI CLOUD has released ModelArts Pro for industry AI developers. It is the industry’s first development suite for enterprise-grade AI applications. ModelArts Pro is positioned as an AI productivity tool for enterprises on the cloud and innovatively creates practical benefits from industry AI. It provides AI application developers with creative freedom by combining the expertise of the leading authorities on algorithms and the industry into corresponding suites and workflows. This unique approach boosts overall AI development efficiency and implementation.

Huawei has implemented the Atlas series accelerator module, card, edge station, and server powered by Huawei Ascend AI processors through widespread collaboration in dozens of industries. These industries include smart transportation, power, finance, cities, and manufacturing. The Atlas series enriches the Huawei AI ecosystem and supports developers in customizing operators.

Now Huawei is building a powerful computing ecosystem. This new ecosystem offers an efficiently comprehensive system for architecture, chips, storage, development suites, and applications. This platform will enable Huawei and its partners to leverage knowledge across industries and society to form a powerful ecosystem.

To learn more about Atlas, please click here.