AI, Robocar, Smart products: 4 key announcements at Baidu World 2021

Baidu World 2021 provided an opportunity to showcase Baidu’s vision of how artificial intelligence (AI) would impact, enhance, and improve people’s lives around the world – from better transportation to smarter homes to intelligent industrial applications.

As it continues to innovate for the future, Baidu strives to make AI solutions more accessible, smarter, and efficient, as well as encourage the adoption of AI technologies across the spectrum.

Baidu’s purpose is to use technology to simplify Baidu APP’s AI-powered search — Baidu showed onstage how AI technology powers speech recognition search on its Baidu APP, which has 580 million monthly active users.

Despite the length of the query or the blending of Chinese and English language and dialects, the application gave results with 98 percent accuracy, according to the presentation.

Baidu Co-founder and CEO Robin Li explained how Baidu is doing this with AI, “Artificial intelligence (AI) is a blend of technology and emotion. The benefit of technology is that everyone can sense the changes it causes.”

The following are some of the key highlights from the event that exhibited transforming experiences as a result of AI:

• Baidu APP’s AI-powered search: Baidu showed onstage how AI technology powers speech recognition search on its Baidu APP, which has 580 million monthly active users. Despite the length of the query or the blending of Chinese and English language and dialects, the application gave results with 98 percent accuracy, according to the presentation.
• Upgrading industries with AI technology: According to Baidu’s Q2 2021 Earnings Report, Baidu AI Cloud has had remarkable growth, gaining 71 percent year over year. Baidu’s capacity to build and implement more efficient solutions across a range of industries, including manufacturing, energy, and city administration, is one reason for this. Baidu showcased initiatives with partners from all throughout China at Baidu World, including Quanzhou Water Utility Brain, Suzhou Industrial Park, and Lijiang City Brain.
• CEO Robin Li revealed his vision for future mobility: a robocar. This robocar, which will be capable of L5 autonomous driving, will behave more like an intelligent robot: it will move, communicate, and learn. Along with the robocar, Baidu unveiled the Luobo Kuaipao robotaxi mobile platform, which aims to monetize autonomous driving by making hailed autonomous vehicles available to a wider audience. These developments show how the Baidu Apollo intelligent driving initiative is moving from technical verification to large-scale operation, paving the road for the era of autonomous driving 2.0.
• Xiaodu’s new smart products: As smart TVs become more prevalent in today’s households, Xiaodu announced its first smart TV, the Xiaodu Smart UHD TV V86, which features an 86-inch 4K ultra-HD screen, AI-powered voice control, and gesture recognition to provide users with an upgraded smart TV experience. Xiaodu also unveiled the TIANTIAN Rotating Smart Display T8, as well as the Xiaodu Active Noise Cancelling Intelligent Headphones Pro, the company’s first active noise-cancelling headset, and the Xiaodu Intelligent Dictionary Pen.

Baidu World 2021 demonstrated the importance of autonomous mobility to the Chinese Internet behemoth. The business, which owns China’s most popular search engine, has invested heavily in next-generation transportation, most notably through its Apollo self-driving car initiative.

The author is Tanisha Gupta.