Ask Huawei CEO Ren Zhengfei for his tackle AI in China and the mountain of difficulties dealing with his firm, and also you get shocking solutions.
“I haven’t thought of it,” says Ren, in a Q&A with Chinese language media outlet People’s Daily. “It’s ineffective to consider it.”
In a world obsessive about five-year plans and disaster administration, his recommendation is nearly jarring in its simplicity: “Don’t take into consideration the difficulties. Simply do it and transfer ahead step-by-step.”
This isn’t only a private mantra; it’s the blueprint for a way Huawei is navigating a storm of worldwide sanctions and blockades. It’s a quiet dedication that ripples by way of all his solutions.
When the dialog shifts to Huawei’s superior Ascend AI chips, he’s virtually brutally trustworthy. He doesn’t boast. In actual fact, he believes the hype has gotten forward of actuality.
“America has exaggerated Huawei’s achievements. Huawei is just not that nice but,” he admits, noting that their finest chips are nonetheless a era behind.
So what do you do when you’ll be able to’t purchase the most effective instruments? Based on Ren, you get smarter with those you’ve. He explains that Huawei is leaning on its brilliance in software program and arithmetic to shut the {hardware} hole in AI and past.
“We use arithmetic to make up for physics,” he says, describing a technique of utilizing code and linking chips collectively in highly effective clusters to realize outcomes that may compete with the perfect. Ingenuity born from necessity.
This grounded perspective applies to folks as a lot because it does to merchandise. In an age of relentless company promotion, Ren is cautious of the highlight. “We’re additionally below a whole lot of strain when folks reward us,” he reveals. “We shall be extra sober when folks criticise us.”
He sees criticism of Huawei not as an assault, however as a present from the individuals who truly use their merchandise. It’s an indication of a wholesome relationship. His focus stays unwavering: “Don’t care about reward or criticism, however care about whether or not you are able to do effectively.”
However the actual coronary heart of Ren’s imaginative and prescient, the concept that really animates him, lies in one thing a lot deeper and slower than the subsequent product cycle: primary scientific analysis. He speaks about it with the eagerness of a thinker, arguing it’s the very soul of progress.
“If we don’t do primary analysis, we could have no roots,” he warns. “Even when the leaves are lush and flourishing, they are going to fall down when the wind blows.”
For Huawei, these should not simply poetic phrases. They’re backed by large funding. Out of an annual R&D price range of 180 billion yuan (round $25 billion) a full third of it – 60 billion yuan (~$8.34 billion) – is poured into theoretical analysis. That is cash spent with out the expectation of an instantaneous return, a long-term guess on the facility of human curiosity. It’s an funding in a future that could be a long time away.
Trying towards that future, Ren sees AI as a monumental shift not only for Huawei however for humanity. He believes China is well-positioned for this new period, not simply due to its expertise, however due to its highly effective infrastructure and, most significantly, its folks.
Ren imagines a future the place the actual breakthroughs in AI received’t simply come from programmers in tech giants like Huawei, however from specialists in each subject – medical doctors, engineers, and even miners – utilizing AI to resolve real-world issues.
His optimism is infectious. He remembers an op-ed by New York Occasions columnist Thomas L. Friedman who departed China and printed an article earlier this yr with a title that requires no additional clarification: ‘I Simply Noticed the Future. It Was Not in America.’
Ren Zhengfei appears to be a frontrunner who has discovered a way of calm within the eye of the storm. His focus is just not on the shifting political winds, however on the sluggish, regular work of constructing one thing with deep roots, prepared for regardless of the future holds. Step by affected person step.
(Picture credit score: European Union below CC BY 4.0 license. Picture cropped for impact.)
See additionally: Hugging Face partners with Groq for ultra-fast AI model inference
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