"I don't aim to exploit investors in my classes; my goal is to provide free, informative, and interactive sessions. In the era of AI, rapid technological advancements underscore the importance of widespread AI literacy," remarked Zhou Hongyi, founder of 360, as he kicked off his free class on February 29th. The inaugural session of the AI series, titled "Anticipating AGI," was livestreamed across multiple platforms, attracting millions of viewers. During the class, Zhou systematically shared insights into the latest trends in AI development, offered advice for businesses embracing AI, and showcased two nationally acclaimed internet products, 360 AI Search and 360 AI Browser, which have undergone significant model enhancements. Due to overwhelming user demand and enhanced user experience, site traffic surged by 44 times, prompting the temporary addition of servers to meet the needs of users across the web.
Zhou Hongyi stated that the exponential leap of AI gives a feeling of "living in a year" for people. He mentioned that eight out of ten AI development trends he predicted for 2024 at the end of last year have already been validated, yet the emergence of Sora still came as a surprise. When discussing the innovative nature of Sora, he believed that the significance of Sora-generated videos lies not in their attractiveness but in their realism, indicating Sora's understanding of common sense in the world. Using this as his argument, Zhou Hongyi engaged in a remote exchange of views with the "Sora pixel theorists," demonstrating that Sora has truly comprehended this world. He summarized the multimodal development into five levels, namely object recognition, logical reasoning ability, logical consistency, evaluation and discrimination ability, and possession of common sense, stating that Sora has already attained the ability of the fifth level.
"GPT tackles the challenge of machine-human communication, while Sora addresses the issue of machine-world interaction," Zhou Hongyi believes. He suggests that Sora supplements the shortcomings of artificial general intelligence (AGI) development, likening GPT to the human brain's left hemisphere and Sora to the right hemisphere. According to him, the invention of Sora represents a significant leap forward for AGI. Drawing inspiration from a line in a Stephen Chow movie, he describes Sora as appearing to be a hairdryer but in reality being a razor, cautioning people not to overlook the substantial implications behind Sora's emergence, which could potentially accelerate the arrival of AGI within two to three years. Subsequently, inspired by Sora, he introduces the theory of "Five Stages of AI Development" for the first time, systematically dividing the stages of AI development into Artificial Narrow Intelligence (ANI), Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), Strong Artificial Intelligence (SAI), and Super Artificial Intelligence (SSAI). He emphasizes that the significance of human development of AGI lies firstly in advancing fundamental science and secondly in solving the problem of energy freedom.
As a tech entrepreneur, Zhou Hongyi believes that China needs to embark on a distinctive path of large model development, focusing on three aspects: super general large models, enterprise-level large models, and scenario application. He provides the "Three Don'ts, Two Shoulds" advice for entrepreneurs in the AI field, suggesting that entrepreneurs should enter the enterprise market and engage in deep transformation of applications. Facing the advent of the AI era, Zhou Hongyi puts forward the "Three Core Principles of AI," which include establishing faith in AI, going all-in on AI in action, and measuring with the "AI" factor, guiding 360 to embrace AI across all business lines and implement the three core principles in various business areas such as the internet, security, digitalization, and smart living.
Zhou Hongyi defines 2024 as the first year of large model scenario application. He uses Microsoft and Apple as examples, stating that the first step in going all-in on AI is to reshape traditional products using large models. During a live class, he uses 360 as an example to illustrate cases of product innovation driven by large models, demonstrating two nationally renowned products, 360 AI Search and 360 AI Browser, which have been reshaped by AI. Through the new AI search, users can directly find answers through conversation, while the AI browser has been upgraded to become an efficient tool for work and learning, revolutionizing both functionality and user experience.
