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Summary:Turing Institute "hatches seedlings" and "grows big trees"

"Now it seems that Mr. Yao did not fool me, and of course, I did not fool Mr. Yao." Li Qiang, CEO of Turing Artificial Intelligence Research Institute, laughed out loud.

The Mr. Yao mentioned by Li Qiang is the only Chinese Turing Award winner, Yao Qizhi, the dean of the Institute for Cross-Disciplinary Information Sciences at Tsinghua University. He is the professional manager appointed by Yao Qizhi to run the Turing Artificial Intelligence Research Institute (hereinafter referred to as "Turing Institute") led by him.

Sitting in the office of Turing Institute of Artificial Intelligence, Li Qiang often thinks of an interview he had in Yao Qizhi's office in Tsinghua University many years ago.

That was the first time Li Qiang met this prestigious academician. He was nervous. Although he had been exposed to the field of intelligence at Huawei and the driverless car company, he was not a computer science major after all. Before talking with Yao Qizhi, Li Qiang thought that he would examine his basic knowledge of artificial intelligence, his understanding of industrial logic and industrial experience, so he made preparations in advance. Unexpectedly, "Mr. Yao didn't talk about these things at all."

During that hour, Li Qiang felt strongly that Yao Qizhi was more concerned about whether he was interested in artificial intelligence and Turing Institute, and whether he could regard running Turing Institute as an important matter, rather than just being able to contact top scientists and live a stable life with Tsinghua University. "I spoke very frankly," Li Qiang recalled, "I said that artificial intelligence is a major trend in the future. It is unrealistic to turn back time and go back to 20 years ago and not choose to study communications information and re-learn artificial intelligence, but Turing Institute gave me the opportunity to start over. I am very interested and want to enter this industry and get in touch with the forefront."

Li Qiang, CEO of Turing Institute of Artificial Intelligence, photo provided by the interviewee.

Perhaps it was Li Qiang's straightforwardness that moved Yao Qizhi. That day, Yao Qizhi also talked a lot about his positioning and expectations for the Turing Institute. "Since I have done it, I have no choice but to do it well." Yao Qizhi's words gave Li Qiang great encouragement. To be honest, he was also hesitant before: if the Turing Institute was just Mr. Yao's temporary interest, or a short-term cooperation with the government, it would definitely not be easy to develop in the future.

It was this meeting that put both parties at ease. Now, six years have passed, and Li Qiang said with a smile, "No one has let anyone down."

Turing Institute

Not long ago, General Secretary Xi Jinping wrote back to Academician Yao Qizhi, expressing his sincere greetings and earnest hopes. When the news reached Turing Artificial Intelligence Research Institute, everyone was very excited because it was also an affirmation and encouragement to all scientific and technological workers.

Yao Qizhi taught at American universities for a long time, and returned to China to teach at Tsinghua University in 2004. In 2005, Yao Qizhi organized the "Yao Class", which trained a group of almost top computer undergraduates in China; in 2010, he took the lead in establishing the Institute for Cross-Disciplinary Information Sciences of Tsinghua University (abbreviated as "Cross-Disciplinary Institute"), hoping to promote the development of information science and other disciplines, especially the cross-integration of physics, mathematics and other disciplines.

In 2018, Yao Qizhi was considering setting up an artificial intelligence research institute to further promote the transformation and industrialization of scientific and technological achievements in the field of artificial intelligence. During this period, Beijing, Wuhan, Xi'an and other places had invited him. In the end, the only artificial intelligence research institute named "Turing" in China was located in Nanjing, located in the "Smart Valley" in Qixia District, Nanjing. Today, there are a large number of artificial intelligence companies gathered here, making it one of the artificial intelligence industry bases with the highest concentration, strongest innovation momentum and best comprehensive supporting facilities in Jiangsu Province.

As the capital of Jiangsu Province, Nanjing is occasionally teased for its "lack of presence". But what Li Qiang sees is that Nanjing has always been known for its science and education, with many institutions of higher learning. Moreover, Nanjing has made significant efforts in science and innovation in recent years. In 2017, Nanjing put forward the slogan of building a "famous city of innovation". The following year, it fully launched the cultivation of "new R&D institutions" and introduced hundreds of "new research" enterprises. "The development of artificial intelligence does not require a long manufacturing production line or proximity to the raw material supply base. Talent is the most important thing." Li Qiang believes that Nanjing is not bad in this regard.

In order to drive the city's development towards innovative industries, Nanjing has made great efforts in policy support. When Turing Institute was first established, the Qixia District Government set up a special team - the "Turing Service Team" to help the institute solve various problems encountered in the early stage of implementation. It also provided a five-year rent-free carrier and targeted support funds, and achieved in-depth cooperation in the form of equity investment.

Interior view of Turing Institute, photo provided by the interviewee.

In April 2018, after the Turing Institute was established, Yao Qizhi hoped to find a professional manager to help him take the helm. At this time, Tsinghua alumnus Li Qiang came into his sight through recommendation.

Li Qiang received his bachelor's and master's degrees from Peking University, and his doctorate from the Department of Electronics at Tsinghua University. He joined Motorola, a very popular communications manufacturer at the time, right after graduation, and later worked at Huawei for nearly 10 years, first as a research and development engineer and management, and later as a front-line marketer. Having accumulated sufficient management experience at Huawei, and coincidentally with the boom in the field of artificial intelligence for autonomous driving, Li Qiang chose to join one of the promising startups. It was during this period that he came into close contact with a lot of content related to the field of artificial intelligence.

It was not until a senior from Tsinghua University found him and asked if he would like to come to the Turing Institute founded by Mr. Yao Qizhi that the interview in Yao Qizhi's office took place.

What does the CEO of Turing Institute do? “We are committed to helping these scientists who are ‘best at research and most afraid of trivial matters’ move scientific and technological achievements from the ‘bookshelf’ to the ‘store shelf’.” Li Qiang summarized it in one sentence.

Incubator

The last time Li Qiang saw Yao Qizhi was in late June, when the Turing Institute held its 6th anniversary celebration and Yao Qizhi specially went to Nanjing to attend the ceremony.

Li Qiang did not see Yao Qizhi very often in a year. At the celebration, Yao Qizhi and Li Qiang talked about the future planning of Turing Institute. Yao Qizhi was quite satisfied with the current operation of Turing Institute and commented that it "did a solid job in industrial transformation".

According to Li Qiang, Turing Institute has mainly done two things since its establishment: one is to set up its own scientific research team; the other is to serve as an incubator to provide support for start-ups in the field of artificial intelligence.

From the resources of Tsinghua Fork Hospital, Turing Institute has discovered many high-quality projects and helped them connect technology, market and funds, and soon incubated a number of vertical AI companies. For example, Suikun Intelligence, founded by Zeng Jianyang, a former professor of Fork Hospital and current professor of West Lake University, was established under the incubation of Turing Institute. It is an AI+ innovative biomedical research and development platform company that uses artificial intelligence algorithms to discover disease targets and improve the efficiency of new drug screening; Turing Deep Vision, founded by Tang Pingzhong, a professor of Tsinghua Yao Class, is an AI identification company that has developed its own AI neural network and data generation algorithm to provide efficient identification solutions for B-end platforms and C-end users. At present, the company has established cooperation with many platforms such as Xianyu, Douyin e-commerce, JD Auction, and China Inspection, and is equipped with AI identification and valuation services.

In 6 years, Turing Institute has incubated and invested in more than 60 companies, with nearly 30 of them in Qixia alone.

But not without its tough moments.

In an interview, Li Qiang once shared his own mental journey. When Turing Institute was first launched, he was extremely ambitious. He believed that relying on the scientific and educational resources of Tsinghua University, high-end talents, and the industrial foundation of Nanjing City including Qixia District, the innovation speed of AI-enabled industries should soon see qualitative changes, and the results will soon bear fruit in thousands of industries. Later, he found that this idea was too idealistic. Over the years, Li Qiang gradually realized that starting a business is a "hard work".

Three years ago, Turing Institute encountered a development bottleneck. According to Li Qiang, the internal incubation mechanism had not yet taken shape, the technical team had just been established, and there was a lack of the ability to attract and deliver large-scale horizontal projects. "On the one hand, it was like waiting for projects but not being able to get them, and on the other hand, when delivery or technical service projects came to us, our own scientific research team was not capable enough to support them."

Fortunately, Yao Qizhi's support for Turing Institute remains the same as before. "Mr. Yao has not slackened off. He has always maintained close communication with Nanjing and attached importance to the development of our Turing Institute." At the same time, Li Qiang also paid more attention to the cultivation of the scientific research team of Turing Institute itself. As the team's scientific research capabilities become more mature, many small teams in vertical fields have been subdivided. Now Turing Institute can receive horizontal projects worth tens of millions of yuan every year, so that the institute itself has the ability to generate its own blood.

At the same time, the development of big models has also brought new opportunities to the artificial intelligence industry. Good projects continue to emerge, and some projects that were originally bottlenecked have also turned around. Li Qiang gave an example, saying that in the past, they incubated an AI medical company that specialized in medical image recognition, but it was very vertical and could only recognize the images of cancer cells in a specific organ of the human body. It was difficult to transfer the recognition ability to other organs, but after the introduction of big models, the company had greater room for development. "Before the emergence of big models, many companies in vertical fields spent a long time training a model that could only do one thing, and eventually found that its market space was very limited, and switching to another track would have to start all over again. But the emergence of big models has changed the logic of entrepreneurship in this track." Li Qiang said.

When evaluating many projects in the early years, Li Qiang also admitted that he had anticipated that some overly vertical projects would have low ceilings, but he firmly believed that there would be opportunities to change this logic in the future, and now the big model is this opportunity. "In the small track, those small companies that can't eat enough and can't starve to death can now eat up the entire long tail and have the opportunity to become a big company," he said.

Ecosphere

On a nice afternoon, a tent was set up on the grass of the Zidong Ecological Conference Center near Turing Institute. The table was filled with fruits and tea. The visitors were chatting enthusiastically. They were all entrepreneurs from start-ups in the field of artificial intelligence.

Sitting not far from Li Qiang was a young man, who was wearing a dark Polo shirt like Li Qiang, and was full of energy and talked eloquently. This was Zhou Rui, who was still a doctoral student at MIT and one of the third inhabitants of the Turing Entrepreneur-in-Residence (EIR) base established by the Turing Institute.

Turing Institute afternoon tea, Zhou Rui (second from left), Li Qiang (fifth from left), photo provided by the interviewees.

As the field of artificial intelligence becomes more and more popular, there are more choices of incubation platforms for start-ups. How to lock in young artificial intelligence talents who are still in school earlier and provide them with all kinds of support in entrepreneurship? Li Qiang launched the Turing Entrepreneur-in-Residence (EIR) Base.

Zhou Rui studied for his undergraduate degree at the University of California, Berkeley. In 2020, during his sophomore year, he started his own company, Xiongxing Technology, which mainly focuses on AI education and provides programming courses for primary and secondary school students. However, Zhou Rui hopes to further expand the scope of business development and work on projects related to intelligent manufacturing.

Last summer, Zhou Rui participated in the "Outstanding Students from Famous Overseas Universities Visit Jiangsu" event organized by the Jiangsu Western Returned Scholars Association. Including him, more than 30 doctors and postdoctoral fellows from the top 30 overseas universities were invited to various cities in Jiangsu for industrial inspections.

During his visit to Nanjing, Zhou Rui visited Turing Institute and was deeply impressed. In the roadshow supporting the event, he presented his smart manufacturing project plan. After the event, the relevant person in charge of Turing Institute took the initiative to find Zhou Rui and asked him if he was interested in cooperating with Turing Institute.

Afterwards, Zhou Rui met Li Qiang in the office of Turing Institute. "A down-to-earth and innovative senior", this is Zhou Rui's evaluation of Li Qiang. The interview benefited the young man a lot. Zhou Rui finally decided to join Turing Entrepreneur-in-Residence (EIR) Base.

"In fact, I have also visited entrepreneurial parks in other cities, but Turing Institute has more experience, resources and brand effect in the field of artificial intelligence." Zhou Rui admitted that he is handy in AI education, but he is not familiar enough with the smart manufacturing market. After cooperating with Turing Institute, the other party not only integrated the adapted technology into the project, but also connected with many customer resources in related fields. At present, Zhou Rui has contacted many automobile companies in the Yangtze River Delta. The main direction in the future is to reduce costs and increase efficiency for automobile companies through artificial intelligence, such as adjusting production line parameters, real-time quality inspection, and applying AI functions to product design.

The other two selected for the third EIR base with Zhou Rui are students of Tsinghua University's Fork Institute. "They are working on AI governance, such as how to ensure that AI does not produce hallucinations or do evil. This aspect is actually quite important, but now everyone doesn't pay much attention to it, and everyone wants to improve their capabilities first." Li Qiang said. He discussed this topic with Academician Yao Qizhi, "Mr. Yao said that this should be a very important industrial direction in the process of this generation of so-called general artificial intelligence, and I think it makes sense."

In the past few years at the helm of Turing Institute, Li Qiang has made new observations on the artificial intelligence industry. He noticed that when AlphaGo appeared, although everyone was amazed, most people were just spectators and could not experience it, and could only read the news; but now, everyone can use big models and feel the changes that AI has brought to the world. "I have come into contact with many government officials and business leaders who are using big models themselves. After they have a clearer understanding of artificial intelligence, it will be of great benefit to our industry, and they will be more willing to support the development of this industry." Li Qiang said.

From the perspective of entrepreneurship, the last wave of AI entrepreneurship was almost 10 years ago. In 2015, SenseTime, Megvii, CloudWalk, and Yitu Technology, known as China's "Four Little Dragons of AI", emerged. They were dominated by CV computer vision technology. After that, face recognition, smart cities, smart driving and other high-ceiling and highly sought-after tracks were also divided up by giants. This means that there are fewer opportunities for start-ups in the field of artificial intelligence. "Now AI is no longer the era when you can do it by sitting in an office and typing on the keyboard. You have to find ways to get closer to the industry. The experts we incubated to do smart agricultural enterprises are still in the greenhouse in Inner Mongolia." Li Qiang's tone was full of emotion.

Not long ago, Turing Institute and Nanjing Qixia District Government signed the second phase of the cooperation agreement. Compared with the first phase of the agreement, which focused more on scientific research, this time there are more industrialization-oriented indicators, such as how big the incubated enterprise can develop in the future, and whether it can grow into a unicorn enterprise.

"Now is indeed the time to reap the real rewards in the market. If before we were 'hatching seedlings', now we should be 'nurturing big trees', which is also in line with Mr. Yao's expectations for Turing Academy." Li Qiang said.