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Economic Observer reporter Zhang Ling "Being overvalued in the short term and undervalued in the long term is the fate of technological changes, including AI big models." On July 19, at the Baidu Health Industry Ecosystem Conference, He Mingke, senior vice president of Baidu Group and president of Baidu's Big Health Business Group, said in an interview with Economic Observer.

He Mingke remembers that in November 2022, when OpenAI launched GPT3.5, Baidu just acquired the medical intelligence data company GBI, and then Baidu launched the Wenxin Big Model in March 2023. At that time, Baidu's Big Health Business Group believed that GBI could be grafted onto the Wenxin Big Model, so it quickly launched a product, but the initial launch effect was not good, and customers were not willing to pay. After reviewing the situation, the team found that it was because the product was very low in accuracy and technical maturity.

When asked about his views and responses to external doubts, He Mingke said that he divided AI big model research into two levels. The first level is basic research and technology at the grassroots level, and the second level is application. He believes that no one doubts the Chinese people's innovation ability, volume ability and engineering ability in application. The current discussion is whether the Chinese people have the ability to innovate in the first level. "I think the application scenario is very important. China is a large market with 1.4 billion people. Everyone will create countless applications, and applications will force innovation."

In the following year, Baidu's Big Health Group launched five big model application products, including AI health assistant for ordinary users, online medical Copilot for doctors and patients, AI smart clinic for hospitals, CDSS+LLM, a privatized big model product, and Lingyi open platform products for enterprises. He Mingke said that as various technologies gradually mature, product experience is also improving.

He Mingke remembers that after Baidu's big health business group was established in 2021, when he went to report the strategy of this business group to Baidu Group Chairman Robin Li, the first issue he talked about was commercialization. At that time, He Mingke thought that Baidu was an enabler in the pharmaceutical industry. It was difficult to achieve large-scale commercialization by earning money from patients, hospitals or the government. Therefore, the positioning of the big health business group should be to earn money mainly from pharmaceutical and medical device companies with large revenues, good profits and willingness to seek outsourcing partners.

After 2023, with the arrival of big models, Baidu began to have more "bullets" to explore the commercialization of the hospital side. The recently launched AI smart clinic is a product. He Mingke said that in the past, Baidu's products were more to help hospitals achieve informatization and meet national policy needs, and the payment speed of hospitals was not very ideal. Now, big model application products can help doctors improve efficiency and increase income, and hospitals are willing to promote them. "When our system equipment truly becomes a production tool for hospitals, they are willing to pay."

He Mingke mentioned that in the field of medical AI, although Baidu has some first-mover advantages in large models, the medical and health field is a naturally fragmented industry. It is difficult for each company to take over the entire market, and new competitors may emerge at any time. "It is difficult for a company to win quickly, become an invincible general or an absolute monopoly. We must have a mentality of long-term service and long-term operation."

In his speech that day, He Mingke also mentioned that Baidu began to lay out authoritative medical content production in 2018 and tried products that integrated AI + medical scenarios, such as CDSS (clinical decision support system). In 2020, after the establishment of the Baidu Health brand, it launched medical e-commerce, online consultation and other services. In 2021, after the establishment of Baidu's big health business group, Baidu completed the resource and capability integration of the medical and health sector. After several years of development, the "patient-medicine" service closed loop has been gradually built, and AI production tools such as big models have been put into use.

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Zhang Ling, reporter of Economic Observer

Big Health News Department reporters focus on big companies, big doctors, important events and people in the health field. Email: [email protected]