China's Race for Artificial Intelligence (AI) Technology

[TaiShang]

Embedded AI to take off by year-end

By Li Xuanmin Source:Global Times Published: 2017/11/10 5:03:41

Rising technology steers away from cloud, but experts say it is ‘in infancy’

The Huawei Mate 10 model with on-device AI capabilities recognizes food at a display area in Beijing over the weekend. Photo: Li Xuanmin/GT

One year ago, when artificial intelligence (AI) robotic AlphaGo rose to prominence after it unexpectedly defeated legendary player Lee Se-dol, tech giants and venture capitals were rushing to pump money into the rapidly rising sector, most of which implements cloud-only computation.

But now, a new trend is driving the development of embedded AI, a technology that can process data and run AI algorithms on devices without transferring data to cloud servers.

A cellphone equipped with embedded AI can recognize food and provide real-time details on calories, helping dieters choose healthy cuisines. Embedded AI also enables consumers to use microwave ovens without setting a time, as the appliance itself instantly judges a food product's necessary cooking time. Also, with embedded AI, people are free to install cameras at home to check the safety of elders and children without worrying about data being leaked.

Those are just a few scenarios where embedded AI can be widely applied in daily life, as pointed out by industry insiders during a forum on embedded AI held over the weekend in Beijing.

Technology application

"So far, most of the development in the AI sector focuses on cloud AI, or computation that is connected to the cloud, but there are a stream of scenarios where on-device computations edge [over cloud computation],"Geng Zengqiang, chief technology officer of China-based operating systems (OS) provider Thundersoft Software Technology Co, also the event organizer, told the Global Times in an exclusive interview.

Sun Li, vice president of Thundersoft, told the Global Times that in some circumstances of cloud AI application, the way data is transferred via the Internet and then processed in a cloud server inflicts a series of issues.

For example, the operation of jet airliner Boeing 787 generates 5 gigabytes of data every second - almost larger than the maximum capacity of any commercial wire network, making it "a mission impossible to complete AI computation in the cloud," said Sun.

Another application scenario is automatic driving, which produces almost 1 gigabyte of data every second and requires real-time algorithms and intelligent decision-making.

"Connecting to the cloud and transmitting data back to the vehicle would cost a great amount of time, pushing up driving risks," Geng said.

Besides those limitations, as an increasing number of domestic users raise concerns over the privacy of intelligent home appliances, on-device AI, however, which can function without linking to the Internet, guarantees their personal privacy, Sun noted.

Against this backdrop, "the year of 2017 is promising for embedded AI technology to take off - and that has become an industry consensus," Geng said, pointing to a huge market potential.

He predicted that the prospect of AI application would not be dominated by either cloud or on-device computation, but instead, a combination of both.

In the future, "on-device AI should be able to detect and process raw data and run algorithms beforehand, and after filtering, more valuable data will be transferred to the cloud, forming a big database," Geng said.

Commenting on the trend, Sun Gang, global vice president of US-based tech giant Qualcomm Technologies, also proposed a model that utilizes deep learning through the cloud, with the device executing intelligent decisions.

He also said at the forum that the smartphone, with an expected global shipment of 8.5 billion units in the next five years, is likely to be the first type of mobile device to widely employ embedded AI technology.

China is a pioneer, or at least not a latecomer compared with foreign rivals, in the world of on-device AI smartphone application, despite gaps in the on-device AI underlying platform - chips and OS - which is currently led by US companies Qualcomm and Google, Geng said.

Domestic telecom heavyweight Huawei in October unveiled its new Mate 10 model, powered by the Kirin 970 processor with on-device AI capabilities.

The handset, with sensors and cameras, can provide real-time image recognition, language translation and heed voice commands.

Yu Chengdong, CEO of Huawei's terminal service department, said that the Mate 10, with on-device AI capability, is 20 times faster in image recognition than foreign smartphone vendors, news website ifeng.com reported in October.

For example, "it takes only 5 seconds for the Mate 10 to recognize 100 photos, but for the iPhone 8 Plus and Samsung Note 8, such time skyrockets to 9 seconds and about 100 seconds, respectively," Yu was quoted as saying in the report.

Geng also highlighted China's abundant AI talents, most of whom have studied and been trained overseas, in bridging the gap between foreign counterparts.

Barriers ahead

At the forum, industry insiders also took note of a bunch of technological barriers, stressing that the development of embedded AI is still in its "infant period" with a limited scope of applications.

This is because "the efficiency of the power, thermal and size of mobile devices constrain the operation efficiency of embedded AI," Sun from Qualcomm said.

So far, even the chips of the highest performance are unable to accommodate the amassing on-device AI workloads, Geng added.

Geng's comment is echoed by Chen Yunji, co-founder of Beijing-based AI chip start-up Cambricon Technologies Corp.

"Back in the 1990s, a similar problem of insufficient operation capacity also appeared in the graphic processing sector… it was not until the invention of a specialized graphic processing unit chip that the problem was addressed at that time," Chen said at the forum, urging chipmakers to step up efforts to develop a capable one with stronger and deeper learning abilities.

But research and development of such chips cost a lot, and that has led to another headache.

"Are consumers willing to pay for a more expensive mobile device with on-device AI capacity? Tech companies still need to balance the costs and revenues," Geng said.

Another way to deal with the issue is to revise on-device algorithms, which could then decrease the requirement for chip efficiency, Tang Wenbin, chief technology officer of Face++, a Beijing-based tech start-up that specializes in facial recognition, said at the forum.

Tang noted that Face++ is now studying for a revision model of ShuffleNet, with the aim of speeding up the procedures of data computation tenfold from the current level.

http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1074517.shtml

**

This explains the US fear of Huawei.

 

[cirr]

Andrew Ng’s New AI Fund Raises $175M From Sequoia Capital, SoftBank

YIMIAN WU January 31, 2018 — 10:29 HKT

Andrew Ng, former chief scientist at Baidu and one of the founders of the Google Brain team, announced that his artificial intelligence-focused incubator AI Fund has raised US$175 million from investors including Sequoia Capital, the SoftBank Group, New Enterprise Associates, Greylock Partners and others.

Ng will be leading the AI fund as its general partner. Eva Wang, former partner at law firm Fenwick and West, will be partner and chief operating officer. Wang has experience working with technology companies in the U.S. and China. Steven Syverud, who led the development of educational company Coursera’s specializations product, will also be a partner.

Ng said his fund is currently helping several teams pursuing three new AI-powered directions, but did not disclose details.

“As such projects mature and turn into businesses, the AI Fund will provide additional capital to these teams and thereby give them the ability to move quickly, and not be distracted by months of fundraising,” wrote Ng in a blog post. “A difference of six months can determine whether a new AI solution takes off or is too far behind to catch up, so we’re setting up the AI Fund to let our teams move as quickly as possible. It also allows our teams to publicize their work only when they are ready.”

Landing.ai, a company Ng unveiled in December that focuses on the application of AI in the manufacturing sector, is among the projects receiving support from AI Fund.

In an interview with Chinese local media, Ng said his fund is open to investment opportunities in China. But right now, the fund focuses mainly on projects in California.

https://www.chinamoneynetwork.com/2018/01/31/andrew-ngs-new-ai-fund-raises-175m

 

[TaiShang]

AI may push people to be ‘better version of themselves’

CGTN's Wang Yue
2018-02-01


Hard work alone will not guarantee success in the future, says Kaifu Lee, CEO of Sinovation Ventures and an outspoken champion of artificial intelligence (AI). Instead, humans will need skills that their robot colleagues do not have to prevent being replaced by androids.

“For the past 20 years, the industrial revolution has naturally reshaped human values. For example, many of us felt that if we work hard, then we would succeed. Succeed means wealth, respect and position in society (or status) but we cannot take that for granted in the future,” Lee pointed out.

A statistics showed that more than 400 to 800 million people have to be re-trained when “Smart Era” arrives, and white-collar employees may be among those first to be affected.

Some white-collar jobs requiring little expertise will first be replaced, such as receptionists, customer service personnel and telemarketers, and the many of them are already being handed over to smart machines Lee said.

Blue-collar workers can't breathe a sigh of relief, however. Lee mentioned that because even the simplest blue-collar job requires certain degree of control ability and dexterity, it’s going to take a few more years before their jobs will be threatened by rising technology.

VCG Photo.

The key to keeping a competitive edge over AI will be for people to do their job with agility and smarts and creativity, said Lee.

Lee explained that because AI, robots or automation will remove all repetitive tasks and jobs, simply working hard is not good enough for the future. “AI will push people to become better version of themselves,” Lee added.

Since jobs of the future will require greater creativity, complex problem solving, innovation and affection, it may be time for our current education system to consider steering the curriculum in a direction that will better arm students with those skill sets, Lee emphasized.

***

Future workers, take note!

 

[TaiShang]

How AI, big data help ease traffic jams

By Jiang Jie (People's Daily Online) 07:56, February 02, 2018

file photo

Sitting on perhaps the world’s largest data pool, China wants to use its AI and big data technology to fix one of the biggest headaches faced by many governments: traffic jams.

As one small but significant improvement, more than 1,200 traffic lights in 20 Chinese cities have been updated to guarantee the best traffic flow, as they now calculate the best timing so that cars passing through the first green light will meet another green light at the second crossroad.

In other cases, which are more commonly seen in China, long lines of cars have to wait at a string of red lights at crossroads, resulting in a slow traffic flow.

In Ji’nan, eastern China’s Shandong province, citizens have saved 30,000 hours of waiting at 344 crossroads, cutting a total of 44,000 tons of CO2 emissions.

The technology, provided by China’s car-hailing giant Didi Chuxing, uses the company’s huge data pool to specifically locate each driver registered on the platform and measure the waiting time at a red light by calculating the distance between a driver and a traffic light, which is more efficient than surveillance cameras with a limited view.

Meanwhile, the nationwide video-surveillance network is also ready for more efficient utilization.

In Hangzhou, eastern China’s Zhejiang province, patrol officers have been partly replaced by hundreds of surveillance cameras in the city, which can identity 500 incidents and accidents every day with an accuracy rate of 92 percent.

Alibaba Cloud, the provider of the technology, has also helped the city improve traffic flow at crossroads by 15 percent through the use of dynamic traffic light control. It has brought the technology to Kuala Lumpur to speed up traffic at 281 crossroads in the Malaysian capital with AI, cloud computing, and big data.

“China is already home to the fastest-growing transportation services. We think China’s sustainable transportation pattern can be learned across the world,” said Cheng Wei, CEO of Didi Chuxing, at a smart travel summit on Jan 25.

With a population of 1.3 billion people, transportation in China has never been an easy task, especially when people flock to major cities like Beijing, Shanghai, and Hangzhou for better jobs.

A congestion map of Beijing. Photo courtesy of Didi Chuxing

Beijing, for example, has been dealing with light to medium traffic congestion since 2007, except for 2008 when the Olympic Games were held and the city began to use odd-even-numbered license plates policy to limit the number of private cars on the road each day, Guo Jifu, director of the Beijing Transport Institute, said at the summit.

The capital city of China has a population of over 21 million – about the total population of US State of Florida, which is ten times bigger than the city in landmass. Since the 1980s, Beijing’s road construction has been expanding, but at the same time, car ownership has been outpacing urban design at an annual growth rate of over 20%, according to Guo.

 

[cirr]

China designing AI-POWERED nuke sub that can ‘THINK for itself’ & destroy ENTIRE CONTINENT

CHINA is believed to be designing a nuclear submarine run by artificial intelligence with enough firepower to destroy an entire continent.

By Anthony Blair / Published 4th February 2018

GETTY
BREAKTHROUGH: China are developing the world's first AI-powered nuclear submarine

A submarine that could "think for itself" would free up the commanding officers and reduce the chance of mistakes, according to researchers.

Speaking to Chinese media, a researcher who asked to remain anonymous because of the sensitivity of the project, said that the plan would give China's huge navy an upper hand in future battles under the sea, and would push the potential of AI technology to the next level.

Up until now, major decisions on nuclear subs — such as detecting objects underwater and answer signals picked up sonar — have been carried out by human naval personnel.

But now AI has advanced to the point where Chinese scientists believe it could replace most of the human decisions, creating the potential of future wars being entirely led by machines.

GETTY
TRAINING: Chinese navy on military manoeuvres recently

The so-called "machine learning" process means that the advanced computer running the nuclear submarine would be able to acquire knowledge, build on its skills and develop new battle strategies without any human involvement.

The system mimics the workings of the human brain, processing large amounts of data.

It could also recognise and flag potential threats from enemies faster and more accurately than its human crew.

The researcher said that the AI system will be simple and compact, to reduce the risk of it failing at crucial moments in the theatre of war.

"It is like putting an elephant into a shoebox," he said when asked about the challenge.

"What the military cares most about is not fancy features," he went on.

"What they care most about is the thing does not screw up amid the heat of a battle."

Beijing is ploughing money into the project, the researcher claimed, amid growing military tensions between China and the US in the region.

There are fears that China is racing ahead of its rivals when it comes to the development of AI in military equipment.

“We may have a runaway submarine with enough nuclear arsenals to destroy a continent”
Zhu Min, Chinese Academy of Sciences

Recently Joe Marino, CEO of US naval supplier Rite-Solutions, warned that America was falling behind.

He said that without matching other countries advances, "Our commanding officers would be fighting an opponent who could make faster, more informed and better decisions," he said.

"Combined with undersea technology advancements by competitors like Russia and China in areas such as stealth, sensors and weapons, this 'cognitive advantage' could threaten US undersea dominance."

But replacing humans with AI in war could pose huge dangers, warns deep water scientist Zhu Min from the Chinese Academy of Scientists.

If the system can think for itself, he said, "we may have a runaway submarine with enough nuclear arsenals to destroy a continent.

"This is definitely a risk the authorities should consider when introducing AI to a sub."

The development comes just days after China unveiled the world's first warship armed with a hypersonic railgun.

And Chinese troops were recently spotted in Afghanistan amid a fresh power struggle in the region.

https://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/wo...ce-ai-weapon-navy-chinese-academy-science-ww3

 

[BHarwana]

Okay first of all Pakistan stands with China but this is fcuking scary stuff and don't put nukes in the hands of AI man.

 

[Chinese-Dragon]

Okay first of all Pakistan stands with China but this is fcuking scary stuff and don't put nukes in the hands of AI man.

I can see what you mean.

But then I think of the alternative, putting nuclear weapons in the hands of humans. Isn't that worse?

Especially when those humans are as insane and mentally deranged as Donald Trump? Who threatens nuclear war at the drop of a hat and boasts about the size of his nuclear button whenever his ego is hurt?

 

[Cybernetics]

China’s plan to use artificial intelligence to boost the thinking skills of nuclear submarine commanders
Equipping nuclear submarines with AI would give China an upper hand in undersea battles while pushing applications of the technology to a new level

China is working to update the rugged old computer systems on nuclear submarines with artificial intelligence to enhance the potential thinking skills of commanding officers, a senior scientist involved with the programme told the South China Morning Post.

A submarine with AI-augmented brainpower not only would give China’s large navy an upper hand in battle under the world’s oceans but would push applications of AI technology to a new level, according to the researcher, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the project’s sensitivity.

“Though a submarine has enormous power of destruction, its brain is actually quite small,” the researcher said.

While a nuclear submarine depends on the skill, experience and efficiency of its crew to operate effectively, the demands of modern warfare could introduce variables that would cause even the smoothest-run operation to come unglued.

For instance, if the 100 to 300 people in the sub’s crew were forced to remain together in their canister in deep, dark water for months, the rising stress level could affect the commanding officers’ decision-making powers, even leading to bad judgment.

An AI decision-support system with “its own thoughts” would reduce the commanding officers’ workload and mental burden, according to the researcher.

The possibility of AI having a prominent role in nuclear submarines – through the work of Chinese scientists – is a milestone both for China and the technology.

Since the first nuclear submarines appeared in the early 1950s, produced by the US, they have ranked among the most sophisticated war machines. It can take as long as two decades for a nuclear sub to progress from an idea on a blueprint to the finished product, sliding down a slipway.

But the subs’ computer brains have generally been out of sync with their state-of-the-art image.

First, the technology in most submarine computers tends to predate the vessel’s commissioning. Furthermore, military-grade electronic components have required extensive battle-hardening to withstand shocks, heat or electromagnetic disturbance, sacrificing speed for reliability.

Up till now, the “thinking” function on a nuclear sub, including interpreting and answering signals picked up by sonar, a system for detecting objects under water by emitting sound pulses, has been handled almost exclusively by human naval personnel, not by machines.

Now, through AI technology, a convolutional neural network undergirds so-called machine learning. This structure underpins a decision support system that can acquire knowledge, improve skills and develop new strategy without human intervention.

By mimicking the workings of the human brain, the system can process a large amount of data. On a nuclear submarine, data could come from the Chinese navy’s rapidly increasing observation networks, the submarine’s own sensors or daily interactions with the crew.

An AI assistant could support commanding officers by assessing the battlefield environment, providing insight into how levels of saline in the ocean and water temperature might affect the accuracy of sonar systems.

It also could recognise and flag threats from an enemy faster and more accurately than human operators.

An AI assist also could help commanding officers estimate the risks and benefits of certain combat manoeuvres, even suggesting moves not considered by the vessel’s captain.

China’s military wants the new AI technology to deliver on certain basic demands, according to the researcher.

A priority is ensuring the system can follow and understand sophisticated, ever-changing underwater operations. It also must have a simple structure to reduce its risk of failure. And it must be compact and compatible with subs’ existing computer systems.

“It is like putting an elephant into a shoebox,” said the researcher when asked about the challenge of the project.

‘It is not science fiction’: AI experts warn of new global arms race for killer robots, call for ban

“What the military cares most about is not fancy features. What they care most is the thing does not screw up amid the heat of a battle.”

The military currently has no plan to reduce the size of submarine crews when the AI technology is ready for deployment. “There must be a human hand on every critical post. This is for safety redundancy,” the researcher said.

Beijing, which takes the AI submarine programme very seriously, is ploughing abundant resources into the undertaking, according to the researcher.

China’s move highlights the spectre of a widening AI technology gap. The existence of the AI sub tech divide was underscored by the comment of a US military systems executive taking part in a survey last year by the US Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency on “disruptive technologies” that a hostile country could use against Americans.

Joe Marino, CEO of Rite-Solutions, a technical company supporting the US Naval Undersea System Command, touted the value of using AI to enhance submarine commanding officers’ decision-making powers.

“[Without matching other countries’ advances in AI submarine technology] our CO (commanding officers) would be fighting an opponent who could make faster, more informed and better decisions,” Marino wrote in an article on the company’s website.

“Combined with undersea technology advancements by near-peer competitors such as Russia and China in areas such as stealth, sensors, weapons, this ‘cognitive advantage’ could threaten US undersea dominance,” he wrote.

Marino urged the US navy to embrace AI and challenge America’s defence industry to investigate the possible application of the technology on US submarines.

Zhu Min, a researcher at the Institute of Acoustics with the Chinese Academy of Sciences and a lead scientist in China’s deep water exploration programme, said AI has been a fashionable word in China’s submarine research community for the past couple of years.

“In the past, the technology was too distant from application, but recently a lot of progress has been achieved,” he said. “There seems to be hope around the corner.”

Where traditional computer programs on submarines have needed “step-by-step” human guidance, AI has the potential to “change the game under the sea”, Zhu said.

China enlists top scientists in mission to become military tech superpower

AI algorithms usually run on large, state-of-the-art computers, requiring intensive calculation to process a huge amount of data.

Recent technical advancements, however, have suggested it may be possible for these algorithms – translated in layman’s terms as rules for solving a problem in a finite number of steps – to be executed on small machines.

AlphaGo, a computer program that plays the board game Go, developed by Google’s Deep Mind, for instance, initially required several powerful computers. After two years it achieved much higher performance with only a tenth of the calculating hardware.

AlphaGo Zero, the newest version of the program, no longer needs to learn how to play the game better from a human player. It can teach itself to be a better player without human help.

Zhu said using AI on a strategic weaponry platform such as a nuclear submarine would be a natural next step for the evolving technology. Letting it seek new knowledge without restraint, however, could lead to unexpected consequences.

If the system started to have its own way of thinking, “we may have a runaway submarine with enough nuclear arsenals to destroy a continent,” he said, describing what sounded like the plot of a science-fiction film or novel.

“This is definitely a risk the authorities should consider when introducing AI to a sub.”

Deng Zhidong, a computer science professor and AI scholar at Beijing’s Tsinghua University, said the risk of AI-based machines’ rebelling against human society did not exist – at least for the foreseeable future.

“An AI-powered machine is still a machine. It does not have a life,” he said.

An AI system on a submarine, though sophisticated, in many ways would be similar to self-driving technology on some cars, Deng said.

“You can shut it down and shift to manual any time. It will be the same on a nuclear submarine.”

http://www.scmp.com/news/china/soci...artificial-intelligence-boost-thinking-skills

AI is not replacing humans, its merely supplementing some of the work load and aid in better decision making.

AI will be the biggest determinate for the outcome of future warfare (when there are comparable weapons platforms available). Imagine having two bots fight against each other in a RTS game, one is set at "easy" the other at "hard", the results would be lopsided towards the more advanced AI.

Results of wars could possibly be already determined through simulation. With adequate data collection of opposition forces, a military can simulate thousands or even millions of wars before they happen and sharpen the reaction time of the command structure. In addition new weapons platforms can be developed according to simulation results even when there is lack of real combat experience. Data collection, Hardware (military assets, supercomputers), Software (AI).

In the future, warfare between major nations will likely become more virtual. With each trying to disrupt the data collection for accurate simulations.

 

[Beast]

I doubt China will do that. Chinese are rational people. I think this is just a sensational news.

 

[YeBeWarned]

I doubt China will do that. Chinese are rational people. I think this is just a sensational news.

I hope you are right bro.. nukes are not something to be play with , there is one country who already surrender its nukes to a AI like Orange man ( Trump ) Chinese are more Rational people ..

Plus this remind of skynet ..

 

[egodoc222]

And you people worry why neighbours around you feel the anxiety with your rise...

 

[Dungeness]

Okay first of all Pakistan stands with China but this is fcuking scary stuff and don't put nukes in the hands of AI man.

But the AI man may be more rational than those "elected" thugs with a nuclear button.

 

[BHarwana]

But the AI man may be more rational than those "elected" thugs with a nuclear button.

Agreed but first give AI a diesel electric sub with conventional missiles man and see If AI behaves like a civilized man. If AI behaves like a civilized then good but If AI behaves like Trump what then we will have 2 idiots with Nuclear button.

 

[Kai Liu]

I think it's better to build AI conventional or attack submarines or subs with functions partially taken over by AI, not this thing. But sure, some humans are way more dangerous and unpredictable than AI.

 

[cirr]

中船重工推进量子技术产业化 未来3-5年营收规模有望达50亿元

中国船舶重工集团公司电子信息部负责人兼中国海防董事长范国平、集团公司资产部负责人李嘉华日前接受中国证券报记者专访时表示，中船重工已与中科大潘建伟院士团队在量子导航、量子通信、量子探测领域开展研究合作，力求抢占量子信息技术在海洋防务领域应用的制高点。未来3-5年，中船重工预期量子信息产业营收规模可能达到50亿元、利润达到6亿元，量子导航等领域初步实现产业化。

抢占海防应用制高点

范国平介绍，集团旗下722所关注量子通信，724所发力量子探测，717所的量子导航技术处于国内领先水平，717所2012年以来进行量子惯性技术研究，攻克了冷原子团重复囚禁、原子对抛等20余项关键技术，申报相关专利10余项，并率先研制出国内第一台小型化、高宽带原子陀螺/加速度计一体化样机。

“导弹可借助卫星导航进行定位，如果被干扰了怎么办？核潜艇潜藏在水下，但过一段时间需要上浮校准位置，被发现了怎么办？量子导航技术主要解决这些问题。依靠自身惯性导航，不需要卫星导航，可以实现战略核潜艇任务周期长航时、高精度、全自主导航隐蔽航行，连续执行任务可延长至上百天，大幅提高战略型潜艇的隐蔽作战能力。”范国平说。

量子通信技术可以保障信息传输安全。“军事应用需求迫切，政务、金融业需求大。下一步将和潘建伟院士推进合作试点，在海上舰船上与量子通信卫星墨子号之间进行密钥分发实验。”

2017年9月，中船重工集团和中科大签署量子信息技术合作研究协议，联合成立量子导航、量子通信、量子探测三大实验室，并聘请潘建伟院士担任集团科技委副主任；2017年10月，集团聘请郭光灿院士担任中国海防首席科学家；2017年11月，“中船重工—中国科大量子联合实验室”揭牌。中国海防以自有资金分阶段向3个研究所合作项目累计投资预计约3亿元，每个研究所约1亿元。

范国平表示，三大实验室挂牌成立，标志着中船重工推进量子信息技术研究进入新的阶段。中船重工将加快在量子信息技术领域的研究步伐，抢占量子信息技术在海洋防务领域应用的制高点。“作为军工企业，最好的技术优先给国防使用，首先满足海军走向深远海的战略转型需求，为建设一流海军提供一流装备”。

量子信息技术被认为是面向未来的战略性前沿技术，其在安全性和高效性上具有优势，对未来社会发展尤其是军事领域的影响不可估量。当前，以量子通信、量子导航、量子探测、量子计算为代表的量子信息技术成为全球兵家必争之技术。海外的Lockheed Martin、iXBlue、Honeywell等一流军工企业均在开展相关研究。作为中国海军装备建设的主体力量，中船重工从“十二五”初开始，就对量子技术长期跟踪研究。其中，几家研究所具有较好研究基础。

5年初步形成产业化

范国平介绍，在量子信息技术中，量子通信产业化应用走得更快，其次是量子导航、量子探测、量子计算。

2016年8月，墨子号量子科学实验卫星成功升空，标志着我国量子通信产业进入元年。2017年9月，世界首条量子保密通信干线“京沪干线”正式开通，量子通信基础设施开始搭建，量子通信产业商用阶段加速到来。

在量子通信领域，中船重工推进两个方面应用，在军事领域，将进一步研制军用量子通信设备，谋划量子通信军用网络建设；在政务和金融领域，研制普密量子网络密码机等核心设备，推进普密量子通信专网建设，研发量子网关、量子交换机、量子集控站等网站设备，积极参与量子通信城域网和广域网建设。“未来对光缆、网关、交换机等设备需求量会很大。”范国平说。

范国平表示，中船重工作为国内海洋装备创新发展的主力军，迫切希望在量子导航技术方面取得突破。集团计划3-5年内突破关键技术，研制出干涉式原子陀螺仪/原子加速度计、量子重力梯度仪、量子时间基准、原子自旋陀螺仪工程化产品，初步形成产业。在量子探测方面，中船重工未来将重点攻关核心微波-光组件模块，形成产业化研发能力的基础。

目前集团量子信息产业整合平台雏形已现。中国海防是中船重工推动量子信息技术产业化的统筹者，将从多方面、以多种方式参与中船重工旗下的电子信息业务。按照中船重工“打造千亿级产业板块和数个百亿级产业，培育一批军民融合、技术领先的新兴科技产业”的产业发展目标，集团公司资产部负责人李嘉华预计，中船重工量子信息产业预计3-5年营收可达到50亿元、利润达6亿元的规模。

范国平透露，目前双方已经开展人员层面的合作。在中国海防刚刚开完的董事会上，中船重工作为控股股东提名推荐717所所长王振华为中电广通董事候选人。根据后续项目进展，以及量子技术产业发展情况，双方不排除有更深层次的合作。

高科技产业布局雄安新区

为更好地发展量子等高端科技产业，并积极参与雄安新区建设，中船重工集团积极落实京津冀协同发展战略。李嘉华表示，“集团公司在雄安新区布局方面已做、在做及已规划的事项主要包括五个方面。”

一是布局高端核心动力技术研发与制造产业。李嘉华介绍，集团公司已将旗下七大动力产业430亿元资产注入风帆股份，将其重组改名为中国船舶重工动力股份公司，扎根京畿。“这是我国海洋动力领域最核心的东西，是‘海洋心脏’研发制造高端产业，是国家的宝贵资产，也是‘强国强军’必须自主攻克的技术难题。”同时，集团公司计划投资10亿元在雄安新区设立中国舰船动力研究院，发挥旗下雄厚的科研力量，开展7大动力及电磁动力、储能技术研发。

二是布局国防装备智能化。李嘉华表示，集团公司在雄安设立海洋防务装备智能化科研机构，已规划将中国海防旗下的长城电子产业板块由北京迁入京畿海洋装备科技产业园，发展国防装备智能化产业。

三是布局前沿科技研发应用。2018年，中国海防将在雄安设立信息技术研究院等科研机构，并以中国海防作为技术应用产业化发展平台，共同推动量子技术在量子计时、量子成像、量子传感和测量、量子计算和模拟等方向应用。李嘉华强调：“把世界前沿技术应用到军民领域，这是军工企业的使命与优势。”

四是参加区域环境治理。中船重工集团计划投资10亿元，在雄安设立中国船舶重工集团环境工程产业公司，统筹资源、技术、人才，与雄安新区深度合作，从事流域环境环保治理、水环境修复和基础设施建设，为雄安高科技产业发展创造良好的环境；计划联合能源企业，争取将光伏、光热、海洋风电、氢能等环保清洁的新能源落地雄安新区。

五是培养高端技术人才。中船重工集团将继续发挥自身科研力量雄厚、科研人才众多、学科门类齐全等优势，与雄安新区政府开办教育，培养工匠型、大师级、高技能人才。（记者 杨洁）