在菲尼克斯,汽車在街道上自動行駛。在很多民宅里,人們向小巧的機器發(fā)號施令,機器則會做出反應(yīng)。在我們的智能手機上,應(yīng)用程序現(xiàn)在能夠識別照片中的人臉,并把一種語言翻譯成另一種語言。
Artificial intelligence is here — and it’s bringing new possibilities, while also raising questions. Do these gadgets and services really behave as advertised? How will they evolve in the years ahead? How quickly will they overhaul the way we live and change the way we do business?
人工智能來了。它帶來了新的可能性,同時也提出了問題。這些小玩意兒和服務(wù)的表現(xiàn)真的和廣告里說的一樣嗎?未來幾年它們將如何發(fā)展?我們的生活和行事方式離徹底被它改變還有多遠(yuǎn)?
The Times is exploring these matters this week at our annual New Work Summit, featuring technology executives, A.I. researchers, investors and others. Here are some of the key moments coming out of the conference, plus a rundown of some of our recent A.I. stories. — Cade Metz
時報正在本周一年一度的新工作峰會(New Work Summit)上探索這些問題。參加峰會的有科技公司高管、人工智能研究人員和投資者等。下面是這次會議的一些關(guān)鍵時刻,以及我們最近的一些人工智能報道的簡要介紹。——凱德·梅茨(Cade Metz)報道
Huawei still eager to do business in the United States
華為仍然渴望在美國做生意
A month after the Chinese electronics giant Huawei suffered a big setback in its quest to sell its high-end smartphones to Americans, the company’s chief for consumer devices, Richard Yu, said he was still optimistic about Huawei’s prospects in the United States.
一個月前,中國電子產(chǎn)品巨頭華為尋求向美國銷售高端智能手機的努力剛剛遭遇重大挫折,如今該公司消費者業(yè)務(wù)負(fù)責(zé)人余承東表示,他對華為在美國的前景仍持樂觀態(tài)度。
“We have won global consumers’ trust, in over 170 countries,” Mr. Yu said at the New Work Summit. “We very strictly protect consumers’ privacy.”
“我們在170多個國家贏得了全球消費者的信任,”余承東在新工作峰會上說。“我們對消費者隱私的保護非常嚴(yán)格。”
Huawei is the world’s third-largest seller of smartphones and one of the planet’s biggest suppliers of telecommunications equipment. But it has struggled for years to break into the United States.
華為是全球第三大智能手機銷售商,也是全球最大的電信設(shè)備供應(yīng)商之一。但多年來,華為一直難以打入美國市場。
A 2012 congressional report said that Huawei’s network gear could be used by Beijing to spy on Americans, effectively cutting the company off from big buyers in the United States. In January, after lawmakers reiterated those concerns in a letter to the Federal Communications Commission, AT&T and Verizon walked away from deals to sell Huawei’s latest phones.
2012年的一份國會報告稱華為的網(wǎng)絡(luò)設(shè)備可能被北京用來監(jiān)視美國人。這份報告實際上讓華為自此無緣美國大買家。1月,在議員們在寫給美國聯(lián)邦通信委員會(Federal Communications Commission)的一封信中重申了這些擔(dān)憂后,AT&T和威瑞森(Verizon)退出了銷售華為最新款手機的協(xié)議。
At the conference on Tuesday, Mr. Yu said that Huawei had no ties to the Chinese government. “We are a globalized company, just headquartered in China,” he said. “We are not part of any government. We have to be a company that is independent from every country.”
在周二的會議上,余承東說華為和中國政府沒有關(guān)聯(lián)。“我們是一家全球化的公司,只是總部位于中國,”他說。“我們不是任何政府的一部分。我們必須是一家獨立于任何國家之外的公司。”
Huawei would not be able to do business in so many places around the world without that independence, he said. “If we do something for one government, we will lose the trust of all governments.” — Raymond Zhong
他說,如果沒有這種獨立性,華為就無法在全球這么多地方開展業(yè)務(wù)。“如果為一個政府做事,我們就會失去所有政府的信任。”——雷蒙德·鐘(Raymond Zhong)報道
Should A.I. be more ‘human’?
人工智能應(yīng)該更“以人為本”嗎?
Fei-Fei Li, a chief scientist at Google and a Stanford professor, has called on technologists to take a more “human centered” approach to the creation of artificial intelligence. On Tuesday at the New Work Summit, Ms. Li said that researchers must work to ensure that A.I. embodied human qualities and that it would ultimately operate alongside humans, not replace them.
谷歌(Google)首席科學(xué)家兼斯坦福大學(xué)(Stanford)教授李飛飛呼吁技術(shù)專家用更加“以人為本”的方式對待人工智能的發(fā)明創(chuàng)造。在周二的新工作峰會上,李飛飛說,研究人員必須努力確保人工智能體現(xiàn)人的品質(zhì),并且最終與人類一起行動,而不是取代人類。
“I often tell my students not to be misled by the name ‘artificial intelligence’ — there is nothing artificial about it,” she said. “A.I. is made by humans, intended to behave by humans and, ultimately, to impact humans lives and human society.”
“我經(jīng)常告訴我的學(xué)生不要被‘人工智能’這個名字誤導(dǎo),沒什么是人工的,”她說。“人工智能是人類創(chuàng)造的,為的是協(xié)助人類行為,最終影響人類生活和人類社會。”
At Stanford, Ms. Li was instrumental in the recent rise of “computer vision” systems that can recognize people and objects entirely on their own. At Google, she is working to package and sell these and other systems as cloud computing services, delivering the latest A.I. technology to a wide range of businesses.
在斯坦福,李飛飛在“計算機視覺”系統(tǒng)最近的崛起中發(fā)揮了重要作用。相關(guān)系統(tǒng)能夠完全自動識別人和物品。在谷歌,她正在努力把這些和另一些系統(tǒng)作為云計算服務(wù)打包出售,把最新的人工智能技術(shù)提供給廣泛的企業(yè)。
But she said that as Google and other internet giants pushed these techniques forward, academia and the government must help ensure that A.I. evolved into something that enhanced our humanity, created as many jobs as it replaced and operated in safe and predictable ways. 但她說,在谷歌和其他互聯(lián)網(wǎng)巨頭推進(jìn)這些技術(shù)的發(fā)展時,學(xué)術(shù)界和政府必須幫助確保人工智能的發(fā)展能夠增強我們?nèi)祟惖哪芰?、在取代舊工作崗位的同時也要創(chuàng)造出同樣多的新崗位,并以安全和可預(yù)見的方式運行。
In particular, Ms. Li said, academic institutions can help ensure that computer scientists work alongside social scientists in building this new breed of technology.
李飛飛說,特別是學(xué)術(shù)機構(gòu)可以幫助確保計算機科學(xué)家和社會科學(xué)家共同發(fā)展這項新技術(shù)。
“A.I. has outgrown its origin in computer science,” she said.
“人工智能已經(jīng)超出了它的計算機科學(xué)起源。”她說。
Ultimately, said Ms. Li, who was born in China, A.I. reflects the people who build it more than other technologies do. For that reason and others, she said, A.I. researchers must work in a way that spans not only many industries but many cultures as well.
在中國出生的李飛飛說,人工智能最終會比其他技術(shù)更能反映建造它的人類。她說,由此以及其他原因,人工智能的研究者必須以一種跨越多個行業(yè)和多種文化的方式工作。
“I really believe there are no borders for science,” she said. — Cade Metz
“我真的相信科學(xué)無邊界,”她說。——凱德·梅茨報道
Why American tech companies struggle in China
為什么美國科技公司在中國舉步維艱?
Tuesday’s first speaker at the New Work Summit was Kai-Fu Lee, who used to lead Google in China and knows a thing or two about American tech giants in China. His prognosis about whether companies like Facebook will ever be able to crack the world’s largest internet market?
紐約時報新工作峰會周二的第一位發(fā)言人是李開復(fù),他曾是谷歌中國區(qū)的負(fù)責(zé)人,對在華美國科技巨頭頗有些了解。那么,他覺得Facebook這樣的公司成功打開世界最大互聯(lián)網(wǎng)市場的前景如何?
“The American products are simply uncompetitive in the China market,” said Mr. Lee, who is now chief executive of Sinovation Ventures, a venture capital firm focused on Chinese technology. Even if internet titans from the United States could operate in China, he said, the local competition means they would have a hard time thriving.
“美國產(chǎn)品在中國市場根本就沒有競爭力,”現(xiàn)任中國科技風(fēng)投公司創(chuàng)新工場首席執(zhí)行官的李開復(fù)說。他表示,即使來自美國的互聯(lián)網(wǎng)巨頭能在中國運營,當(dāng)?shù)氐母偁幰矔屗麄兣e步維艱。
“Messenger is a much worse product than WeChat,” he said, referring to Facebook’s messaging app and Tencent’s ubiquitous app for chatting, social networking, making payments and other tasks.
“Messenger這個產(chǎn)品比微信差太多,”他說,他提到的是Facebook的短信應(yīng)用和騰訊在聊天、社交、支付和其他功能上無所不在的應(yīng)用。
“Amazon in China is substantially worse than Taobao, JD and Tmall,” he said, referring to three leading Chinese e-commerce sites. And, he said, “Apple Pay is much narrower and much harder to use than WeChat or Alipay.”
“亞馬遜中國遠(yuǎn)遠(yuǎn)比不上淘寶、京東、天貓,”他說的是中國三大電子商務(wù)網(wǎng)站。并且,他還說,“Apple Pay比微信支付或者支付寶的局限大得多,也很不好用。”
Mr. Lee sees other issues that augur against a big Facebook or Google renaissance in China. Multinational companies tend not to hire local managers to lead their China operations. “They’re not concerned about winning in the local market,” he said.
李開復(fù)還看到了其他會阻止Facebook或谷歌在中國復(fù)興的問題??鐕就粫刚埉?dāng)?shù)氐慕?jīng)理來領(lǐng)導(dǎo)公司的中國業(yè)務(wù)。“他們不關(guān)心在當(dāng)?shù)厥袌鋈伲?rdquo;他說。
Also, young Chinese these days would rather work for national champions like Alibaba or Tencent. Pitted against Chinese start-ups and big companies, where the hours tend to be long and the work culture cutthroat, the leading lights of American tech would get “get eaten for lunch.” — Raymond Zhong
此外,現(xiàn)在中國的年輕人更愿意為在阿里巴巴或騰訊這樣在全國范圍內(nèi)領(lǐng)先的公司工作。中國初創(chuàng)企業(yè)和大公司的工作時間長、職場文化殘酷,美國科技業(yè)那些巨頭會被它們“當(dāng)午餐吃掉”。——雷蒙德·鐘報道
Trump administration silent on A.I.
特朗普政府在人工智能方面的沉默
Last year, the Chinese government unveiled a plan to become the world leader in artificial intelligence by 2030, vowing to create a domestic industry worth $150 billion. This manifesto read like a challenge to the United States, and in many ways it echoed policies laid down by the Obama administration in 2016.
去年,中國政府公布了到2030年要成為世界人工智能領(lǐng)導(dǎo)者的計劃,誓言將創(chuàng)造一個價值1500億美元的國內(nèi)產(chǎn)業(yè)。這一宣言聽起來像是對美國下戰(zhàn)書,在很多方面也與奧巴馬政府2016年制定的政策相呼應(yīng)。
But as China pushes ahead in this area, many experts are concerned that the Trump administration is not doing enough to keep the United States ahead in the future. Although the big United States internet giants are leading the A.I. race, these experts believe the country as a whole could fall behind if does not do more to nurture research inside universities and government labs. — Cade Metz
但隨著中國在這一領(lǐng)域的不斷推進(jìn),許多專家擔(dān)心特朗普政府所做的不足以使美國在未來繼續(xù)領(lǐng)先。盡管美國的大型互聯(lián)網(wǎng)巨頭在人工智能競賽中領(lǐng)先,但這些專家認(rèn)為,如果不加大對大學(xué)研究和政府實驗室研究的扶持,美國在總體上可能會落后。——凱德·梅茨報道