A delegation from Zhejiang University, led by President WU Zhaohui, visits Université Paris-Saclay and École Polytechnique in France recently. On Dec. 14, WU delivered a keynote speech entitled “AI in China: Today and Tomorrow” during the ZJU Networking Reception in Paris, sharing the development of AI in China and the best practices at ZJU.

As applications of AI becoming much commonly seen in people’s daily life, AI is accelerating the arrival of Intelligence Augmentation Age. In July, 2017, the State Council of P.R.C released the “Next Generation AI Plan”, raising the development of AI to national strategy. Early this year, several universities from China and France jointly signed a cooperation framework on AI development, aiming to bringing talent from the two countries together for challenges in this field.

Not only a member of the “AI Alliance” between Chinese and French universities, ZJU is in fact the first in China to carry out AI research and establish an AI lab. Taking advantages from its strengths in computer science and software engineering and the its location in Yangtze River Delta, the University has been committed to education-research-industry integration and international cooperation in the field of AI. It has launched Intelligence Convergence (IC), a project to explore the convergence and integration between brain research and AI, in last September.

“The future AI-based technological innovations are bound to nurture new forces and create new space for driving social and economic development,” said WU. “ZJU is ready to work with friends from all over the world on AI frontiers and innovative researches, in order to jointly advance AI development and contribute wisdom to people’s better life!”

Over the past decades ZJU has developed partnership with more than 10 universities in France. The University places a high priority on “Global ZJU: CREATE to impact”, its international strategy, and the visit is expected to mobilize channels of interaction in several academic areas and open up new scope for institutional cooperation.