How Large Models Empower New Development of Smart Cities

The recent “Digital China Development Report (2023)” released by the National Data Bureau shows that the pace of market-oriented reform of data elements in China has further accelerated, the scale of the digital economy continues to grow, and the application scenarios of digital technology are constantly expanding. Behind this achievement is the widespread application of digital technology, which not only affects the daily lives of ordinary people in terms of clothing, food, housing, and transportation, but is also deeply integrated into various fields and processes of economic, political, cultural, social, and ecological civilization construction.

How Large Models Empower New Development of Smart Cities

Among them, digital technologies represented by artificial intelligence are considered strategic technologies leading the future, serving as the core driving force of a new round of technological revolution and industrial transformation, and are also regarded as a crucial engine for forming new productive forces.

The Emergence of Large Models: New Expectations for Urban Development

In January of this year, the National Data Bureau and several departments jointly released the “Three-Year Action Plan for Data Elements (2024-2026)” proposing to “support the development and training of large models in artificial intelligence.” This year’s “Government Work Report” also stated to deepen research and application of big data, artificial intelligence, and carry out the “AI+” initiative to create internationally competitive digital industry clusters. Among them, “AI+” is mainly based on large models and big data technologies to achieve deep integration of artificial intelligence in various industries.

As the world’s second-largest economy, China has a super-large-scale market and digital resource advantages, providing deeper and richer implementation scenarios for large models, as well as an environment for “continuous training and lifelong learning.” Various large models are emerging like bamboo shoots after a rain, rapidly penetrating various industries, showcasing the broad application prospects and enormous empowering potential of artificial intelligence.

The emergence of large model technology undoubtedly brings new expectations for urban development. Cities are complex socio-economic systems that are constantly changing, and the ability to preprocess changes in demand is key to the further development of smart cities. With its powerful data processing and learning capabilities, large model technology can capture subtle changes in urban operations in real-time, accurately predict and respond to various demands, keeping pace with the rhythm of urban development, and providing intelligent solutions for urban governance.

How can we enhance the efficiency and experience of urban public services and the level of intelligent governance in cities based on large models? How can we empower industries and promote urban economic development? How exactly does large model technology make cities smarter? At the 2024 Baidu Cloud Intelligence Conference held on September 25, Baidu released the 2.0 version of the Government Large Model Solution and the Government Large Model Integrated Machine, providing reference answers for empowering urban development with large model technology.

Large Model Upgrades: Digital Government Reaches New Heights

The value of industry large models depends on the depth of industry applications. In cities, the value of government large models is paramount.

Baidu’s 2.0 version of the Government Large Model Solution released this year meets the needs for intelligent upgrades of digital government, fully upgrading based on the AI capability platform of digital government, providing large model services and application support capabilities through the government large model platform, and fully supporting the reconstruction of various government service scenarios in a privatized environment, enabling the creation of various government AI native applications tailored to business needs based on the large model platform.

Compared to last year’s 1.0 version of the Government Large Model Solution, this year’s upgraded 2.0 version constructs the digital platform capabilities of the government based on large model capabilities, including the large model service center, large model management center, large model knowledge center, and large model resource center.

The large model service center interconnects with the infrastructure layer, implements cluster management of computing resources and device management, and can provide capability components for various government scenarios, enabling the development of low-code and no-code AI native applications; the large model management center is the core service center for large model capabilities, providing management for multiple models, offering basic language models, visual models, and multimodal models for industry applications to call upon; the large model knowledge center focuses on the complex knowledge relationships in government scenarios, enabling knowledge iteration and update management capabilities, allowing large models to better understand government.

A relevant person in charge of Baidu Smart Cloud stated that the 2.0 version of the Government Large Model Solution will provide governments with more comprehensive and intelligent government services and management methods, helping the construction of digital government reach new heights.

Based on Baidu’s Government Large Model Solution 2.0 and leveraging Baidu Search, Baidu also collaborated with the Tangshan Municipal People’s Government to launch the country’s first intelligent service application for people’s livelihood (hereinafter referred to as “intelligent agent”). It is reported that the intelligent agent, based on Baidu’s Government Large Model, can recognize user queries and understand semantics through spoken language, providing more intelligent, personalized, and precise government consultation Q&A. Combining the knowledge enhancement of large models, it can achieve intelligent Q&A covering all scenarios and matters, allowing citizens to access and utilize various services provided by the intelligent agent for government consultation and Q&A directly through Baidu Search.

Specifically, the public can ask questions about public service matters to the intelligent agent, which, based on its multidimensional, reliable, and accurate reading comprehension and intent recognition algorithms, can precisely understand user questions and intent, quickly locate and autonomously plan, and provide inquiry and guidance services. The launch of the intelligent agent can quickly realize intelligent guidance, enabling a Q&A process during the handling of specific business, improving efficiency, and effectively solving practical problems for the public while alleviating the pressure on grassroots staff.

Large Model Implementation: Urban Governance from “Seeing” to “Knowing”

The National Housing and Urban-Rural Construction Work Conference held at the end of December 2023 proposed to accelerate the implementation of “Digital Housing Construction.” Systematically carrying out the construction of “Four Goods” – good houses, good communities, good neighborhoods, and good urban areas – to create livable, resilient, and smart cities is an important content of current housing and urban-rural construction work. At this stage, the heat of large models has spread from enterprises to cities, helping urban governance transition from “seeing” to “knowing,” becoming an important engine for building livable, resilient, and smart cities.

In Haidian District, Beijing, large model technology has provided strong technical support for improving urban operation efficiency and serving residents. Haidian District is actively exploring the integration and innovation of artificial intelligence technology and applications, achieving an upgrade of the government service system based on large model capabilities. Through deep cooperation with Baidu Smart Cloud and the University of Science and Technology of China, Haidian District combines Baidu’s Wenxin large model capabilities with the “complaint handling” application scenario to fully leverage the advantages of large models in deep semantic understanding, content generation, and intelligent interaction, achieving intelligent upgrades of the complaint handling workflow, including intelligent dispatching, processing, analysis, and proactive governance.

Baidu’s Wenxin large model empowers the “complaint handling” business of the Haidian District Urban Management Command Center, not only enhancing the office efficiency of grassroots staff and promoting innovation in government service applications but also bridging the “last mile” of government services to the public, facilitating more refined urban management, more efficient governance, and more convenient resident life.

In the Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area (referred to as “Economic Development Zone”), Baidu Smart Cloud’s “City Governance Video Large Model Full-Range Intelligent Training Scene Based on Domestic Trusted Computing Power” has achieved city governance scenarios with visual large models covering the entire district.

Through large model language interactions, full-map video point adjustment, custom target retrieval, and task generation, it redefines the interaction mode between people and cities. It is reported that Baidu’s Government Large Model supports over 4,000 urban elements for detection, intelligent labeling, and model training in the Economic Development Zone, covering 110 detection algorithms, with 42 algorithm applications deployed and launched, identifying over 3,500 issues.

Moreover, based on the combination of Baidu’s large model capabilities and the governance scenario needs of the Economic Development Zone, a smart government large model service platform has been constructed in the Economic Development Zone. This platform utilizes the computing resources provided by the Beijing Yizhuang Artificial Intelligence Public Computing Power Center, adopts domestically developed controllable frameworks, and combines local data resources to form a service platform with cognitive capabilities specific to the Economic Development Zone. This platform, based on a new architecture of “1+3+3,” has six core features: multi-model management, knowledge base operation, intelligent agent aggregation, one-stop supervision, plug-and-play invocation, and domestic adaptation. Currently, the smart government large model service platform has realized eight scenario applications, including smart government assistants, merchant welcoming centers, intelligent decision-making assistants, Yicheng smart eyes, and intelligent supervision of laboratories, injecting new productive momentum into government work.

As large models become a new driving force for the high-quality development of smart cities, cities will think, have warmth, and evolve like living beings. With the arrival of the AI era, large models provide cities with more generalized capabilities and infinite imaginative space, not only endowing industries with more universal values of intelligence but also allowing us to glimpse the beautiful future of “AI+Cities.”

Editor: Jiang XueMore News · Recommended ReadingHow Large Models Empower New Development of Smart Cities

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