Jiao Hao: The "AI Plus" [1] Initiative Leads the Cultivation of Future Industries
The 2024 Central Economic Work Conference explicitly proposed the launch of the "AI Plus" [1] action to cultivate future industries. According to the Implementation Opinions on Promoting the Innovative Development of Future Industries, future industries focus primarily on six major fields: future manufacturing, future information, future materials, future energy, future space, and future health. These industries possess high value-added technological components, strong innovation drive, and vast market prospects. They represent the frontier directions of the new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation, and will become important battlegrounds for promoting the optimization of economic structures and social development. Departing from previous innovation models, the "AI Plus" action drives cross-domain technological synergy and innovation by deeply integrating artificial intelligence technology with the specialized knowledge and technical resources of various industries. It not only accelerates breakthroughs in existing technologies but also enables the precise identification and cultivation of high-potential future industries.
The "AI Plus" Action Builds the Technical Infrastructure for Future Industrial Development
A "technical infrastructure" (技术底座) refers to the technical system that provides core support and foundational guarantees for technological innovation, application promotion, and systemic operation during the process of industrial development. By strengthening technical support and deepening cross-sector integration, the "AI Plus" action has established a highly dynamic technical infrastructure for the development of future industries.
The "AI Plus" action promotes the expansion of AI applications into deeper levels, providing core technical support for future industries. By driving the deep application of technologies such as intelligent sensing, natural language processing, machine learning, and computer vision, the action ensures that future industries have a solid foundation for continuous development at the technical level. For example, as foundational AI technologies, machine learning and deep learning provide technical support for quantum information processing through pattern recognition and data analysis, optimizing data processing in quantum computing and promoting the coordinated deployment of quantum software and quantum cloud platforms. In the field of humanoid robots, AI grants robots autonomous learning and decision-making capabilities, enhancing their adaptability and level of intelligence in real-world environments.
The fusion of the "AI Plus" action with other frontier technologies facilitates the incubation and technological iteration of future industrial innovation achievements, further driving industrial reform. The action relies not only on its own technological progress but also on deep integration with other emerging technologies to promote cross-domain collaborative innovation. For instance, while quantum computing holds significant advantages in processing large-scale data, complex models, and multi-dimensional optimization problems, AI can efficiently utilize the computational power provided by quantum computing. This fusion further drives the development of the quantum information industry. In the metaverse, the combination of brain-computer interfaces (BCI) and AI can provide users with more immersive and interactive virtual reality experiences.
The "AI Plus" Action Reshapes the Business Models of Future Industries
Future industries often involve high degrees of uncertainty, complexity, and forward-looking vision. This requires their business models not only to be capable of breaking through traditional economic forms but also to be deeply integrated with emerging technologies. The core of reshaped business models via the "AI Plus" action lies in constructing platform-based operations, meeting personalized user needs, and establishing a business logic oriented toward the integration of the digital and physical realms (数实融合). This model allows enterprises to respond rapidly to market demands, dynamically adjust resource allocation, and maximize commercial value through innovative application scenarios.
The "AI Plus" action activates platform-based operation models for future industries. It ensures that business models are no longer limited to value creation within a single enterprise; instead, they connect developers, suppliers, and users through platform models to jointly create added value. For example, the business model of the metaverse is gradually shifting from individual application development to the construction of diversified platforms covering functional modules such as virtual asset trading, social interaction, and digital commodity purchases. While breaking down industrial boundaries, the platform structure promotes continuous value co-creation among all participants, achieving shared resources and collaborative innovation.
The "AI Plus" action drives precise response to personalized user needs in future industries. AI redefines the path to satisfying user needs in a data-driven manner. Through powerful data processing, optimized decision-making, and system integration, it provides the technical support to respond precisely to individual requirements. For example, in the field of BCI, AI can realize customized treatment plans or auxiliary services based on biological signals by collecting massive amounts of interaction data in real-time. It can also adjust service content based on personalized factors such as the user's health status, effectively enhancing user experience.
The "AI Plus" action significantly alters value transmission methods in future industries through the deep integration of the digital and physical. Serving as a bridge between the digital world and the real economy, the "AI Plus" action breaks traditional value chain structures and promotes innovation in value acquisition, transmission, and creation. This enables enterprises to achieve more efficient and sustainable value transmission across production, marketing, sales, and service. For example, AI encourages future display technologies to combine virtual content with the physical world, changing traditional interaction methods. When applied to entertainment, education, and healthcare, these can provide more immersive and interactive experiences.
The "AI Plus" Action Empowers the Synergistic Development of Industrial and Supply Chains
Industrial and supply chains are vital systems for achieving resource allocation, production coordination, and value transmission. The core of empowering these chains through the "AI Plus" action lies in enhancing their collaborative capacity and adaptability, allowing them to adjust quickly to market changes and maximize value through efficient cross-field and cross-link coordination.
The "AI Plus" action strengthens collaborative innovation and creates open upstream and downstream relationships. Through efficient data processing and intelligent decision-making, the industrial and supply chains of future industries will break traditional linear production models. This promotes resource sharing, information exchange, and collaborative innovation among partners, forming a more open and flexible ecosystem. For example, in bio-manufacturing, AI can optimize raw material procurement, production process control, and logistics distribution to ensure product quality and delivery times. In future network technologies, AI can optimize data transmission paths and coordinate network resources across different levels to ensure smooth operations.
The "AI Plus" action improves the predictability and traceability of industrial and supply chains. Through big data analysis and deep learning, the action enables precise forecasting and optimization, thereby enhancing efficiency and response speeds. The application of AI also helps improve traceability; for instance, in the field of new energy storage, real-time monitoring of every link in battery manufacturing allows for the prediction of potential quality issues, thereby reducing risk and waste.
The "AI Plus" action deepens human-machine collaboration to improve efficiency. For example, in the fields of humanoid robotics and BCI, robots can collaborate with humans to complete repetitive or high-risk tasks, self-optimizing through AI analysis of worker movements and environmental data. BCI technology also provides new possibilities for deep collaboration, allowing the control of robots through brainwaves to perform precise tasks.
The "AI Plus" Action Promotes the Construction of Digital Innovation Ecosystems
A digital innovation ecosystem refers to a value network composed of stakeholders such as enterprises, national laboratories, universities, research institutes, and the government. It focuses on forward-looking future technologies and new industrial directions, utilizing AI to achieve multi-party collaborative innovation and win-win outcomes. The "AI Plus" action uses ecosystem thinking to strengthen the synergistic development of all subjects, driving the iterative upgrading of future industries and the diffusion of technological innovation.
The "AI Plus" action promotes symbiotic reciprocity among different stakeholders in the ecosystem, forming a model of integrated innovative development. Based on a logic of complementarity and mutual benefit, stakeholders increase the overall value of the ecosystem. The "AI Plus" action permeates the entire process of basic research, applied research, and product development. Based on massive data, it helps stakeholders predict the development trajectories of frontier innovations and assists in the optimal combination of innovation elements such as data, technology, and talent. While fully releasing the commercial value of original scientific achievements, it builds a collaborative digital innovation ecosystem.
The "AI Plus" action expands the boundaries of digital innovation and creates innovation consortia (创新联合体) for integrated development. Utilizing large models, big data, and high computing power, the action precisely matches the innovation needs of various participants, cultivating more "unicorn" and "gazelle" [2] enterprises. For example, a future industrial innovation consortium for biomedicine can lead the way in new tracks such as AI, BCI, and intelligent medical manufacturing, driving the overall development of the Yangtze River Delta region through industrial incubation and common technology platforms.
The "AI Plus" action facilitates effective governance of the digital innovation ecosystem. As a new model for organizing scientific innovation, the action sees future industries—such as BCI, bio-manufacturing, future display, and deep-earth/deep-sea exploration—penetrate fields like healthcare, education, energy, and culture. this attracts the broader public to join the ecosystem, creating social benefits alongside economic value. When future industries deviate from normal development paths, the public can participate in corrective measures, working with the government and industry associations to supervise and regulate improper behavior, ensuring that innovation truly meets social needs and enhances social welfare.
It must be noted that future industries are currently in a gestational stage; a comprehensive risk identification system and regulatory mechanism have yet to be established. In the process of promoting the "AI Plus" action, we should establish a sound risk assessment system for AI applications and a review system for technological ethics. We must accelerate AI legislation to ensure a positive interaction between technological innovation and socio-economic benefits, pushing future industries steadily toward high-quality development.
(Author: Jiao Hao, Professor at the School of Economics and Business Administration, Beijing Normal University) Source: Guangming Daily (January 7, 2025, Page 11) Web Editor: Hui Hui