On April 25th, 2018, XiaomiTechnology Co. Ltd.signed an agreement with Wuhan University (WHU) to establish an Artificial Intelligence Joint Laboratory (AIJL). Both parties will give full play to their own advantages for the long-term strategic cooperation in the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI).
Present at the signing ceremony were Lei Jun, chairman and CEO of Xiaomi, Cui Baoqiu, Chief Software Architect and Vice President of AI and Cloud platform, Liu Guojun, Vice President of Kingsoft aCorporation Limited, and Li Jiancheng, Vice Principal of WHU, etc.
The signing ceremony of Artificial Intelligence Joint Laboratory
Xiaomi promised in the agreement to provide an early-stage research and development fund of 10 million yuan to the joint laboratory for scientific research and talent team building on artificial intelligence. The joint laboratory will maximize each party’s advantages in business application, product development and technological research, etc. They will also co-conduct some fundamental, forward-looking and interdisciplinary researches at a strategic level.
What’s more, cooperation will also be conducted on talents training, curriculum building, teacher exchanges, practice and training base construction, so as to provide the most cutting-edge expertise and internship to WHU’s teachers and students. Meanwhile, WHU is supposed to train some highly qualified professionals in both hardware and software for Xiaomi.
“The long-standing eager to promote cooperation between Xiaomi and my alma mater has finally come true after all these years,” Lei Jun talked about his study experience at WHU 30 years ago, where he acquired some understanding of artificial intelligence. Now after a half-lifetime departure, he came back to his alma mater with his unwavering devotion to Artificial Intelligence, so he made AI the collaboration field with WHU.
Lei Jun (second from the left)
“Today, AI is at the technological commanding height of the whole society in wide utilization. The AI cooperation with WHU is a calculating decision. I have been considering how to bring Xiaomi’s strengths into full play, how to seize the commanding heights of scientific research and how to combine the research resources of WHU for in-depth cooperation in this field.” Lei said. He hopes the two parties to cooperate in an innovative manner and seek for the joint point of WHU’s advantages on disciplines and talents and the needs of Xiaomi for its future development. Apart from the collaborative researches on AI, a more comprehensive and in-depth cooperation of production, teaching, research and practice is also on the way.
Liu Juan, Professor from School of Computer Science, said that School of Computer Science of WHU has solid research foundation and fruitful research findings in the related fields of AI. Through the platform of AIJL, both parties will certainly strengthen each other and achieve greater success.
Li Jiancheng expressed his gratitude to Lei Jun for his supports for WHU. He said that with their own advantages, AIJL and Artificial Intelligence Research Institute to be established will certainly inject new vitality into the future development of Xiaomi and WHU. WHU is willing to contribute its resources and strength to alumni’sentrepreneurship and development. Furthermore, the two sides will spare no efforts to promote the development of laboratory and make contributions to the domestic progress of AI.
In the afternoon of April 25th, Lei Jun launched a new-type smartphone--Mi 6X in WHU. At the press conference, Lei explained why the press conference was chosen to be held in WHU. “This is the place where my dream began,” Lei said, “30 years ago, when I was a freshman in WHU, I read a book in the library that changed my whole life: Fire in The Valley.This book fired me and I walked round and round on the playground. Since then, I hope to start a great enterprise to benefit the mass public. When I come back to WHU today, I find the fire in my heart is as blazing and bright as it used to be.”
Lei Jun at the press conference
At the press conference, Lei reaffirmed Xiaomi’s values-- “Affinity and Affordability” and announced the latest board resolution, “From now on, Xiaomi promises to permanently limit its net profit margin post taxes for its entire hardware portfolio (including smartphones, IOT and lifestyle products) within 5%. The extra profits are going to be given back to the customers in a reasonable way.
“Xiaomi always persevere in progressing China’s manufacturing industry and selling products featuring “Affinity and Affordability”. In this way, consumers can enjoy the convenience brought by technology at an affordable price,” Lei said.
(Rewritten by Ge Chao)
(Edited by Zheng Lingling, Shen Yuxi, Liu Jiachen and Liu Xiaoli)
