- The Apsara Conference 2023, organised by Alibaba Group, attracts a global audience of tens of thousands of developers, and emphasises the theme of “computing for the value beyond computation” [sic].
- The conference hosts over 500 sessions and exhibitions across 40,000 square meters, and features leaders of the computing industry.
- Alibaba Group announced its intent to establish “the most open cloud in the AI era,” focusing on AI’s role in transforming various industries and making AI more accessible and cost-effective.
Apsara 2023 officially launched this week, attracting tens of thousands of developers from around the world. Not to be confused with the Apsara Festival, a psychedelic trance festival held in Europe in August, the Apsara Conference is themed around “computing for the value beyond computation”, a nod to Apsara 2015 which shared the same theme.
The 2023 Apsara Conference brings together tech gurus from the computing industry and presents over 500 sessions and exhibitions over an area of 40,000 square meters.
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Creating the most open cloud in the AI era
Joseph Tsai, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Alibaba Group, remarked that we are entering a new with the rapid development of large-scale models of Artificial Intelligence (AI).
AI will increase productivity in all walks of life and will put higher requirements on computing power, he added.
Alibaba’s own investments into research and development here, to upgrade its Alibaba Cloud product, is testament to how they see this industry growing.
“We want to build the most open cloud in the AI era,” Tsai said.
Cloud as the new foundation for society
Cloud computing has implications beyond just the digital economy, touching the whole of society, he said. “We firmly believe that without openness, there is no ecology, and there is no future without ecology. At the same time, we must always climb the technological peak, only standing on the more advanced and more stable technical capabilities, so we can have greater confidence in opening up.”
These moves could make it easier and cheaper to develop and use AI. It has the potential to help various demographics, especially small and medium-sized enterprises, where AI can be used to realise productivity gains.
AI is everywhere
In the 40,000 square meters of the expo, three core themes are distributed in four venues. These themes cover systematic artificial intelligence services, advanced cloud computing technology, and the hottest industry applications and innovations. The demos cover over 500 interactive sessions and demonstrations with each booth promising fresh insights.
On every booth, the words “large model” appear – meaning this is an AI model that can process huge amounts of data and complete complex tasks.
As one of the hottest events in the science and technology industry this year, this year’s Apsara Conference has laid out the research achievements of AI large models and advanced industry model applications which span more than 500 products. But as AI becomes the next big revolution in human industry, how and where AI is used is becoming a focus not just for industry stakeholders, but for the public as well.
