华尔街日报：中国品牌iPIN杀入AI混战

　　美国时间2月19日，华尔街日报社刊登了一篇名为《中国品牌杀入AI混战》的专题文章，其中提到了目前全世界范围内的人工智能资本与创业热潮，并专访了中国人工智能创业公司iPIN。从这篇文章中，我们可以看出中国未来人工智能的发展走向，更加清晰地读懂中国创业。

　　华尔街日报截图

　　以下内容为原文翻译：

　　“As the world is changing faster than it ever has before, new technologies are disrupting lives. Artificial intelligence (AI) is at the core of this change – every year machines are becoming more sophisticated and ‘smart’. This was exhibited at the AAAI-17, the premier AI conference in San Francisco, where amongst the western tech giants, key Chinese players such as Baidu, Huawei and Tencent had an increased presence.

　　如今的世界发展日新月异，新技术不断地在改变着我们的生活。人工智能(AI)正处在这一革新的核心地带，因为有了人工智能，机器每一年都变得越来越复杂、越来越聪明。这是我们在今年旧金山的人工智能大会AAAI-17上看到的景象，今年的AAAI汇集了西方国家的科技行业巨头，另外来自中国的百度、腾讯、华为等公司也在大会上崭露头角。

　　“2016 was a breakthrough year for AI with over 1485 startups receiving investment globally according to Venture Scanner 2016 data. A lot of this momentum was supplied by China and India, who are investing in entrepreneurship within the digital world. However, compared to their western rivals such as Apple’s Siri, Microsoft’s Cortana or Amazon’s Alexa, Chinese companies may still be a long way away from mass-market practical usage.

　　根据调查公司Venture Scanner 的数据显示，2016年对于人工智能来讲是突破性的一年，全世界范围内有1485家创业公司拿到了投资。其中许多行业里的里程碑是由中国和印度创造的，这两个国家在互联网创业领域投入了大量的政策和支持。然而，相比于西方巨头们的人工智能产品，比如苹果公司的Siri、微软的Cortana以及亚马逊的Alexa，中国公司的人工智能产品距离推向大众市场、具备实用价值，还有很长的一段路要走。

　　“Many AI startups are still trying to find a niche where machine intelligence can be deployed at a more cost effective and easier way than humans could have ever achieved. Even more well-known concepts by western brands are still in a phase of trial-and-error. Tesla and its self-driving cars is one example, highlighted by the tragic death of a driver because of gaps in the car’s autopilot.

　　许多创业公司仍旧在寻找细分市场，希望可以在细分市场上让机器更加智能化，让工作效率更高、成本更低、更简单，能做出比人类更好的工作。但是，即便是上面提到的西方巨头们，依旧处于人工智能试错阶段。Tesla以及其自驾驶汽车就是其中的一个典型例子，最近他们的人工智能自动驾驶系统因为预报了可能发生的车祸、拯救了司机生命而登上各大媒体头条。

　　“Incident’s such as Tesla’s made AAAI-17, in its 31st edition, an important platform for tech entrepreneurs around the world to discuss ideas for the industry and help develop it together. The event saw Chinese AI startup iPIN introduce itself to the world stage, having two papers accepted. The brand demonstrated that not all AI is used for commercial purposes as iPIN aims to help high school students chose tertiary education facilities based on their career goals. The company’s CEO, Dr. Yang Yang spoke at the conference, noting that some of the more agile startups are positioned to perform better than big-name established enterprises.

　　作为一个让全世界的科技创业者们讨论行业观点、实现互帮互助的重要平台，今年的AAAI-17大会(该协会的第31次人工智能大会)就像Tesla登上头条一样，火了一把。在本次大会上，我们看到了来自中国的人工智能创业公司iPIN开始步入国际舞台，一口气在AAAI上发表了2篇学术论文。这家公司向我们展示了不是所有的人工智能都可以商用，而iPIN的人工智能产品早已在帮助中国的高三学生根据生涯目标选择合适的大学和专业。iPIN公司的CEO 杨洋博士在大会上做了演讲，提到了一些快速发展、市场敏感的创业公司已经比大牌的科技公司做得好了。

　　“iPIN uses a GPS –like system in career development based on its database, aiming to help the leaders of tomorrow follow the best career path in line with their skill sets. During the university application period in 2015, the startup helped over 2 million freshmen-to-be get coveted enrollment offers.

　　根据其已有的数据库，iPIN为这些未来领袖们提供如GPS一样的职业发展规划，帮助他们根据自己的技能组合选择最合适的生涯路径。在2015年的高考志愿填报阶段，iPIN帮助了超过200万的准大学生们拿到了他们心仪大学的录取通知书。

　　“Dr. Yang Yang, a serial entrepreneur who had worked at the National Laboratory for Tourism and e-Commerce and Temple University Fox Business School, draws on his wealth of experience of collective intelligence and data analysis for enterprises. Such knowledge has allowed Dr. Yang Yang to be a pioneer in AI technology within China.

　　杨洋博士履历丰富，作为一位连续创业者，他曾在美国国家旅游业与电子商务实验室、天普大学商学院工作过，在集体智能(Collective Intelligence)和企业数据分析领域有丰富的专业经验。这些工作经历让杨洋博士成为中国人工智能技术领域的先行者。

　　“The startup follows in the footsteps of what many analysts view as the most mature and widespread AI products in the market – IBM Watson – a business cognitive analysis platform which can complete the job of information analysis, natural language process and machine learning. According to TechCrunch, IBM worked with H&R Block to help people reduce the time they consume on tax deduction and all its often monotonous calculations. Watson also helps researchers conduct medical studies and provides artificial program interfaces (APIs) for developers to build virtual assistants.

　　iPIN的这一做法并非首创，它其实是对成熟产品的“取其精华”。许多评论家把IBM公司的Watson人工智能看作是目前市场上最成熟、市场传播最广的人工智能产品，这个语义分析平台能够完成信息分析、自然语言处理以及机器学习等多项任务，而iPIN学到了Watson的精髓。根据美国科技媒体TechCrunch的报道，IBM在本月早些时间与美国H&R Block公司合作，开发出了能够帮助人们算税的软件，减少了人们浪费在算税上的宝贵时间，避免了报税前的枯燥计算。同时Watson也在帮助研究人员进行医疗研究，为软件开发者开发虚拟助手提供人工智能的API接口。

　　“Though they are both powerful artificial intelligence platforms, iPIN is currently focusing on education and human resources – more specifically splitting it services into three categories – human resources, career development and legal services. However, it is education that makes Mr. Yang Yang most proud and passionate:

　　尽管iPIN和Watson都是性能强劲的人工智能平台，iPIN目前重点关注教育和人力资源领域，与Watson有所不同。确切地来讲可以分成三个服务领域：人力资源、职业发展和法律服务。不过，最让杨洋博士骄傲和充满激情的其实是教育领域：

　　““My co-founder Pan Rong and I are both associate professors, we have been concentrating on talent training and education. Freshmen-to-be don't know their major career path and work type before they choose universities, which led to 71.2% of undergraduates failing to find a major-related work after their graduation. We want iPIN to help students make plans to their careers through early AI career development intervention, so to cut down mismatches between career and major.”

　　“我和我的联合创始人潘嵘都是大学副教授，一直以来都专注于人才培训和人才教育。在选专业的时候，准大学生们都不知道他们所选专业的生涯路径和工作种类，这就导致了等到他们大学毕业时有71.2%的大学生找不到和专业相关的工作岗位。我们希望iPIN能够通过人工智能职业规划的早期介入，帮助他们做好生涯规划，以此减少大学专业和职业生涯不匹配的情况。”

　　“Since 2015, iPIN provided AI career development services and professional suggestions to over 5 million students.

　　从2015年开始，iPIN就开始为准大学生们提供人工智能生涯发展服务和职业建议，已经服务了超过500万准大学生。

　　“Adopting artificial intelligence, business intelligence, and collective intelligence to analyze personal connections and forge a career development plan, as Dr. Yang Yang said in his speech to AAAI-17, is the methodology of iPIN:

　　在AAAI-17的发言中，杨洋博士提到了iPIN的方法论：利用人工智能(AI)、商业智能(BI)、集体智能(CI)来实现最深度的人脉关系解读，为学生找到合适的生涯发展规划。

　　““We believe AI+BI+CI will be the market trend this year. Our annual goal is to let more Chinese customer and business partners enjoy the Knowledge Work Automation technology, especially in education, human resources, and legal service industries.”

　　“我们认为AI+BI+CI将成为今年人工智能市场的趋势。今年iPIN的目标就是让更多的中国用户和商业合作伙伴享受Knowledge Work Automation(知识工作自动化)技术，尤其重点发展教育、人力资源、法律服务市场。”

　　“Dr. Yang Yang added that their university application product (Wan Mei Zhi Yuan) will be used by millions of students this summer. The tech brand is also gearing up for its career development product, to be released next month, whilst their profession planning product is also slated to be rolled out later this year. Based on value, opportunity and business, AI startups are only just starting to find out the products that consumers want, helping them empower their lives and building a strong foundation for the future.

　　杨洋博士还表示，他们的大学志愿填报产品(完美志愿)今年夏天还将为数百万学生提供服务。iPIN还将在下个月发布他们的生涯规划产品，同时也将计划在2017年推出职业规划产品。因为有了价值、机会和市场，人工智能创业公司终于开始明白消费者需要什么样的产品，然后用人工智能来让人们的生活更美好，为未来打下坚实的基础。

　　为什么在众多人工智能公司中，中国创业公司iPIN能获得《华尔街日报》的强烈关注?iPIN是人工智能风口上的幸运儿还是低调的实力派?无论如何，西方媒体对中国人工智能公司的强烈关注，代表至少在这个垂直领域，中国已经对美国构成了极大的威胁。