AI thrust to foster new growth drivers

"AI and digitalization are profoundly transforming all industries, and the medical aesthetics industry is no exception," said Jin Xing, cofounder, director and CEO of So-Young International Inc, a leading Chinese aesthetic treatment platform connecting consumers with online services and offline treatments.

Digital technologies and AI have greatly enhanced the safety, quality and accessibility of medical aesthetics services, Jin said. Currently, AI investment is mostly focused on general large models, with a scarcity of models for specific fields and difficulty in data collection, posing significant challenges for the deep penetration of AI in traditional industries, he noted.

The company has explored multiple AI-assisted diagnostic and operation scenarios, including intelligent skin detection, design of auxiliary treatment plans and cross-regional store management, and leveraged digital technologies to provide real-time user feedback, allowing stores to adjust their services promptly and improve service quality.

"The core challenge of AI for most traditional industries is the cost. It requires two to three years of investment in application scenarios and model training, with annual expenses reaching tens of millions or even hundreds of millions of yuan, which is a huge pressure for many enterprises," Jin said, adding that the deep application of AI relies heavily on large amounts of multimodal data.

If technological breakthroughs can be achieved, the application space for AI in the medical aesthetics industry will be broader, he added.

"As a disruptive technology, AI will not only reshape production and people's lifestyles, but also serve as the main battlefield for technological competition among the world's major economies," said Su Jian, a professor of the School of Economics at Peking University.

"AI will penetrate into a wide range of sectors, such as manufacturing and services, restructure production processes and improve efficiency," Su said, highlighting that China's efforts to promote the application of AI across various industries comply with the trend of technological revolution and industrial transformation, and will help the nation gain a competitive edge amid mounting external uncertainties.

Noting that AI technology is witnessing rapid iteration and explosive growth, Zhu Keli, founding director of the China Institute of New Economy, said it is vital to boost its application in diversified scenarios and fields, and accelerate the integration of AI with the real economy.

Zhu emphasized that China's complete industrial system, vast consumer market and abundant industrial application scenarios present unique advantages for the development of AI. "The adoption of AI can reduce production costs, improve the quality of products and optimize resource allocation, thus bringing about huge economic benefits."

Xianyu, Alibaba Group's online trading platform for secondhand goods, is stepping up efforts to use AI to improve the transaction efficiency of idle goods, and elevate the platform's AI service capabilities for buyers.

Ding Jian, president of Xianyu, said the essence of idle goods trading lies in reallocating underused social resources to those who need them, adding that the company aims to improve the matching efficiency of transactions based on the multimodal understanding capabilities of Alibaba's Qwen large models.

Ding said the company has built proprietary AI functions that can precisely understand product content and pricing. For instance, the AI-powered smart search uses interactive searches to better understand the needs and purchasing preferences of users, with the aim of matching suitable items and sellers with buyers, and providing detailed shopping advice.

Ding said Xianyu's AI applications are currently used by 45 million customers, with the cumulative transaction of AI-driven merchandise exceeding 10 billion yuan. It has built a comprehensive set of AI agents tailored to the trading scenario of idle goods, integrating AI across the entire transaction chain.

Although AI brings about new development opportunities, challenges remain with regard to privacy, data security and copyright protection.

Safeguarding large models is of vital importance to bolster the application of AI across various sectors, said Hu Zhenquan, president of Chinese cybersecurity company 360 Digital Security Group.

New and complicated cybersecurity challenges, such as data leakage and malicious misuse of data, have emerged along with the integration of AI with a wide range of fields, he said, while calling for efforts to jointly solve the security issues brought about by AI.

The company has released a white paper on the security of large models, which systematically elaborates on key risks in large model operation and proposes security solutions.

"AI security governance remains a long-term and challenging task that requires concerted efforts across the entire industry," Hu said, adding that the company will work with industry partners to build a solid AI security defense system to promote the safe and steady development of the AI industry.

fanfeifei@chinadaily.com.cn