腾讯将进军AI新领域

Tencent Holdings Ltd is looking to deepen its artificial intelligence push into transportation solutions, security and protection, as well as voice recognition, realms that were once seen as strongholds of other tech majors.

腾讯控股有限公司正在谋求深入推进其人工智能研究应用到交通解决方案、安保以及语音识别等领域，而这些领域曾一度被认为都是其他科技巨头们的强项。

The endeavor to advance into new areas builds upon the company’s initial success in developing AI for medical diagnosis, a mission designated to Tencent by the country’s top industry and internet regulator, according to Liu Yongsheng, head of Tencent AI Lab.

根据腾讯人工智能实验室主任刘永生的意思，腾讯为进军新领域而做出的努力是其在将人工智能应用于医疗诊断上取得初步成就的基础，而应用人工智能进行医疗诊断是在中国顶尖行业和互联网管理者的要求下进行的。

For the purpose of better city management, there’s plenty of space for different companies to leverage and deploy their AI capabilities. Every player is just taking a tiny slice of the pie, he told China Daily on Friday.

他周五接受中国日报采访时说：“为了实现更好的城市管理，不同公司都有大量投资和部署其人工智能技术的空间。每一家参与的公司都正从巨大的市场中分得一小杯羹。”

Ideally, algorithms and big data can be combined to provide live traffic predictions, so that safety precaution measures and contingency plans can be introduced in advance, he said.

他说，理想情况下，结合算法和大数据可以提供实时的交通预测，从而可以提前做好安全预防措施和应急预案。

This is an area where arch rival Alibaba Holding Group Ltd has gained an early foothold. It pioneered a smart traffic management system called City Brain in Hangzhou, where average traffic speed was reported to have increased 15 percent since its launch in September 2016. Early this year, the firm exported a similar mechanism to Malaysia, the first of its kind overseas.

而在这一领域主要对手阿里巴巴集团已经取得了先发优势。阿里巴巴在杭州率先发起了一项名为“城市大脑”的交通管理系统，据报道，自该系统从2016年9月上线以来，交通速度已经提升了15%。今年早些时候，阿里巴巴向马来西亚出口了一套类似机制的系统，此举尚为在海外市场上的首例。

Nevertheless, there are just so many facets in urban planning that companies can dig deep into, Liu said. "We don’t necessarily have to compete with each other and can all be part of city planning in the long run."

“但是，在城市规划中涉及诸多方面，而各家公司都可以（在各个方面）进行深挖，”刘说。“我们不一定要和彼此进行竞争，从长远看我们都可以为城市规划贡献一份力量。”

voice recognition is another area on which Tencent is placing bets. An indigenous group is working to optimize accuracy from voice conversion to machine translation, functions that are embedded in WeChat, the ubiquitous messaging app that has nearly 1 billion users.

语音识别是腾讯投资进军的另一个领域。一支本土团队正在努力优化从语音转文字再到机器翻译的准确性，这项功能已经嵌入了微信中，该家喻户晓的通讯应用拥有近10亿用户。

We are developing our own team and own technologies, Liu said, when asked if they are banking on technologies of iFlyTek, a domestic voice recognition specialist.

当被问及他们是否正依赖本土语音识别专门公司科大讯飞的技术时，刘说：“我们正在培养自己的团队并发展自己的技术。”

China has upheld the development of AI as a national strategy and has recruited Tencent, Alibaba, iFlyTek and Baidu Inc to an "AI national team" to have them each focus on one specific field.

中国支持将人工智能作为国家战略发展，已委任腾讯、阿里巴巴，科大讯飞和百度为“人工智能国家队”，以使其各自致力于特定领域的研究。

While Tencent has been tasked to use its computer vision for medical diagnosis, Baidu will specialize in autonomous driving, Alibaba in smart city and iFlyTek in voice intelligence.

同时腾讯致力于将计算机视野用于医疗诊断领域，百度将专门从事自动驾驶研究，阿里巴巴致力于打造智能城市，科大讯飞致力于生智能语音研发。

According to Liu, Tencent will further expand the use of its AI-backed cancer-detection product Miying to a wider array of diseases.

据刘所述，腾讯将进一步拓展其人工智能支持的癌症检测产品Miying到更广泛的疾病领域。

Currently it is used in reading CT scans and screening of four types of cancers including lung cancer, the most common cancer in China, in around 60 hospitals across 20 provinces.

目前该产品在全国20个省的60家医院被用于读取CT扫描和包括肺癌在内的四种癌症筛查，而肺癌是中国最常见的癌症。

We are anticipating an even bigger role for Miying this year, by having AI assist human doctors in their daily diagnosis, he said.

他说道:“通过在医生日常诊断方面借助人工智能，我们期待今年Miying发挥更大作用。”