On April 18, Lenovo held the 10th Lenovo Tech World in Shanghai under the theme “Smarter AI for All.” The global innovation event demonstrated Lenovo’s core propositions, strategic vision, and latest technological achievements based on hybrid artificial intelligence (AI). The event also saw the further unveiling of a groundbreaking new AI species – the AI PC. The event built on the momentum of Lenovo’s Tech World event last October in Austin.
“The next stage of the AI era will be marked by a shift from technological breakthrough to practical applications,” said Yaunqing Yang, Chairman and CEO of Lenovo. “This requires us to accumulate user feedback from real-world users, constantly improve, and innovate.”
Industry leaders and AI technology experts gathered at the event to discuss the future of AI, including technological frameworks, ecosystem partnerships, and industrial developments that will drive the implementation and inclusivity of AI. Cristiano Amon, President and CEO of Qualcomm, Pat Gelsinger, CEO of Intel, and Lisa Su, Chair and CEO of AMD, shared the cutting-edge innovations in the field of AI, expressing their commitment to continue deepening their collaboration with Lenovo to promote the integration of AI into daily life and accelerate intelligent transformation across various industries.
Distinguished guests from diverse fields also participated in the event and shared their observations, research, and applications of Lenovo’s cutting edge technology, including Stefano Domenicali, President and CEO of Formula 1®.
Hybrid AI Defines the Future, Paving the Path Towards “Smarter AI for All”
A transformative revolution sparked by AI is already unfolding across various industries, presenting humanity with a new form of “intelligence.” Yang expressed that AI essentially serves as a technological method which enables ideas to transform more easily into reality. “AI is perhaps better called ‘Augmented Intelligence’ instead of ‘Artificial Intelligence,’” said Yang.
At the event, renowned Chinese film director Lu Chuan discussed the impact of AI on artistic creation. “”AI can dramatically increase the speed of visualization of ideas and help thousands of young people with movie dreams to cross the financial barrier,” he said. Lu Chuan also announced his plans to establish the AI Works studio in partnership with Lenovo to further explore the application of AI throughout the filming and production process.
Lenovo develops hybrid AI solutions to reach and empower even more industries. t. Yang pointed out that while public foundation models serve as catalysts and accelerators for the widespread adoption of AI, they have limitations in terms of network speed, cloud efficiency, cost considerations, and data privacy. In the framework of hybrid AI, personal and enterprise foundation models, as well as the personal and enterprise intelligent agents developed based on these models, will co-exist and complement the public foundation models with more personalized services and privacy protection.
Leveraging model compression technology, personal intelligent agents will operate on personal or edge devices such as computers, smartphones, tablets, wearable displays, and even automobiles. These AI agents will receive instructions through natural interactions. Users will be able to incorporate their own personalized local knowledge bases and data, enabling the foundation models to understand them better.
Enterprise users will benefit from enterprise intelligent agents. Spread across various devices and infrastructure within the organization, the enterprise intelligent agents will be able to learn and reason based on vast amounts of enterprise-specific data, supporting operational decision-making, improving management efficiency, and boosting productivity while ensuring information security.
Global industry partners reinforced the value of the hybrid AI approach. Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger noted that as not every bit of information needs to live in the public cloud, a hybrid artificial intelligence environment is critical. The most private data needs to be kept secure. “Like Lenovo, who provides technology for everything from pocket to cloud, Intel provides the building blocks for responsible Al in the Data Center, Edge, and Al PC,” said Gelsinger. “Lenovo and Intel are co-engineering the AI PC, delivering AI experiences, and enabling a strong AI ecosystem in China to complement the global AI ecosystem of experiences.”
Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon said: “As we enter the era of AI, we are on the verge of a transformation in computing, and we are excited to be working with Lenovo to bring it to users. This is an exciting time for the industry, and I look forward to innovating with top players like Lenovo to jointly create next-generation AI PCs and bring smart, personalized experiences to users.”
Lenovo advocates the hybrid AI framework, a mix of public and private large models; the next step is intelligent agent based on those models. Dr. Yong Rui, Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer of Lenovo, said that big models must be developed and enhanced while adapting that intelligence to different application scenarios.
An Intelligent agent needs to know the boundary of its own ability and when it should leverage additional tools. In addition, it needs to have the ability of active perception, intent understanding, breakdowns of complex tasks, and long and short-term memory mechanisms.
Lenovo Unveils AI PC and Propels AI for All with Three Pillars
Yang Yuanqing pointed out that the pathway to wider implementation is through “full-stack AI,” which covers smart devices, smart infrastructure, and intelligent solutions and services — the three pillars that Lenovo leverages to achieve “smarter AI for all.”
For individual users, the most efficient path to experiencing AI is through intelligent devices with built-in personal intelligent agents. Following Lenovo’s breakthrough AI PC announcements at MWC in February, this revolutionary product made its debut in Shanghai with the launch of the AI PC series for the Chinese market.
Beyond the personalized AI agent, the AI PC also has a local personal knowledge base, incorporating the local heterogeneous AI computing power of the CPU, GPU, and NPU and connecting to an open AI application ecosystem—all while protecting personal data and privacy. Yang stated that these features transform the PC from a Personal Computer into an AI Personalized Computer.
Luca Rossi, Executive Vice President and President of Lenovo’s Intelligent Devices Group (IDG) said that today marks just the starting point for the AI PC. Lenovo has adopted a rolling thunder pipeline in its product launch strategy, with plans to consistently deliver more choices in AI devices to the market. At the same time, Lenovo is collaborating with the industry’s leading silicon and OS partners to build the best devices that can meet the high-performance demanded by AI.
For enterprise customers, with computing power more evenly distributed across the cloud, edge, and devices, deploying AI and enterprise solutions relies more and more on multi-layer AI hybrid infrastructure spanning “Client-Edge-Cloud-Network-Intelligence.”
Kirk Skaugen, Executive Vice President and President of Lenovo’s Infrastructure Solutions Group (ISG) noted Lenovo Intelligent Infrastructure is applied more at the edge and in the cloud through next-generation hybrid AI solutions to ensure that customers and partners apply AI faster and can fully unleash the power of data in the enterprise. The newly released Lenovo Wanquan Heterogeneous Intelligent Computing Platform will provide arithmetic power through intelligent matching, improve efficiency based on core algorithms, and realize green arithmetic power through liquid-cooling technology innovation.
As hybrid intelligent infrastructure becomes more widely adopted, the demand for design, deployment, management, and maintenance will become more complex. More comprehensive, systematic service capabilities, and tailored solutions will emerge. Ken Wong, Executive Vice President and President of Lenovo’s Solutions and Services Group (SSG) noted that based on Lenovo’s expertise in new IT intelligent transformation, SSG has upgraded its offerings to for the hybrid AI era. Lenovo also aims to provide full-life-cycle services and customized solutions, with the enterprise agent as the core, driving and assisting customers in transforming their business through intelligent transformation consulting.
From smart devices to intelligent infrastructure, Lenovo and AMD’s 30-year collaboration has yielded a series of industry-leading solutions to drive advancements in computing. “At AMD, we completely agree with the theme of Al for All,” said AMD CEO Lisa Su. She noted that AMD and Lenovo are working closely across hardware and software to transform PCs into truly intelligent and personalized devices, bringing best-in-class Al PCs to market and leading the way into the Al computing era.
Accelerating Intelligent Transformation, Ushering in a New Decade of AI
Yang shared that hybrid AI will enhance productivity and greatly accelerate intelligent transformation across various industries. The technology industry must seize this once-in-a-century growth opportunity, establish ecological alliances, foster industry synergies, embrace open innovation, and seek common development.
2024 also marks Lenovo’s 40th anniversary. At the recent kickoff event for employees around the world, Yang announced the company’s mission for the next decade is leading the AI revolution, reiterating Lenovo’s commitment to inclusive innovation, accelerating transformation, and ushering ina new decade of artificial intelligence.
Yang emphasized that Lenovo will develop and evolve the entire industrial ecosystem to ensure AI will be accessible, fair, and inclusive across all development and application stages. Everyone should benefit from AI advancements in a more sustainable future created through “Smarter AI for All.”
Additionally, the FORMULA 1 LENOVO CHINESE GRAND PRIX 2024, sponsored by Lenovo, will be held in Shanghai from April 19-21. At Tech World, Formula 1 CEO Stefano Domenicali spoke about F1’s ongoing partnership with Lenovo: “I am very pleased that F1 can witness the 20th anniversary of the Chinese Grand Prix together with Lenovo. Lenovo’s comprehensive technical support for F1 not only promotes the deep integration of technology and motorsport, but also demonstrates its commitment to diversity and inclusiveness.”
