Beijing builds "AI Capital", Shanghai Metaverse "sprints"

Source: Zero One Finance

Author: Not long ago, Beijing issued two major artificial intelligence policies in succession to build the "first AI city" from the perspective of strategy, strategy, and operation; The "Metaverse" key technology research action plan has been formulated, and the main direction of attack has been clarified.

Whether it is building an "AI capital" or sprinting to become a "metaverse city", both Beijing and Shanghai have considerable "digital" strength. The "China Digital Economy Development Index Report (2022)" shows that in terms of digital industries, Shanghai has relatively more advantages, and its number of computer software and hardware companies and the number of emerging digital technology companies rank first in the country; in terms of digital technology, Beijing is slightly better, its total digital technology and digital technology density are ahead of Shanghai.

01, heavy policy bursts, Beijing "AI capital" building is in progress

At present, we are at a new starting point, and a new era of artificial intelligence with large models as the core is coming. According to the "China Artificial Intelligence Large-scale Model Map Research Report" released by the Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China on May 28, at least 79 large-scale models with a scale of more than 1 billion parameters have been released in China, and Beijing accounts for 38, ranking first.

At the government level, Beijing pays close attention to the development of general artificial intelligence technology. Recently, it has successively introduced policies and measures to accelerate the pace of innovation around the artificial intelligence model, explore new paths for general artificial intelligence, and create a highland for artificial intelligence innovation.

· On May 19, the "Beijing General Artificial Intelligence Industry Innovation Partnership Program" (hereinafter referred to as the "Partnership Program") was launched;

· On May 30, "Several Measures for Promoting the Innovation and Development of General Artificial Intelligence in Beijing" (hereinafter referred to as ""Several Measures"");

· On May 30, the "Implementation Plan for Accelerating the Construction of Beijing as a Globally Influential Artificial Intelligence Innovation Center (2023-2025)" (hereinafter referred to as the "Implementation Plan") was issued.

1. Strategic level: "Implementation Plan" describes the blueprint and direction

The "Implementation Plan" provides goals and directions for Beijing's artificial intelligence technology innovation and industrial development from a strategic perspective. The document pointed out that by 2025, Beijing's artificial intelligence technology innovation and industrial development will enter a new stage, and strive to become a source of artificial intelligence innovation with global influence. To this end, Beijing has put forward the "five new" development ideas: lay out a number of cutting-edge directions, achieve new leadership in technological innovation; promote a number of domestic substitutions, and achieve new breakthroughs in technological breakthroughs; Leap forward; create a number of demonstration benchmarks, and enable new applications driven by scenarios; create a first-class innovation environment, and form new achievements in ecological construction.

Around this blueprint, Beijing will make breakthroughs in the basic theory of artificial intelligence, the theoretical framework of artificial intelligence will basically take shape, and the embryonic form of general artificial intelligence will emerge; natural language, general vision, and multi-modal interactive large-scale models will form a complete technology stack. Algorithm technology has reached domestic leading and international advanced level. The layout of artificial intelligence computing power has been initially formed, the market share of basic software and hardware products such as domestic artificial intelligence chips and deep learning frameworks has increased significantly, and computing power chips have basically achieved independent control; the proportion of domestic hardware has increased significantly.

The scale of the artificial intelligence core industry will reach 300 billion yuan, and will continue to maintain a growth rate of more than 10%, and the scale of the radiation industry will exceed 1 trillion yuan. The research investment of leading artificial intelligence companies continues to increase, the number of start-ups continues to grow, the total number of companies remains the leading domestic company, and 5 to 10 new unicorn companies have been cultivated. Beijing will also give full play to the industrial characteristics and resource advantages of each district, combine the characteristics of artificial intelligence technology, and form a number of major application scenarios with strong demonstration, great influence and wide driving force around economic and social development, scientific research discoveries, and major people's livelihood needs. .

The "Implementation Plan" proposes 16 key tasks from the five directions of breaking through key technologies, consolidating the underlying foundation, building an industrial matrix, promoting scene construction, and building an innovative ecology.

2. Implementation level: "Several Measures" proposes 21 specific measures around computing power and data

The "Several Measures" issued simultaneously focused on five aspects of computing power, data, models, scenarios, and supervision, faced hotspot concerns, and directly addressed developmental issues, and proposed 21 specific measures to create a more complete innovation for the rational and healthy development of general artificial intelligence. ecology.

The first is to directly address the details of development, and propose specific measures for the core elements and key links of industrial development such as computing power, data, algorithms, applications, and supervision. Artificial intelligence innovation development.

The second is direct access to the future layout. General artificial intelligence is the focus of current and future international artificial intelligence research. "Several Measures" systematically lays out the key common technological innovations of large models, and at the same time makes forward-looking plans for other new paths such as general intelligence, brain-like intelligence, and embodied intelligence. By supporting innovative subjects to break through key "points" and supporting leading companies to drive the industry "chain" ", building a public service platform to broaden the "coverage" of services, and coordinate the layout of the trinity to promote the city's efforts to build a future-oriented artificial intelligence full-stack independent technology system and industrial ecology.

The third is to face industry concerns. The market is a key force driving the development of the artificial intelligence industry. The "Several Measures" insists on giving full play to the role of the market mechanism, firmly grasps the strategic opportunity of large-scale models empowering thousands of industries, fully combines the advantages and characteristics of the city's economic and social development, and guides innovation subjects in a number of key areas such as smart cities, scientific research, and smart medical care. Scenarios realize the innovative application of artificial intelligence, strengthen regulatory technology and policy innovation, and build a sound innovation ecology and development environment for the healthy development of artificial intelligence in Beijing.

3. Strategic level: Launch the general artificial intelligence industry innovation partnership plan, and the first batch of 39 member units were selected

From the strategic level, the "Partnership Program" promotes the research and development and application of large-scale artificial intelligence models in Beijing, and empowers thousands of industries to transform into digital intelligence. The document pointed out that by 2025, a general artificial intelligence industry development pattern with complete elements, leading technology, complete ecology, and strong support for the high-quality development of the digital economy will basically be formed.

According to the document, partners are divided into five categories: computing power partners, data partners, model partners, application partners, and investment partners. The first batch of partners has a total of 39 members, including 2 computing power partners including Alibaba Cloud Computing Co., Ltd. and Beijing Super Cloud Computing Center, 9 data partners including Beijing Big Data Center and Beijing Academy of Science and Technology, Beijing Baidu.com 7 model partners such as Technology Co., Ltd. and Alibaba Dharma Institute (Beijing) Technology Co., Ltd., 13 application partners such as Beijing SME Service Center and Haidian City Brain, as well as IDG Capital Investment Consulting (Beijing) Co., Ltd., Beijing Smart Yuan Venture Capital Fund Management Co., Ltd. and other 8 investment partners.

**02, further refinement, Shanghai clarifies the two main directions of metaverse **

At the end of May, Huang Zhaoying, global vice president of HTC, said in an interview with The Paper: "People tend to perceive industry trends from media reports. In the past six months, there have been many negative reports on the metaverse, but I don't agree with the statement that the metaverse is cooling down."

Huang Zhaoying said that the criticism of Metaverse from the outside world mainly comes from the problems in the development of the industry leader Meta. As an industry insider, he believes that the application scenarios of Metaverse are very extensive, far beyond virtual communities or games in the eyes of the outside world. With the accelerated development of industry technology, more and more manufacturers have joined the metaverse track. "We are very optimistic about this, and there are many projects in progress at present."

He said that the bottom layer of the metaverse is the integration of all related technologies such as VR, AR, 5G, AI, and blockchain, so AI is one of the bottom technologies for building the experience of the metaverse.

In fact, the exploration around metaverse technology and applications has been going on all the time, especially as Apple released the long-awaited first MR device Apple Vision Pro this year, more and more companies have further strengthened their XR immersive Feasibility of space paths.

The "Shanghai "Metaverse" Key Technology Research Action Plan (2023-2025)" (hereinafter referred to as the "Tackling Key Technology Action Plan") issued by Shanghai this time proposed a number of key technologies in a targeted manner, and for the first time clarified There are two main directions of attack, namely immersive technology and Web3 technology.

This policy is considered to be "a further refinement of Shanghai's 'Metaverse' related policies last year." Kong Rongdu, chief global technology analyst at TF Securities, told the Shanghai Securities News that in comparison, last year's document was more conceptual. Which technologies can be implemented will be specifically written into the document this time.”

The Action Plan for Research shows that around the fields of immersive audio-visual and immersive computing, focus on the deployment of artificial intelligence-generated content (AIGC), cross-scale acquisition and reconstruction, spatial computing, intelligent coding and other key technological breakthroughs to reduce the cost of scene construction and improve the "Metaverse" Content production flexibility, and new progress has been made in engine technology and other aspects.

At the same time, around the field of new display and sensory interaction, we will focus on the development of near-eye display, multi-mode sensing and other technologies and terminal equipment, drive the research and development and application of chips, components and algorithm technologies in Shanghai, deepen the linkage between content and hardware, and seize the "Metaverse" "Key entry.

It is worth noting that the "Action Plan for Tackling Key Issues" also incorporates AIGC's content production methods into the development direction. The document shows that it is necessary to study technologies such as artificial intelligence general generation models, multi-modal collaborative generation, and content controllable generation, and build a low-cost, high-efficiency immersive audio-visual content generation system to achieve controllable and identifiable sensitive generated information.

By 2025, realize the alignment and mutual generation of multi-modal content such as text, images, music, video and 3D models, realize the high-fidelity, high-efficiency and controllable generation of multi-modal immersive audio-visual content, and realize the intelligent generation of content Avoidance of sensitive information in the process.

As one of the first regions to issue support policies for the Metaverse, Shanghai has been making constant moves in the layout of the Metaverse. According to the "Summary of China Metaverse Industrial Policies (March 2023 Edition)" released by Zero One Think Tank, as of the end of March 2023, 18 provincial-level units and 24 municipal-level units across the country have issued about 114 explicit support for Yuan The policy of the universe industry. Among them, Shanghai has provided comprehensive and close support in terms of policies. Not only were the policies introduced earlier, but also the number of them was the largest, reaching 16.

**03, Beijing VS Shanghai: Who is stronger in terms of digital power? **

Whether it is building an "AI capital" or sprinting to become a "metaverse city", both Beijing and Shanghai have considerable "digital" strength. In some segments, the two cities are evenly matched.

**(1) Digital industrialization: Shanghai has more advantages? **

The "China Digital Economy Development Index Report (2022)" shows that among the top 50 cities in the national GDP ranking in 2021, Shanghai has considerable advantages in digital industrialization.

1. The number of computer software and hardware companies: the largest in Shanghai, the second in Beijing

First, from 2013 to 2021, the growth rate of the number of computer software and hardware companies in Shanghai was significantly faster than that of China's digital economy development index, and the former was 5.72 percentage points higher than the latter. Second, the growth of the number of computer software and hardware companies in Shanghai is more stable, which can also provide a stable foundation for Shanghai to develop the digital economy and build an "international digital capital".

Figure 1: 2013-2021 China's digital economy development index and the number of computer software and hardware companies in Shanghai (10,000) trend

Data source: Zero One Think Tank

Computer software and hardware are the foundation of enterprise informatization, digitization and digitization, and the number of computer software and hardware enterprises can reflect a city's stamina in developing digital economy to a certain extent. We counted the number of computer software and hardware companies in 50 major cities and ranked them. The top 5 cities are Shanghai, Beijing, Shenzhen, Guangzhou and Chengdu. In terms of specific figures, Shanghai will have 813,000 computer software and hardware companies in 2021, and 21 domestic computer CPU production and related companies. Beijing ranks second, with a total of 683,000 computer software and hardware enterprises.

Figure 2: TOP20 Number of Computer Software and Hardware Enterprises in Chinese Cities (10,000) in 2021

Data source: Zero One Think Tank

2. The number of emerging digital technology companies: No. 1 in Shanghai, No. 3 in Beijing

The "China Digital Economy Development Index Report (2022)" shows that in 2021, the top 5 cities in the number of emerging digital technology companies in 50 major cities are Shanghai, Chongqing, Beijing, Tianjin and Dongguan. In 2021, Shanghai has 37,000 emerging digital technology companies, accounting for about 38% of the 50 cities; Beijing has about 12,000 emerging digital technology companies, ranking third.

Figure 3: TOP20 Number of Emerging Digital Technology Companies in Chinese Cities in 2021

Data source: Zero One Think Tank

3. The number of "little giant" enterprises in the information industry: No. 1 in Beijing and No. 2 in Shanghai

The report counts and ranks the number of "little giant" enterprises specialized in the new information industry in 50 major cities (the first to fourth batches, and the fifth batch has been launched but has not yet been announced). The top 5 cities are Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Ningbo and Chongqing. From the specific data, Beijing has 596 "little giant" enterprises in the information industry, and the number owned by Shanghai is second only to Beijing.

Figure 4: Number of "little giant" enterprises in China's urban information industry (the first four batches) TOP20

Data source: Zero One Think Tank

**(2) Digital technology: Beijing is slightly better? **

The "China Digital Economy Development Index Report (2022)" shows that from 2013 to 2021, China's digital economy development index continued to rise, from 1000 points to 5610.60 points; the number of digital technology patent applications also showed an upward trend, from 5067 points to 5610.60 points. The number of cases increased to 74,656.

Figure 5: 2013-2021 China's digital economy development index and the number of digital technology patent applications trend

Data source: Zero One Think Tank

Academia and the industry usually use the number of patent applications to represent technical strength. We collected the number of patent applications for five digital technologies in each city, including artificial intelligence, blockchain, cloud computing, big data, and the Internet of Things, for comparative analysis.

1. The total amount of digital technology: No. 1 in Beijing, No. 4 in Shanghai

We counted the total amount of digital technology in the top 50 cities in the national GDP ranking in 2021, and the results show that the top 10 cities are Beijing, Shenzhen, Hangzhou, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Nanjing, Chengdu, Wuhan, Suzhou City, Jinan City. Beijing and Shenzhen topped the list with more than 10,000 digital technology applications, widening the gap with other cities.

Figure 6: TOP20 Digital Technology Quantities of Chinese Cities in 2021

Data source: Zero One Think Tank

There are many first-class universities and Internet companies in Beijing. There are 147 double-first-class colleges and universities across the country, and Beijing has 34 double-first-class colleges and universities, far ahead of Jiangsu, Shanghai and other provinces and cities. High-quality education not only brings top talents to Beijing, but also injects strong momentum into Beijing's digital technology innovation.

According to the 14th Five-Year Plan of Beijing, the number of industrial Internet platforms in Beijing, the amount of access resources, and the number of national-level intelligent manufacturing system solution providers rank first in the country. The "Global Innovation Index Report 2021" shows that Beijing ranks third among global tech city clusters, up one place from the previous year.

According to the "2022 Beijing Artificial Intelligence Industry Development White Paper", as of October 2022, Beijing has 1,048 artificial intelligence core enterprises, accounting for 29% of the total number of artificial intelligence core enterprises in my country, and the number ranks first in the country. Beijing has more than 40,000 core technical talents in the field of artificial intelligence, accounting for 60% of the country's total. The number of artificial intelligence papers published ranks first in the country. Among the top 100 institutions in the world in the number of patent authorizations, there are 30 institutions headquartered in Beijing.

2. Digital technology density: Beijing and Shanghai rank second and third respectively

The scale of digital technology is of course important, but the density of digital technology calculated on a per capita basis is also an important manifestation of strength. We counted the number of digital technology patent applications per capita in the top 50 cities in the national GDP ranking in 2021, that is, the digital technology density. The results show that the top 10 cities are Shenzhen, Beijing, Shanghai, Hangzhou, Nanjing, Guangzhou, Jinan City, Wuhan City, Hefei City, Suzhou City.

Figure 7: TOP20 Digital Technology Density of Chinese Cities in 2021

Data source: Zero One Think Tank

3. Proportion of digital technology: No. 1 in Shanghai, No. 3 in Beijing

In addition to scale and density, let's look at the proportion of digital technology, that is, the proportion of digital technology patent applications to the number of various patent applications, so that we can compare the importance attached to digital technology in various cities. We have calculated the proportion of the number of digital technology patent applications in the TOP50 cities in the national GDP ranking in 2021 to the number of various patent applications. The results show that the top 10 cities are Shanghai, Nanjing, Beijing, Shenzhen, Hangzhou, Kunming, Nanning, Guangzhou, Changsha, Jinan, Wuhan, Chengdu, Zhengzhou.

Figure 8: TOP20 Digital Technology Proportion in Chinese Cities in 2021

Data source: Zero One Think Tank

Among them, Shanghai's digital patents accounted for as high as 11.3%, and Shanghai invested the most in the digital track. Compared with other cities, Shanghai pays the most attention to the development of digital technology, so Shanghai has the integrated circuit industry base with the most advanced comprehensive technology and the strongest independent innovation ability in China, and has more than 1,000 core enterprises in the artificial intelligence industry. The city is also a national new-generation artificial intelligence innovation and development pilot zone and a pilot zone for artificial intelligence innovation and application. Reference materials: [1] "China Digital Economy Development Index Report (2022)", Zero One Think Tank [2] ** "Why does Beijing "challenge" ChatGPT? Which city has the strongest digital skills? 》, Zero One Think Tank [3] ** "Without BATJ, how can Shanghai build an "international digital capital"?" 》, Zero One Think Tank