City-level service platform offers cloud-based AI computing resource
The Shanghai Artificial Intelligence Public Computing Service Platform, which offers companies and organizations cloud-based computing capabilities, made its debut on Monday to boost the city's digitalization and innovation.
The city-level public platform, the first of its kind nationwide, can help firms and organizations to use AI computing resources in an inclusive and flexible manner, without investing heavily in infrastructure on their own.
"The AI computing resource is like electricity and water we use every day; it should be easy and affordable for all," said Tang Wenkan, vice director of the Shanghai Commission of Economy and Informatization, the industry regulator.
The platform is now operated by the Shanghai Supercomputer Center, which conducts computing and AI capabilities for public services, scientific research, industrial development and various cloud applications like ChatGPT and metaverse.
The first batch of users and partners of the platform, including China Mobile and China Telecom, attended the launch ceremony on Monday.
The move fits well with Shanghai's development plan to establish a global innovation center with three strategic industries – AI, bio-medicine and chips – as well as some "future industries."
In November, the city released a blueprint to develop five "future industries" – health, smart devices, energy, space and new materials. By 2030, the output value of the five "future industries" will reach about 500 billion yuan (US$71 billion).
The new platform offers 100 petaflops (floating point operations per second) AI computing capacity, which boosts applications like forecasting the weather, conducting academic research and speeding up processes for drug and vaccine development in China, Li Genguo, the supercomputer center director, said at the ceremony.
If necessary, the new public platform can "lend" computing capabilities for other regions, including West China, according to the commission.
Various applications like meteorological services and the popular AI chatbot service ChatGPT, which now has 100 million users worldwide, have fuelled demand for AI computing. China should be well prepared for the wave, China Telecom pointed out.
Chinese carriers and firms, including China Telecom, are developing "industrial ChatGPT-like" services for enterprise clients, according to media reports.
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