In Phoenix, cars are self-navigating the streets. In many homes, people are barking commands at tiny machines, with the machines responding. On our smartphones, apps can now recognize faces in photos and translate from one language to another.
在菲尼克斯,汽车在街道上自动行驶。在很多民宅里,人们向小巧的机器发号施令,机器则会做出反应。在我们的智能手机上,应用程序现在能够识别照片中的人脸,并把一种语言翻译成另一种语言。
Artificial intelligence is here ― and it’s bringing new possibilities, while also raising questions. Do these gadgets and services really behave as advertised? How will they evolve in the years ahead? How quickly will they overhaul the way we live and change the way we do business?
人工智能来了。它带来了新的可能性,同时也提出了问题。这些小玩意儿和服务的表现真的和广告里说的一样吗?未来几年它们将如何发展?我们的生活和行事方式离彻底被它改变还有多远?
The Times is exploring these matters this week at our annual New Work Summit, featuring technology executives, A.I. researchers, investors and others. Here are some of the key moments coming out of the conference, plus a rundown of some of our recent A.I. stories. ― Cade Metz
时报正在本周一年一度的新工作峰会(New Work Summit)上探索这些问题。参加峰会的有科技公司高管、人工智能研究人员和投资者等。下面是这次会议的一些关键时刻,以及我们最近的一些人工智能报道的简要介绍。――凯德・梅茨(Cade Metz)报道
Should A.I. be more ‘human’?
人工智能应该更“以人为本”吗?
Fei-Fei Li, a chief scientist at Google and a Stanford professor, has called on technologists to take a more “human centered” approach to the creation of artificial intelligence. On Tuesday at the New Work Summit, Ms. Li said that researchers must work to ensure that A.I. embodied human qualities and that it would ultimately operate alongside humans, not replace them.
谷歌(Google)首席科学家兼斯坦福大学(Stanford)教授李飞飞呼吁技术专家用更加“以人为本”的方式对待人工智能的发明创造。在周二的新工作峰会上,李飞飞说,研究人员必须努力确保人工智能体现人的品质,并且最终与人类一起行动,而不是取代人类。
“I often tell my students not to be misled by the name ‘artificial intelligence’ ― there is nothing artificial about it,” she said. “A.I. is made by humans, intended to behave by humans and, ultimately, to impact humans lives and human society.”
“我经常告诉我的学生不要被‘人工智能’这个名字误导,没什么是人工的,”她说。“人工智能是人类创造的,为的是协助人类行为,最终影响人类生活和人类社会。”
At Stanford, Ms. Li was instrumental in the recent rise of “computer vision” systems that can recognize people and objects entirely on their own. At Google, she is working to package and sell these and other systems as cloud computing services, delivering the latest A.I. technology to a wide range of businesses.
在斯坦福,李飞飞在“计算机视觉”系统最近的崛起中发挥了重要作用。相关系统能够完全自动识别人和物品。在谷歌,她正在努力把这些和另一些系统作为云计算服务打包出售,把最新的人工智能技术提供给广泛的企业。
But she said that as Google and other internet giants pushed these techniques forward, academia and the government must help ensure that A.I. evolved into something that enhanced our humanity, created as many jobs as it replaced and operated in safe and predictable ways.
但她说,在谷歌和其他互联网巨头推进这些技术的发展时,学术界和政府必须帮助确保人工智能的发展能够增强我们人类的能力、在取代旧工作岗位的同时也要创造出同样多的新岗位,并以安全和可预见的方式运行。
In particular, Ms. Li said, academic institutions can help ensure that computer scientists work alongside social scientists in building this new breed of technology.
李飞飞说,特别是学术机构可以帮助确保计算机科学家和社会科学家共同发展这项新技术。
“A.I. has outgrown its origin in computer science,” she said.
“人工智能已经超出了它的计算机科学起源。”她说。
Ultimately, said Ms. Li, who was born in China, A.I. reflects the people who build it more than other technologies do. For that reason and others, she said, A.I. researchers must work in a way that spans not only many industries but many cultures as well.
在中国出生的李飞飞说,人工智能最终会比其他技术更能反映建造它的人类。她说,由此以及其他原因,人工智能的研究者必须以一种跨越多个行业和多种文化的方式工作。
“I really believe there are no borders for science,” she said. ― Cade Metz
“我真的相信科学无边界,”她说。――凯德・梅茨报道
Why American tech companies struggle in China
为什么美国科技公司在中国举步维艰?
Tuesday’s first speaker at the New Work Summit was Kai-Fu Lee, who used to lead Google in China and knows a thing or two about American tech giants in China. His prognosis about whether companies like Facebook will ever be able to crack the world’s largest internet market?
纽约时报新工作峰会周二的第一位发言人是李开复,他曾是谷歌中国区的负责人,对在华美国科技巨头颇有些了解。那么,他觉得Facebook这样的公司成功打开世界最大互联网市场的前景如何?
“The American products are simply uncompetitive in the China market,” said Mr. Lee, who is now chief executive of Sinovation Ventures, a venture capital firm focused on Chinese technology. Even if internet titans from the United States could operate in China, he said, the local competition means they would have a hard time thriving.
“美国产品在中国市场根本就没有竞争力,”现任中国科技风投公司创新工场首席执行官的李开复说。他表示,即使来自美国的互联网巨头能在中国运营,当地的竞争也会让他们举步维艰。
“Messenger is a much worse product than WeChat,” he said, referring to Facebook’s messaging app and Tencent’s ubiquitous app for chatting, social networking, making payments and other tasks.
“Messenger这个产品比微信差太多,”他说,他提到的是Facebook的短信应用和腾讯在聊天、社交、支付和其他功能上无所不在的应用。
“Amazon in China is substantially worse than Taobao, JD and Tmall,” he said, referring to three leading Chinese e-commerce sites. And, he said, “Apple Pay is much narrower and much harder to use than WeChat or Alipay.”
“亚马逊中国远远比不上淘宝、京东、天猫,”他说的是中国三大电子商务网站。并且,他还说,“Apple Pay比微信支付或者支付宝的局限大得多,也很不好用。”
Mr. Lee sees other issues that augur against a big Facebook or Google renaissance in China. Multinational companies tend not to hire local managers to lead their China operations. “They’re not concerned about winning in the local market,” he said.
李开复还看到了其他会阻止Facebook或谷歌在中国复兴的问题。跨国公司往往不会聘请当地的经理来领导公司的中国业务。“他们不关心在当地市场取胜,”他说。
Also, young Chinese these days would rather work for national champions like Alibaba or Tencent. Pitted against Chinese start-ups and big companies, where the hours tend to be long and the work culture cutthroat, the leading lights of American tech would get “get eaten for lunch.” ― Raymond Zhong
此外,现在中国的年轻人更愿意为在阿里巴巴或腾讯这样在全国范围内领先的公司工作。中国初创企业和大公司的工作时间长、职场文化残酷,美国科技业那些巨头会被它们“当午餐吃掉”。――雷蒙德・钟报道
Trump administration silent on A.I.
特朗普政府在人工智能方面的沉默
Last year, the Chinese government unveiled a plan to become the world leader in artificial intelligence by 2030, vowing to create a domestic industry worth $150 billion. This manifesto read like a challenge to the United States, and in many ways it echoed policies laid down by the Obama administration in 2016.
去年,中国政府公布了到2030年要成为世界人工智能领导者的计划,誓言将创造一个价值1500亿美元的国内产业。这一宣言听起来像是对美国下战书,在很多方面也与奥巴马政府2016年制定的政策相呼应。
But as China pushes ahead in this area, many experts are concerned that the Trump administration is not doing enough to keep the United States ahead in the future. Although the big United States internet giants are leading the A.I. race, these experts believe the country as a whole could fall behind if does not do more to nurture research inside universities and government labs. ― Cade Metz
但随着中国在这一领域的不断推进,许多专家担心特朗普政府所做的不足以使美国在未来继续领先。尽管美国的大型互联网巨头在人工智能竞赛中领先,但这些专家认为,如果不加大对大学研究和政府实验室研究的扶持,美国在总体上可能会落后。――凯德・梅茨报道