Duandawei, the senior vice president responsible for iFLYTEK's global business and finance, said in a recent interview with ChosunBiz, "AI has now entered the 'large model' stage, and this will become a key infrastructure for the future."
iFLYTEK is a corporation that was placed on the U.S. government's blacklist during the U.S.-China trade war in 2019. After successfully developing AI voice translation technology at a human expert level in 2018, iFLYTEK was unable to receive U.S.-made AI semiconductors starting the following year. However, he noted that this kind of sanction has rather accelerated the need for localization of advanced technology, providing the motivation for Chinese technology corporations to become self-reliant without relying on U.S. companies.
iFLYTEK is a representative player in China's AI sector, specializing in voice recognition and natural language processing based on large models. iFLYTEK's large model encompasses not only language but also logical reasoning, mathematics, and coding. In 2008, it showcased the industry's first machine voice synthesis technology that surpassed the level of public speech, and since then, it has developed AI models that exceed human capabilities in areas such as speech recognition accuracy, medical qualification exams, voice translation, reading comprehension, and reasoning.
In 2023, it built the computing platform 'Pacing No. 1' in collaboration with Huawei. This serves as the infrastructure for training large models, and based on this, iFLYTEK developed the large model 'Xunfeixinghuo (讯飞星火·hereafter referred to as Xinghuo)'. The company claims that Xinghuo's performance rivals that of the U.S. OpenAI's 'GPT-4 Turbo.'
iFLYTEK is currently expanding into Korea as well as Japan, Southeast Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, and is actively pursuing the European market. It offers hardware products such as real-time voice translators and AI tablets, as well as voice recognition engines and AI software services for education and healthcare. Last year, it co-founded a robotics company to accelerate the 'embodiment' of AI. Below is a Q&A with Senior Vice President Duandawei.
What innovations does iFLYTEK's AI model possess?
"The Xinghuo, unveiled in May 2023, has seven core capabilities, including text generation, language understanding, question answering, logical reasoning, mathematics, coding, and multimodal processing. In October 2024, we launched 'Xinghuo 4.0 Turbo', which surpassed 'GPT-4 Turbo' in the Chinese language domain and transcended 'GPT-4o' in mathematics and coding abilities.
The 'Xinghuo X1', unveiled in January of this year, is a deep reasoning model trained solely with Chinese technology. Additionally, it is the first large model with voice-to-voice simultaneous interpretation capabilities, achieving expert-level responses within five seconds. After the upgrade last April, its applicability in specialized fields such as education, healthcare, and justice has greatly increased.
The upgraded version released on July 25 showcased ▲ support for over 130 languages ▲ improved real-time response and listening capabilities ▲ text adaptive streaming synthesis (generating voice according to context and characteristics) among others. It recorded a 20% improvement in interpretation quality during multilateral meetings and solo speeches, and the response time was shortened to under 2 seconds, achieving the level of a human senior interpreter.
Last year, you co-founded a robotics company. What led to its establishment?
"Lingdong, which iFLYTEK has a controlling stake in, is developing innovative solutions based on embodied intelligence, primarily in the manufacturing sector. It was founded to promote the 'intelligent' transformation of existing manufacturing industries."
What synergies do you expect when AI and robotics are combined?
"Recently, the hardware of humanoid robots has matured sufficiently, but to be practically applied in real industries, a combination with AI models is necessary. Once robots evolve as intelligent entities equipped with 'cognitive' and 'perceptual' capabilities, they can perform simple repetitive tasks or work in hazardous environments in place of humans. To this end, Lingdong plans to soon release industrial embodied intelligence solutions, aiming to enhance productivity through cost reduction."
You have also entered the South Korean market. What businesses are you developing, and what are your future goals?
"We sell smart devices such as AI voice translators. During the COVID-19 pandemic, in collaboration with our Korean partner Hancom, we provided multilingual automatic telephone systems in Seoul and Daegu. This was very effective in the context of epidemic prevention.
Korea and China are friendly neighbors with a long history of exchange, and we believe there is high potential for complementary cooperation in the AI field. Recently, the Korean government has shown strong interest and willingness to cooperate on AI policies, and the Korean industrial sector has distinctive strengths in education, healthcare, and automobiles. We plan to actively develop localized products and services in collaboration with Korean partners in consumer smart devices, education, and automotive sectors.
What are your thoughts on U.S. sanctions against Chinese technology companies?
"Supply chains are already tightly integrated globally, making it difficult to definitively state what percentage of a product is made by a particular country. In this context, the importance of international cooperation is becoming even more pronounced. In the AI era, a broader perspective and more extensive collaboration are required."
How has iFLYTEK responded to U.S. sanctions?
"We are in the process of independently building an AI ecosystem. As of June, a total of 813 AI technologies have been opened on our platform, with over 8.7 million developers, 3.42 million applications, and more than 10 million partner ecosystem collaborators."
What is the ultimate goal of the company?
"iFLYTEK aims for 'self-innovation of core AI technologies' as its strategic goal. Based on this, it has applied AI in various fields including education, healthcare, finance, urban management, and industry, and will continue to support the advancement of people's livelihoods and industry. We are realizing our mission to 'liberate productivity, expand imagination, and create a better world with AI.'"
Duandawei, senior vice president, studied economics at Northeast University of Finance and Economics in China and obtained his MBA from the University of Missouri. He built his career in large corporations such as Jilin Chemical Group, Jilin Electronics Group, San Yi Group, and San Yi Heavy Industry in finance and international cooperation, joining iFLYTEK in 2017. He was awarded 'CFO of the Year' in 2008 and the 'Top CFO Leadership Award in China' in 2019.