“Manufacturing is an important battleground for big models of AI, and the biggest opportunity in the next 10 years is the convergence of cloud, AI and machines in the physical world…… In the future, intelligent robots that can talk to people directly will change the shape of the entire factory.”

Said Daniel Zhang, Chairman and CEO of Alibaba, at the 6th Digital China Summit recently. He revealed that Ali Cloud engineers are experimenting to connect the Tongyi Qianwen grand model to an industrial robot, and input a human language into the nail dialog box to remotely direct the robot to work.

The results of the experiment were shown in a water collection video released by Aliyun on the same day. After the engineer sends instructions to the robot through the nail dialog box, the large model of Tongyi Qianwen automatically writes a set of code in the background and sends it to the robot. The robot begins to recognize the surrounding environment, find a bottle of water from the nearby table, and automatically complete a series of actions such as moving, grasping and distributing, and deliver it to the engineer. This demonstration shows that large-scale AI models have broken through the limitations of robots, allowing humans to command machines to complete responsible tasks through natural language, so that robots really have a “brain”.

According to Alicloud engineers, large AI models can play an important role in both the development and application stage of robots. For example, in the production operation, the large model of Tongyi Qianwen provides the reasoning decision ability for the robot to execute the task. The front-line workers only need to send a piece of text, and Tongyi Qianwen can understand the intention of the robot to conduct the task reasoning, which is automatically translated into the code that can be understood by the machine and directed the machine to execute the task, effectively improving the production efficiency.

AI has shown great potential and value in various fields. In manufacturing, AI can improve production efficiency, reduce costs, optimize quality and enhance innovation. With the continuous development and progress of AI technology, especially the emergence of AI large model technology represented by ChatGPT, AI will have a broader and deeper application prospect in the future industry.

First let’s look at what the big AI model is.

AI grand model refers to the AI model with extremely large scale parameters and data, such as Baidu’s Wenxinyi, Alibaba’s Tongyi Qianwen, and the global hot ChatGPT. The latest ChatGPT-4 has more than 100 trillion parameters, which is the largest natural language processing model in the world. Large AI models can process massive amounts of information, generate high-quality content such as text, images, audio, video, etc., and interact naturally and smoothly with humans. AI grand models can not only provide more accurate and comprehensive knowledge and services, but also create new knowledge and services to enable the ability of AI to generate content (AIGC).

In the author’s opinion, the AI grand model can empower the industry from the perspectives of research and development, design, production and manufacturing, management and service, and promote the transformation of the manufacturing industry to the direction of intelligence, digitalization and networking.

R & D design: AI large model can be integrated with CAD, EDA, CAE and other industrial design software, using cloud computing and big data to automatically generate or optimize design schemes and improve design efficiency and accuracy. For example, Cadence has introduced Allegro X AI technology, a new generation of system chip design technology that uses generative AI capabilities to simplify the system design process and reduce PCB design turnaround time to one-tenth of the original.
Production and manufacturing: By integrating with industrial robots, AGVs, machine tools and other intelligent industrial equipment, large AI models can realize natural interaction and collaboration with humans by using natural language processing and computer vision technologies to improve production efficiency and quality. For example, Siemens combined ChatGPT technology with its existing natural language technology to effectively allow operators to interact with the natural language of the system. BMW relies on the Nvidia Omniverse platform to virtually optimize the layout of production lines, robots and logistics systems, strengthen global factory connections and improve service efficiency.
Management services: AI large model can be integrated with ERP, CRM, MES and other industrial management software, using natural language generation and understanding technology, automatically generate or optimize related documents and reports, improve management efficiency and level. For example, Microsoft launched Dynamics 365 Copilot and Microsoft 365 Copilot, its GPT interactive AI capability commercial products, which greatly improve the productivity of users in business management software. It is expected to further expand to other scenarios such as supply chain management, customer service and marketing in the future.
Innovation capability: Large AI models can be integrated with industrial Internet platforms and industrial innovation centers to automatically generate or optimize innovative solutions and services by using technologies such as knowledge mapping and recommendation systems to improve innovation capability and value. For example, the Fourth Paradigm has launched the enterprise-level 4Paradigm SageGPT, which integrates large-scale generative language models with vertical domain expertise and has multi-modal and Copolit capabilities in enterprise-level scenarios. Megvii Technology has begun to lay out in the field of visual large models to explore the feasibility of generative AI in the field of warehousing and logistics.

Whether you like it or not, it’s time for an explosion in AI technology. The manufacturing industry should take a positive attitude towards the major changes that AI grand model may bring to the manufacturing industry, and make full use of more opportunities brought by AI grand model to promote the deep integration and collaborative development of the manufacturing industry and other industries, and form a new industrial ecology and competition pattern.