AI revolutionizing SZ higher education with NEW SCHOOL

Participants give thumbs-up during the School of AI launch ceremony held at The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen (CUHK-Shenzhen) in Longgang District on Feb. 13. Photos courtesy of CUHK-Shenzhen

The inauguration ceremony of the Surgical Minimally-invasive and Artificial-intelligent Robotic Training Center under CUHK-Shenzhen’s School of Medicine on Thursday.

Students of CUHK-Shenzhen’s School of Medicine learn to use AI-aided devices at the Surgical Minimally-invasive and Artificial-intelligent Robotic Training Center.

SHENZHEN, a key player in the development of both artificial intelligence (AI) and higher education, has taken a significant step forward when The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen (CUHK-Shenzhen) unveiled its latest addition, the School of Artificial Intelligence (SAI), on Feb. 13. Designed to foster talent and advance research in the rapidly evolving AI sector, this new entity marks the eighth school within the CUHK-Shenzhen consortium.

At the inauguration ceremony, the esteemed statistician, financial econometrician, and data scientist Fan Jianqing was appointed as the dean of SAI, signaling a progressive approach to academic pursuits. The planning for this school, initiated in July 2024, is set to welcome its first group of AI majors this September, offering comprehensive undergraduate and MPhil-PhD programs with a focus on AI.

Currently, the school boasts a teaching staff of 55 members, including six academicians from both China and abroad, covering six pivotal areas of AI, such as AI core, vision, large language models, robotics, digital twins, computing architecture, AI for Science, and AI for society.

Key goals and focuses

During the inauguration ceremony, Xu Yangsheng, president of CUHK-Shenzhen, pointed out that the establishment of SAI is driven by three main purposes.

The first is to align with global trends in AI and create a unique base for talent development and scientific innovation in AI by leveraging the university’s strengths and collaborating with other schools within the university.

Its second purpose is to explore pathways for talent cultivation in AI to nurture leading talent who can contribute to societal transformation.

Its final purpose is to integrate the advantageous resources of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA), establish a highland for scientific research in AI, strive to become the most vibrant source of innovation globally, and contribute to national and global societal progress.

Xu further noted that SAI will undertake three key tasks. First, it will advance planning, construction, and disciplinary development in the AI field. Second, it will strive to achieve simultaneous development of the university in AI. Third, it will align with national strategies and ensure the cultivation and development of top-tier AI talent.

Additionally, SAI is characterized by three core principles: AI Core, AI Plus, and AI For.

AI Core focuses on foundational AI technologies, such as machine learning and intelligence science, which form the backbone of the school’s academic framework.

AI Plus emphasizes interdisciplinary integration, combining AI with fields such as natural sciences, social sciences, arts, medicine, and more, fostering cutting-edge research that transcends traditional academic boundaries.

AI For underscores the school’s mission to apply AI to real-world challenges, including pressing issues in sectors such as medicine, education, and transportation.

With the goal of enhancing the teaching and research level of AI in China, the school is committed to achieving a series of internationally significant breakthroughs and providing strong talent support and robust scientific research foundations for the sustainable development of the AI industry.

AI development in CUHK-Shenzhen

AI has been one of CUHK-Shenzhen’s key academic focuses since its establishment in 2014.

Over the past decade, the university has attracted a team of global top-tier scientists in the AI field, including highly cited researchers and scientists ranked among the top 2% worldwide.

At the same time, CUHK-Shenzhen has undertaken multiple national key research and development programs. Its robotics discipline has been ranked first in the country for ten consecutive years in the robotics category of CSRankings.

On Feb.13, the Surgical Minimally-invasive and Artificial-intelligent Robotic Training Center under CUHK-Shenzhen’s School of Medicine was officially launched.

The center will help students master cutting-edge technologies in a safe, simulated environment to accelerate talent cultivation in “AI + Medicine.”

Davy Cheng, the founding dean of the School of Medicine at CUHK-Shenzhen, said, “The mission of the medical school is to train future-leading doctors for the GBA and the world. Exposure to minimally invasive and robotic technologies represents the future of surgical procedures, which requires medical students to acquire these skills during their studies, rather than learning them after becoming doctors.”

After the SAI inauguration ceremony, a series of AI-themed forums, including the International Forum on AI, AI+ Business Forum, subforums on AI for science and engineering as well as data science, and AI+Medicine Symposium, were held to spotlight AI development and how AI can empower different fields.

In February 2023, with support from the Shenzhen Research Institute of Big Data and CUHK-Shenzhen, Wang Benyou, assistant professor at CUHK-Shenzhen, and his team unveiled HuatuoGPT, the world’s first vertical domain-specific large model, which is similar to ChatGPT.

HuatuoGPT provides personalized triage services for patients through online dialogue. It has significantly reduced the occurrence of registering for the wrong department or consulting the wrong doctor. Its innovative voice input feature also enables elderly users to conveniently access the service.

The jointly developed second-generation HuatuoGPT has achieved a triumphant feat by successfully navigating the 2023 Chinese National Pharmacist Licensure Examination. This success follows the model’s outstanding performance across a spectrum of medical qualification exams, marking it as the first publicly acknowledged medical large language model in China to achieve this feat. Notably, it has demonstrated particularly promising results in various Chinese medical contexts, surpassing even the renowned GPT-4.

Currently, HuatuoGPT has been used in 12 hospitals in Longgang District, with more than 520,000 interactions to date.

Wang pointed out that in the face of dual challenges posed by an aging population and strained medical resources, the application of AI medical models like HuatuoGPT can effectively alleviate pressure on the healthcare system.

Currently, the development of large medical models primarily focuses on Chinese, English, and other mainstream languages. However, their application remains limited in less developed regions where these languages are not used.

To address this issue, Wang and his team launched a multilingual large medical model — Apollo. Apollo collects medical corpora in different languages and incorporates language-specific medical knowledge.

In August 2023, Wang’s team collaborated with King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) in Saudi Arabia to jointly develop a large language model specifically tailored for Arabic — AceGPT.

SZ’s efforts, advantages in AI

With the accelerated advancement of the global technological revolution and industrial transformation, AI —the core driving force of this transformation — is profoundly reshaping the development models of various industries.

In 2024, Shenzhen unveiled an action plan to accelerate the development of next-generation AI technologies and seize opportunities presented by the evolving landscape of the AI sector.

Data show that Shenzhen is currently home to over 2,200 AI enterprises.

From humanoid robots and surgical robots to coffee machines, AI has was applied in more scenarios in Shenzhen last year, bringing convenience to citizens and empowering industrial development.

In Xu’s view, Shenzhen possesses numerous advantages in developing the AI industry. Xu observed that the city holds a significant position in the global industrial chain layout and boasts one of the world’s most comprehensive industrial chains.

Given this, once product technologies are launched, they can quickly reach global markets. Shenzhen has also achieved remarkable results in talent cultivation.

Additionally, compared to other cities, Shenzhen has a unique advantage in institutional innovation. Xu suggested Shenzhen fully leverage this strength so that the entire AI industry thrives.

Concerning the widespread discussion sparked by DeepSeek going viral recently, Xu commented that DeepSeek has done an excellent job. However, he also emphasized that the battle in AI has just begun, and there is more to come. (Shenzhen Daily)