How Enterprises Should Operate Technology Research Institutes – Insights from the CNCC2024 Roundtable

On October 24, the first day of CNCC2024, a roundtable titled “How Enterprises Should Operate Technology Research Institutes” was held, sparking lively discussion among scholars and industry representatives about the role of universities, research institutions, and companies in the AI‑driven technological wave.

The panel was chaired by Professor Chen Wen‑guang, a Tsinghua University professor and head of Ant Group’s Technology Research Institute, with guests including Professor Lin Jing (Sun Yat‑sen University), Professor Lu Pin‑yan (Shanghai University of Finance and Economics), and Lenovo’s senior director Wang Shuai.

Key viewpoints included:

The institute should be future‑oriented, tackling uncertain frontier technologies.

Innovation must create tangible value rather than exist as self‑indulgent research.

Frontier technologies such as AI often grow exponentially, requiring institutes to adapt to rapid trends.

As a bridge between enterprises and academia, the institute should avoid short‑termism and nurture a healthy ecosystem for industry‑university‑research collaboration.

Assessment of research institutes should be based on long‑term goals, recognizing that breakthroughs often need years of accumulation before spawning multiple products.

Ant Group’s Technology Research Institute, founded in 2015, exemplifies these principles. It focuses on two main directions: breaking core data‑element technologies (high‑reliability storage, data value extraction, near‑plaintext encrypted computation) and exploring new AI frontiers (secure general AI, editable real‑time generative AI, embodied intelligence and robotics).

The institute comprises six labs—Database, Interactive Intelligence, Graph Computing, Cryptography, Programming Languages & Compilers, and Computing Systems—led by chief scientists including Ant Group’s Vice President Chen Wen‑guang, Zhejiang University’s Dean Ren Kui, and UNSW professor Xue Jing‑ling.

It actively collaborates with academia through joint labs, the CCF‑Ant Research Fund (over 130 projects covering more than 100 universities), doctoral workstations, and co‑established 11 joint labs with top universities on privacy computing, data security, intelligent computing, and distributed databases.