Inside Alibaba’s 2017 Tech Forum: AI, Big Data, and Cloud Innovations Unveiled

On September 13, 2017, the first Alibaba Technology Forum (ATF) opened at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. Alibaba Group Vice President Zhou Jingren, technology ecosystem leader Liu Xiangwen, and HKUST Computer Science and Engineering Department Chair Yang Qiang attended, discussing the forum theme “Learning the Depth of the World” and presenting Alibaba’s innovations in artificial intelligence, machine learning, and big data.

Vice President Zhou Jingren shared Alibaba’s technology architecture and research achievements, emphasizing recent progress in using AI and big data to drive business. He noted that Alibaba’s ecosystem serves hundreds of millions of users daily, and only through world‑leading AI, cloud computing, and big‑data capabilities can such massive scale deliver optimal user experiences. Notable feats include processing 170,000 transactions per second during Double‑11 sales and applying these technologies across finance, logistics, urban transportation, healthcare, and digital entertainment.

Professor Yang Qiang introduced the latest developments in AI and its commercial and societal impact, citing examples such as facial recognition, speech recognition, personalized product recommendations, and unmanned stores. Liu Xiangwen added that Alibaba’s complex business scenarios generate world‑class technical challenges and massive high‑quality data, providing valuable resources for frontier research.

During the interactive session, guests and attendees discussed practical challenges of applying machine learning within Alibaba’s business and future trends for AI‑related professions, giving Hong Kong’s emerging tech talent a panoramic view of Alibaba’s cutting‑edge research and commercial applications.

Alibaba Group is the only Chinese company that has independently developed ultra‑large‑scale cloud computing, operating systems, database software, big‑data intelligent analysis, and security technologies with complete intellectual property rights, reaching international advanced levels. The company is expanding into AI, machine learning, and virtual reality research, exemplified by the “NASA” plan outlining a 20‑year technology strategy to serve 2 billion global consumers, create 100 million jobs, and help 10 million enterprises profit.

Alibaba also has extensive experience in industry‑academia collaboration. The recently launched Zhijiang Laboratory serves as a model, tackling frontline business problems by leveraging resources from both academia and industry to promote deep integration of fundamental and applied research.

The 2017 Alibaba Technology Forum will continue at four top universities worldwide, with the next session on September 18 at the National University of Singapore, featuring Alibaba Vice President Jin Rong, Cainiao HR Director Han Mei, and professors from NUS and Nanyang Technological University.