On July 9, the three-day 2024 (23rd) China Internet Conference was opened in Beijing International Convention Center. With the theme of "Three Decades of Smart Exchange New Qualitative Change" and the theme of "conferences, exhibitions, contests and featured activities", this conference focuses on AI, industrial Internet, data elements, computing power, digital government, smart education, data security and other hot spots, and invites industry leaders, experts, scholars and innovative enterprises to jointly discuss and share the latest developments, cutting-edge technologies and in-depth insights in the Internet field. At the opening ceremony of the conference, Shang Bing, chairman of the China Internet Association, said that over the past 30 years, China's Internet has achieved a great leap forward development of "from scratch, from small to large, from weak to strong", and has explored a path of Internet development with Chinese characteristics. Shang Bing said that since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC), China's Internet development has continued to create new situations. The network infrastructure has taken the lead in the world, the number of Internet users has grown rapidly, information technology innovation has been unprecedentedly active, Internet applications have flourished, and a number of key indicators have ranked first in the world, making remarkable achievements. One is to improve the quantity and quality of infrastructure. The scale and coverage level of broadband networks are globally leading, with a fixed broadband household penetration rate of 110.2%, over a quarter of gigabit users, and a total of 3.837 million 5G base stations. The proportion of 5G connected to administrative villages in China exceeds 90%. The backbone network architecture has been continuously optimized, forming a comprehensive and three-dimensional interconnection pattern. The total scale of data center racks in use nationwide has exceeded 8.1 million standard racks, ranking second in the world in terms of total computing power. Thanks to the continuous improvement of network coverage, China's Internet penetration rate reached 77.5%, and the number of Internet users reached 1.092 billion. The second is the breakthrough development of the technology industry. Domestic large-scale model products are constantly emerging, and key core technologies such as intelligent chip development frameworks have made significant breakthroughs. The number of related patent applications and authorizations are among the top in the world. The vision concept, technological research, and R&D verification of 6G have achieved phased results, ranking first in the world. Nine enterprises ranked among the top 30 global Internet enterprises in terms of market value, and the number of Unicorn enterprises has reached 375. The comprehensive strength of enterprises has steadily improved. The third is the sustained release of inclusive effects. New consumption growth points such as domestic trendy products and smart products continue to emerge. New formats such as live streaming sales and ride hailing play an important role in promoting flexible employment and serving economic development. Applications such as online office and video conferencing help to create new experiences in production services. The country's primary and secondary schools have achieved full access to the Internet, the prefecture level and county level have achieved full coverage of telemedicine services, the number of "5G+industrial Internet" projects has exceeded 10000, and the number of 5G industry application cases has exceeded 94000. The role of enabling new industrialization continues to emerge. Wu Hequan, academician of the CAE Member, said in the keynote report that the rise of 5G-A and IPv6 will lead the Internet into a new stage of development. In particular, the emergence of AI model intelligence not only makes the original business of the Internet new, but also expedites the birth of many new businesses. As an important mode of AI enabled consumption and industrial application, the Internet platform will start again with the help of the new engine. As the second half of the Internet, industrial Internet, with the integration of AI and other technologies, is gradually improving the ability of the Internet to access physical entities and serve vertical industries, and promoting the development of industrial digitalization and digital industrialization. At this Internet conference, Zhang Chaoyang, the founder of Sohu, chairman and CEO of the Board of Directors, and doctor of physics, attended the round table dialogue of the "Ten Year Pact". Together with Zhou Hongyi, the founder of 360 Group, they reviewed the remarkable changes of China's Internet in the past decade and looked forward to the future of AI and the image age. Zhang Chaoyang said that the development of the Internet in the past decade has basically been in two directions, one is about algorithms and artificial intelligence, and the other is the rise of the imaging era. Short videos, live broadcasts and other content have become extremely rich. Entrepreneurs becoming "internet celebrities" is a strategy to cope with the media communication model of the new era. They should put down their airs, accept new changes, and embrace them. Zhou Hongyi pointed out that the rapid development of artificial intelligence in the past two years has brought new revolutionary opportunities and even stronger demand. This cannot be separated from the accumulation of the Internet for 30 years. Internet users have contributed a lot of data. In addition, the algorithm continues to mature. The Internet has been upgraded to a new level and has developed into the era of artificial intelligence. Currently, artificial intelligence big models are developing rapidly. What is the future direction of development? Zhang Chaoyang expressed great optimism about the development prospects of AI. "We are in the storm eye and central area of AI. The combination of human brain and artificial intelligence has greatly improved efficiency and produced many new achievements." In his view, humans have accumulated hundreds of years of knowledge, and artificial intelligence can search for certain logic in simulations and large amounts of data, providing repetitive answers and interactions. Zhou Hongyi believes that generative AI, represented by large models, will become an important component of the entire society, country, and digital business in the future. He compared the large model to an "electric motor". Installing four wheels can turn it into a car, and installing fan blades can turn it into a fan, more like a driving device. Internet giants can compete with the United States in super general artificial intelligence by virtue of computing power and data; Traditional enterprises can customize professional large models that combine with their business, and the opportunities on the track are very broad. Looking ahead to the next decade, "technology enthusiast" Zhou Hongyi stated that he will continue to verify the current trend, such as what changes artificial intelligence has made, whether brain computer interfaces and interstellar travel can be achieved. Zhang Chaoyang believes that social networking will still be the mainstream of the Internet in the future, and hopes that everyone can contribute to the world in ten years. (Lai Xin She)