Robin Li: Baidu, using AI to redefine network disk

Author: Jiang Shangjiu

Source: Zhenghe Island (ID: zhenghedao)

2023 is the first year of the fermentation of the AI ​​wave. Under the continuous catalysis of the wave of intelligence, various industrial forms are facing impact and transformation. As an important part of the information service field, the cloud industry is also facing a crisis. A huge change.

At this key node of industrial upgrading, Baidu, which has been deeply involved in cloud services and AI fields for many years, has proposed a new direction: using AI to reconstruct the cloud disk service pattern.

On October 17, at the "Baidu World Conference" held in Beijing, Baidu CEO Robin Li demonstrated the new module of Baidu Netdisk under AI reconstruction - Baidu Netdisk Cloud Yiduo.

With the new empowerment of the "Baidu Netdisk Cloud Yiduo" functional module, Baidu Netdisk has successfully achieved a revolutionary subversion from "graphical language interaction" to "natural language interaction". It is equipped with multiple After adopting the modal information processing model, today's Baidu Netdisk can not only use natural language instructions to achieve efficient query of files, but also extract key information from target files in a short time, greatly improving the efficiency of user knowledge acquisition.

In this regard, Robin Li said:

"In the past ten years, Baidu has defined what a network disk is; in the next ten years, Baidu will use AI to redefine a new network disk."

What kind of market insights did Baidu make such a disruptive product design? In the next ten years, what strategic posture will Baidu take to empower users with more value and redefine industry rules?

We may be able to get some clues from the growth of Baidu Netdisk in the past ten years.

Times create heroes, and heroes should adapt to the times

The story of network disk starts with 4G.

Around 2012, with the development and maturity of 4G technology, domestic communication service manufacturers began to build 4G signal base stations on a large scale. The network speed of up to 100Mbps per second brought a new Internet experience to the public, but Troubles also come one after another.

By then, most smartphones will be configured with 512M 1GB, and the memory of flagship phones will only be 16GB. Faced with the large cache brought by the 4G network, users will often fall into the dilemma of "delete photos or uninstall apps."

After all, photos can be deleted selectively, and applications can be uninstalled and reinstalled. However, if you clear the cache blindly, some important files will be cleaned up, and there will be no room for regret. .

At this time, the importance of cloud storage is highlighted.

In 2012, the cloud service industry was in a big blue ocean period. No company wanted to miss this promising market. So in this year, a large number of network disk products began to emerge in the domestic application market. , 115 Netdisk, Kingsoft Express, Tencent Weiyun, 360 Cloud Disk, Sina Microdisk, Thunder Clippers...

As long as it is a major Internet company in China, almost all of them have ended up in the game, and It quickly set off a vigorous "hundred-disc war" in the industry.

As a veteran Internet company in China, Baidu naturally joined this "cloud battle" and took advantage of information channels and user scale to complete the initial user acquisition process. accumulation.

In 2013, just one year later, the "Hundred Disk War" entered the "Great Red Sea Period". The number of personal cloud disk users reached 223 million. In three years, the number of personal cloud disk users increased by nearly 56%. %, reaching 396 million.

Data source: "iiMedia Consulting | 2022 China Personal Network Disk Market Research Report"

During this period, various products continued to "roll" new tricks in the service module, and Baidu Network Disk also With the convenient and fast "handicap order", he quickly broke out of the circle and successfully established a foothold in the industry.

As the saying goes, "Everything is cyclical." With the rapid expansion of the cloud market, the explosive growth of users has also begun to gradually decline. When the business capacity of an industry peaks, the reshuffle will also occur. will follow.

In 2016, the network disk industry fell into the most "anxious" year. As the convergence of business formats became more and more obvious, the cloud data load became heavier and heavier. A large number of network disks cannot bear this endless investment and have announced the shutdown of their servers.

This is undoubtedly a "nightmare" for both network disk companies and users. As a large number of network disk servers are shut down, a large number of users' cloud data are deleted without their knowledge. This is also The cloud business once fell into a "crisis of trust."

In 2016 alone, 9 large-scale network disk businesses were shut down in China, including many well-known leading Internet companies in China. Baidu Network Disk was also once involved in the public opinion of "shutdown". Afterwards, the official said many times After refuting the rumors, the basic base of users was stabilized.

Frankly speaking, this was a difficult war, but fortunately, Baidu Netdisk finally survived the "cold winter" and waited for the "spring."

In 2019, Baidu Netdisk cloud storage exceeded 100 billion GB, with more than 700 million registered users, more than 600 million netdisk links generated annually, and the scale advantage of more than 10 million paying users, allowing Baidu to Netdisk has become the ultimate winner in this "cloud battle".

Data source: Qianzhan Industry Research Institute's "Analysis of Market Scale and Development Trends of China's Personal Network Disk Industry in 2020"

With the absolute advantage of market share, can Baidu Network Disk completely let down its vigilance? I'm afraid not. As a veteran company that has been deeply involved in the Internet field for many years, Baidu is keenly aware that the coming wave of AI is reshaping the entire cloud industry structure.

The Internet is different from the industry. The industry field is like "the elephant dances, the faster it dances" and what is emphasized is a "winner takes all"; while the Internet is "the fast bird flies first, the faster it flies." "Faster" is about a "first-mover advantage."

As a huge product with 800 million users, under the impact of the AI ​​​​wave, how can Baidu Netdisk further boost the vitality of the product and redefine the next decade? Year? The layout in the AI ​​field is an important attempt by Baidu Netdisk.

The "pain point" transformation of cloud servicesProvides the possibility for AI reconstruction

This is a The era of information explosion. There is a saying that the amount of knowledge acquired by modern people in one day is equivalent to the amount of knowledge acquired by ancient people in their lifetime.

This proposition is very interesting, but the author believes that this issue should be viewed dialectically.

During the Western Jin Dynasty, Zuo Si’s creation of "Sandu Fu" created the legend of "Luoyang Zhigui", which is enough to prove that the carrier of information greatly restricts the efficiency of knowledge dissemination.

The development of the communications industry is a good example of the restructuring of the cloud industry landscape. In the era of information explosion, a large amount of data information is circulated on the Internet. We need a lot of "paper" to record this information, and the birth of cloud services has solved the "paper" problem well.

But here comes the question, is the information recorded on paper really valid every word?

"Sandu Fu" has more than 10,000 words in total, each word is exquisite, and every sentence is exquisite. However, if you convert it into today's flow meter system, you will find that the entire This article is only 10M in size.

We are certainly exposed to more than 10M of information every day, but the question is, how much effective information is there? How much useless information is there? Is our efficiency in extracting information really getting better?

To give a simple example, it is also a lecture of dozens of minutes. A novice audience can watch it smoothly from beginning to end, because for them, all the knowledge is new and all It is worth learning, and the growth efficiency is naturally very high; but some audiences have some basic knowledge and want to obtain differentiated information from the lectures. Under the objective limitations of information asymmetry, these users also have to read from beginning to end. This way you can avoid missing important information.

But obviously, this method is not only boring, but also very inefficient.

How to solve this pain point? The use of AI is a good solution.

At the "2023 Baidu World Conference", Robin Li demonstrated the video search, understanding, abstract and summary functions of "Baidu Netdisk Cloud Yiduo" on the spot. For a 43-minute English interview, you only need to input a few spoken commands to quickly find the corresponding video, refine the key points of the video in just ten seconds, and give a systematic summary, even You can refine a golden sentence. In the past, it often required more than five steps, but now it can be completed in one sentence. In addition to its application in work scenarios, "Baidu Netdisk Cloud Yiduo" also has very practical applications in learning scenarios.

For example, it can take on the work of a "stenographer", help add subtitles to the target video, export these subtitles to documents, intelligently refine the key points of the content, and add titles to the manuscript, dual learning between video and intelligent manuscripts , which can greatly improve learning efficiency.

In life scenes, whether it is a stored movie or an uploaded personal video, it can be locked through simple natural language interaction, and even corresponding "movie reviews" can be intelligently generated, greatly improving user interaction. experience. Robin Li said that so far, the number of users of Baidu Netdisk "Yun Yiduo" has exceeded 20 million.

It can be seen that this collision of "Network Disk AI" is not a simple attempt by Baidu to follow the market trend, but a subversive "cloud revolution".

First, the multi-modal AI deployment allows "Baidu Netdisk Cloud Yiduo" to have cross-dimensional understanding capabilities. As a world-leading intelligent technology, it can allow AI algorithms to interpret text, Efficiently shuttle between pictures and videos, you only need to use a simple natural language description to accurately locate the target file, and can continuously update user appeals based on dialogue memory, greatly improving the efficiency of knowledge acquisition.

Second, the change in interaction logic has caused the identity function of the network disk to begin to change. Compared with the traditional "tool role", the multi-modal "Baidu Network Disk Cloud Yiduo" is more like It is an "assistant role" that helps users better achieve "knowledge management" in the relatively private application space of Netdisk and becomes the user's "second brain".

Recently, Baidu Netdisk has recently launched the "Yun Yiduo File Assistant" that can be used on WeChat. Search "Yun Yiduo File Assistant" on WeChat, add it as a WeChat friend, forward any public account article to Yun Yiduo, and it can "read" directly, quickly refine the core content, and generate article summaries, allowing users to obtain them in a short time "Essential dry goods".

In the era of artificial intelligence, the IT technology stack has undergone fundamental changes, from the traditional three-layer architecture (hardware, operating system, software) to a four-layer architecture (chip, framework, models, applications), blindly involution on the traditional technical route, which neither conforms to technical logic nor market logic. Only by bringing more thoughtful and practical value empowerment to users can we bring stronger vitality to the product. .

Baidu happens to be such a company. While maintaining independent research and development, it borrows technological potential to continue to feed back terminal services, so that users can always enjoy the most cutting-edge technological dividends, thereby enhancing product recognition. degree and loyalty.

The deployment of "Baidu Netdisk Cloud Yiduo" is just the beginning. The "new" ten-year journey of "redefining Netdisk with AI" has just begun.

The next ten yearsHow will Baidu use AI to subvert the network disk?

Those who strive to catch up with the trend are brave, but those who lead the trend are the strong. Baidu understands this.

In March this year, the AI ​​wave swept across the world, giving the Internet field a shot in the arm. Just like the trend of network disks was captured in 2012, all major Internet companies did not want to miss this opportunity.

But as everyone knows, while colleagues in the industry are rushing to enter the game, Baidu has already been deeply involved in this field for nearly ten years. It was the first to stand on the limelight and launched the "Wen Xin Yi Yan" model.

Behind Baidu’s series of actions, there are actually many details reflected.

First of all, forward-looking strategic planning allows Baidu to win at the starting line in this "AI war"; secondly, strong self-developed technical strength gives Baidu the confidence to lead the development of this trend.

From the technical application of "Baidu Netdisk Cloud", Baidu has the same ambition in the Baidu Netdisk business sector.

At the "Baidu World Conference", Robin Li mentioned: In the past 11 years, Baidu Netdisk has accumulated 800 million users, the file size has reached 4 trillion, and the number of pictures uploaded by users every day Both exceed 1 billion.

‍ Faced with massive data management, Baidu Netdisk has long been familiar with it. Whether it is back-end data management or data security guarantee, Baidu Netdisk has already reached the top level in the industry. However, under the challenges of the new era, Baidu Netdisk has How should the network disk lead the industry to develop a new development path?

"Better complete intelligent services for personal files" may be the mainstream direction of future network disk industry upgrades.

As we discussed earlier, with the iteration of communication technology, the data that individuals are exposed to is becoming more and more complex, both in life and work scenarios. Since "enough space" The problem has been solved, so how to process this data efficiently will become an important proposition.

In other words, in the future, each of us will need not only a “database”, but also a supporting “data processing solution”.

The deployment of "Baidu Netdisk Cloud Yiduo" is an attempt at a solution, allowing the Netdisk service to begin the transition from "information-based" to "knowledge-based", helping users receive and receive information more efficiently. Understand and call the "knowledge" in the database and become the user's "second brain". The update and iteration of this "solution" is the new future that network disk companies should "roll out".

If you place the case of Baidu Netdisk in the entire AI industry, you will actually find that this is not only the meaning of "Baidu redefines Netdisk with AI", but also the meaning of the ultimate development of the entire AI industry.

Since its birth, AI has been a controversial existence. Not only are there conflicts of polar opposite views, but the "AI disaster theory" has also become the mainstream public opinion in society.

Should humans develop AI? This issue needs to be tested over time, but at this stage, in this wave of changes in productivity and production relations, we should view the existence of AI rationally. The existence of AI should help us handle work and life better. The launch of "Baidu Netdisk Cloud Yiduo" is a good example.

Only by correctly exploring the relationship between humans and AI can we explore more advanced production models, explore the marginal possibilities of more industries, and bring more accurate calculations Higher productivity.

From an industrial perspective, we also need more companies like Baidu to make more valuable and conclusive explorations to make AI better Only by empowering individuals in their work and life can we better eliminate human misunderstandings about AI and explore more diversified development paths.

Baidu’s pace of reconstructing the world with AI continues.

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