On January 8, Tencent's first 17-level outstanding scientist was born.
He is Zhang Zhengyou, the head of Tencent Robotics X Lab and Tencent AI Lab.
Level 17 is the highest professional level in Tencent's history.
Apart from resumes, what is special about the employees who have won this honor? What are the "tips" we can learn from? ...
We had a chat with Zhang Zhengyou and sorted out the essence of Q&A that you might be interested in.
In the 1980s, in Taizhou, Zhejiang, a teenager Zhang Zhengyou walked out of a small village without telephones, went to Zhejiang University to study, and then to France to study, step by step exposure to radio, computers, and artificial intelligence.
In 2018, Zhang Zhengyou, who was already a world-renowned artificial intelligence and robotics scientist, officially joined Tencent.
Why come to Tencent?
One reason is that Tencent can provide a pragmatic atmosphere.
After the induction interview, Tony (Zhang Zhidong, one of Tencent founders) once said to Zhang Zhengyou: "Don't be afraid to speak up."
Of course, more important is "an opportunity to realize your dream"——
He returned to China to create a robotics laboratory to help solve a series of social problems, including aging and intelligent manufacturing.
After three years of groping, the two laboratories led by Zhang Zhengyou have achieved "walking on two legs"-academics have an impact, industry has output.
The further road is still ahead.
The following is a conversation with Zhang Zhengyou Q&A:
a chance
Q: From studying in France to graduating to work, you have been overseas for more than 30 years. Why did you return to China?
A: Tencent came to me and told me to create a robotics laboratory. This career is very attractive to me. It has always been my dream to use technology to promote social progress.
I believe that in the future, robots will promote the solution of a series of social problems, including aging and intelligent manufacturing.
Q: Where do you go to work, the more consideration is which place can help you realize your dreams and promote social progress.
A: Yes, this is very important.
Q: Before returning to China, what trade-offs did you have?
A: My question is whether technology can really be valued.
Later, I saw the speech of Pony (Pony Ma, Chairman and CEO of Tencent). It probably said that Tencent is already an adult. It needs social responsibility and technological transformation. I think this is an opportunity. I think Tencent has already Aware of the need to develop in the direction of technology.
During the induction interview, I chatted with Tony, Martin (Tencent President Liu Chiping), Dowson (Tencent Senior Executive Vice President Tang Daosheng), and LS (Tencent Senior Executive Vice President Lu Shan). I saw the environment of Tencent. Very pragmatic and very close to my style of doing things. This makes me believe that working with them at Tencent will be steadfast, stable, and joyful, and can push forward what I want to do. So I finally joined Tencent.
Q: Tencent is pragmatic. What details do you have to make this judgment?
A: Whether it is pragmatic or not can be felt during the conversation.
There is a very special point. After the interview, Tony told me: "Don't be afraid, dare to speak." This is his advice to me, a new employee.
Q: For you, the company attaches great importance to technology, which is a very important basis for you to join Tencent. However, there are still people from outside who say that Tencent emphasizes products rather than technology. How have you really felt during the past three years?
A: The outside world has seen the success of Tencent products, but in fact, a good product still needs strong technical support. Tencent has already had a layout in AI. For example, WeChat has had speech recognition early on. For another example, there are many image processing techniques for P-picture every day. After I came, I can also feel that Tencent has invested in AI for many years.
In the past three years, I can truly feel Tencent's determination and support for long-term investment in cutting-edge technologies such as AI. Martin once said that artificial intelligence is of strategic significance. We will make continuous, long-term and patient investment in AI because we firmly believe that this is an exciting long-term investment, rather than directly generating income in the short term.
Q: What do you think about the promotion from level 16 to level 17 this time?
A: Promotion is an honor for me, but the honor is actually with the laboratory. So I still have to thank the students in the laboratory, the honor belongs to everyone. From another perspective, we also see Tencent's sense of identity and support for technology.
Academics have influence, industry has output
Q: After entering Tencent, you led Tencent Robotics X Lab. Is the goal of this laboratory to make products out?
A: The product I am making now is of little significance to me, because some core technical problems in the robot have not been solved yet, and it is not the robot I really want.
The three core technologies of robots are mobility, dexterous operation and intelligent bodies. At present, robots cannot complete some tasks autonomously, efficiently and stably. When we overcome these technical difficulties, we can make the robot we really want.
Q: In the future, what kind of space can Tencent AI Lab expand?
A: At Tencent AI Lab, we have an internal slogan, "Academic influences, industry has output". We emphasize both research and application development, which is also a trend in the field of artificial intelligence. In the AI field, basic research is the foundation, and the application is the branches and leaves.
Nowadays, companies are paying more and more attention to long-term investment in basic research, and universities also have a lot of cutting-edge AI research, and eventually they will naturally be applied. The most fundamental difference between research and application is what problem you want to solve.
When we do research in the enterprise, we must prepare for the company's uncertain tomorrow. Finally, we must be able to continuously produce output and commercialize mature technology. But one thing is the same as colleges--
To do research, you need to look farther, be forward-looking about the development of technology and the development of the industry, be able to endure loneliness before success, and be able to embrace failure.
Q: Will the academic and industrial legs fight?
A: "Industry has output" is driven by the needs of technology research and development, rather than service products.
Our technology is forward-looking. When the technology is mature, it needs to be implemented and applied in the project. That is to say, academic and industrial itself are interrelated.
Q: What AI Lab is not doing right now, what challenges does this pose to you?
A: When the car was not invented, if you ask people what kind of transportation tools they need, they will definitely say that they want a faster carriage. They will not say that I want a car because there is no car. But the foresighted Ford created a car that was faster and more comfortable than a carriage.
Therefore, the positioning of our AI Lab is not to serve the current products, but to study what kind of topics are based on the development trend of technology and the pain points of social needs. We have the foresight of our own technology, develop our new technology, and know what problems to solve. Some things are slowly taking root. It may become some technologies in a new round of products, or new businesses may be created.
"Delayed gratification" is an important experiment in psychology. When a person can give up instant gratification for bigger things when he is young, he will be more successful when he grows up.
In the same way, I think that companies must also have a choice orientation that is willing to give up instant gratification for more valuable long-term results. I firmly believe that the improvement of technological capabilities will bring great value to the company's development.
Technology for good is the street light
Q: The important thing in scientific research is talents. How do you allow so many people to combine organically and produce results quickly?
A: Tencent's platform has played a big role. On the other hand, Shenzhen, as the most cutting-edge emerging city in China, is also very attractive. Of course, my personal influence is also very important. The combination of the three aspects brought these outstanding students together.
These excellent people form a team, which indeed poses many challenges to management. Most of them have just graduated with a PhD, or have worked in a research institute for many years, and are more accustomed to doing things alone. But robots can't be made by one person. I need to make them jump out of the habit of fighting alone, and collaborate with each other to do bigger things and have greater influence.
I have always told everyone that we must have lofty ambitions, and the structure cannot be like in a school-we are not alone, we are a team of multidisciplinary cooperation.
Our goal is to solve some major problems in Chinese society, such as what role can we play in China's aging society; what role can we play in intelligent manufacturing. I also told my team that we have to think from these perspectives.
Science and technology to be good is equivalent to our belief, and then we have to work hard in this direction, and slowly become the guiding light for our research.
At first, everyone felt that I was very strict, and some people felt that this was just a feeling, but slowly, everyone could feel that I was not talking about slogans, but that I did it from the bottom of my heart.
Q: What is your vision for the laboratory?
A: With the development of technologies such as artificial intelligence, AR, VR, and digital twins, the future will be a world of virtual and real integration, between the real world (physical world) and virtual world (digital world), through human, AI and A new world where robots coexist and build.
However, I don't know in what form the robot appears. The cutting-edge research we are doing is to make some preparations for this new era.
Q: Some people feel pessimistic about the relationship between humans and machines?
A: This is why it is important to say that technology is good.
I started to touch computers in my junior year
Q: In addition to the information learned on the Internet, I feel that you are very mysterious, very low-key, and you don't say much. What was the initial opportunity for you to become attached to the computer?
A: This starts with my major in university. At that time, I was very young and didn't understand. My uncle who graduated from Zhejiang University suggested that I study radio (now called Information and Electronic Engineering). I was only 16 years old after graduating from high school. I thought my uncle had seen the world, so I listened to him.
In radio, I studied information engineering, signal processing, and image processing. About when I was in my junior year, I started to touch computers.
We are going to wear that white lab coat into the computer room, just like a doctor.
Aren’t all keyboards used now? At the beginning, punched card machines were used. If there is no keyboard, the instructions must be turned into a punched card. There were keyboards in the back. At that time, it was a large computer, and it had to be scheduled to get on.
Q: When did you come into contact with artificial intelligence?
A: I am always interested in how people work and how computers and computers can do things that people do.
When I graduated from university in 1985, the dean of the department told me that artificial intelligence was the future direction after returning from studying in the United States. At that time, the artificial intelligence he said to me refers to image understanding, which is to turn the visible things such as pictures and pixels into high-level semantic descriptions. He suggested that I study this direction to fill the semantic gap.
In 1985, I graduated from university and passed the exam to study abroad. I was sent by the government to study abroad, and I was sent to France. The direction I chose was artificial intelligence.
Study in France
Q: Speaking of France at that time, computer science should be very developed?
A: Yes, it is very advanced. The computer's high-level programming language ADA language, Prolog called artificial intelligence language, the first microcomputer, the IC card product pioneered by the French BULL company... are all invented by the French.
When I went abroad, there was no phone at home, and I wanted to write back. But in France, there are already internet connections like what we are talking about now. At that time, French telephones could already be connected, called Minitel, and services such as ticket purchase and ticket change could be operated through the telephone network.
Q: Just arrived in France, the impact was great?
A: There are more than 100 people in our party going to France. The French Ministry of Foreign Affairs or the Ministry of Education came to meet us and said: "Welcome you, France is a small country with only 50 million people, but our GDP is the sum of China and India. "At that time, France felt really good.
This impression is very deep. The population of China and India at that time was almost 2 billion, which means that the GDP created by France was equal to 40 times the population of China and India.
After only thirty years, China’s GDP is now five times that of France. Putting it in the long river of history, more than thirty years has been a short period of time. China's development is very remarkable and absolutely a miracle.
Q: Let's talk about your research field in France.
A: At the beginning, I did speech recognition. After a year, I switched to computer vision. At that time, I felt that speech recognition was very simple. In this way, I have done computer vision for more than 30 years. The topic of my PhD thesis is to use 3D computer vision to help robots navigate.
Later, after I went to the United States, I felt that human-computer interaction and computer vision were not enough, so I spent 7 years researching speech processing. I have always regarded robotics and artificial intelligence as a direction I pursue in academic research.
Q: Regardless of AI Lab or robotics laboratory, in the end, it will return to what you are most interested in, which is how people interact with things.
A: Yes, people and things, people and people, robots help people.
Q: So your original intention has not changed in the past 30 years. It doesn't matter whether you say you are lucky or smooth, but if you don't have this original intention, you haven't maintained this kind of agility and curiosity, and you can implement it. So far.
A: Persistence is very important. If you take a closer look at those who have achieved success, they are always persevering in a certain direction.
The "Secret" of Not Worrying
Q: Are there any unique learning methods, thinking methods, and working methods that can make everyone less anxious?
A: I am not anxious since I was in my 50s. You started to be anxious when you were 30. Let go of your anxiety and put out more energy and energy to develop yourself and improve your abilities.
Here again we must talk about persistence. I told many classmates about a "T theory", I also call it "nail theory"——
The horizontal represents the width of knowledge, and the vertical represents the depth of technology. You can choose whether to develop the width or the depth yourself. If it is width, you know a lot of fur, but not deep, then the nail can be hit on the wall and it can be pulled out and replaced at will. But if you are very professional and technically solid, you will become more and more unshakable.
The other is focus and self-control, which is very important. When you devote yourself to your work, you will enter a state of selflessness and naturally there will be no anxiety.
I have read the book "Flow" many years ago. It is about being engrossed in work, often forgetting the time and perception of the surrounding environment, entering the flow experience, and at the same time there is a high degree of excitement and fulfillment. I suggest you take a look at this book, and I also recommend searching the video of Bruce Lee's "Be Water My Friend" online, which may be rewarding.
There must also be empathy and gratitude.
The last is altruism. Anxiety is often caused by too much attention to the "ego", and when we look farther, see the entire society, and focus on what value you can play for society, you will feel that what you have done is very meaningful. In this state, where does anxiety come from?
Q: Apart from busy work, what hobbies do you have? What types of books do you like to read?
A: I like to exercise . I usually walk, climb mountains and play table tennis on weekends. Exercising is not a waste of time. After you exercise, you will be full of energy for a day and work efficiently.
The books I read revolve around the understanding of people, such as neurology, psychology, human behavior, and the history of human development.
I also recently studied the Tao Te Ching. When I was looking for an English translation, I found that their translation was different from what I understood, so I decided to translate the Tao Te Ching into English. I hope to finish the translation in one year.
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