Youth and National Prosperity

“Artificial intelligence is a young endeavor and a career for young people.” A year ago, General Secretary Xi Jinping expressed his hopes for the youth during a visit to Shanghai, emphasizing that this is a great time for the younger generation to showcase their talents as we advance national construction and rejuvenation.

As the May Fourth Youth Day approaches, four outstanding young representatives from Hubei’s artificial intelligence sector share their stories of hard work over the past year.

Young Expert in Large Model Technology: Tian Xin

“The General Secretary places great importance on young talents in artificial intelligence; we are living in a crucial time and will not disappoint!” On April 29, Tian Xin, a 34-year-old expert in large model technology at the Wuhan Artificial Intelligence Research Institute, reflected on the General Secretary’s important speech from a year ago with great enthusiasm.

“In just one year, artificial intelligence has rapidly evolved, and our AI large model ‘Zidong Taichu’ has been upgraded to version 4.0.” Tian noted that competition in artificial intelligence ultimately comes down to talent. Hubei’s rich educational resources and encouragement for innovation have attracted young talents from both domestic and international arenas.

Currently, Tian leads a team with an average age of 30, focusing on core technology research and development in areas such as multimodal retrieval, pre-training, post-training, and reinforcement learning. The ‘Zidong Taichu’ model has evolved from version 1.0 to 4.0, now possessing interactive thinking and deep reasoning capabilities.

During a demonstration, Tian input a photo from the Snooker World Championship and asked, “What should Zhao Xintong do to score more points?” The model quickly provided specific suggestions for shot execution.

Thanks to the efforts of Tian and his young research team, the multimodal large model ‘Zidong Taichu’ is now widely applied in intelligent manufacturing, smart cities, smart healthcare, and intelligent assistants.

“Artificial intelligence is advancing at an incredible pace, and we have a significant responsibility and glorious mission!” Tian stated that Hubei has fertile ground for cultivating top enterprises, supported by policies, abundant data, computing power, and a complete innovation ecosystem. “We will focus on technology development, and the rest will be left to time. Once the intensity of innovation reaches a threshold, we believe we will give birth to our own ‘Six Little Dragons.’”

AI Algorithm Team Leader: Zhou Weixiao

“The development of artificial intelligence has shifted from a competition of model capabilities to a new stage of deep integration with real industries, scenarios, and demands. This is a time where young people can truly make a difference,” said Zhou Weixiao, the 29-year-old leader of the AI algorithm team at Zhongke Fanyu (Wuhan) Technology Co., Ltd., on April 29.

“I feel so lucky!” Zhou shared that he is also a doctoral student at Beihang University. When he first started his PhD in natural language processing, it was a niche field in the tech community. However, with the explosive growth of large language models, its application scenarios have broadened, bringing AI from the laboratory into real life.

Over the past year, Zhou has led his team to focus on core areas like large models and hybrid intelligence, advancing the construction of a “Hybrid Intelligent Cognitive Analysis and Decision-Making Platform” to meet the actual needs of government, enterprises, and finance, developing intelligent software such as AI decision-makers.

Today, these self-developed AI technologies are widely applied, providing multilingual intelligent analysis services for international aircraft manufacturers and assisting in structured processing of electronic medical records and intelligent triage in healthcare.

Zhongke Fanyu (Wuhan) has grown into a specialized and innovative small and medium-sized enterprise in Hubei, recognized as a “golden seed” enterprise in the Optical Valley listing. “My entrepreneurial journey is inseparable from Hubei’s innovative and entrepreneurial environment,” Zhou remarked, highlighting the concentration of universities, rich research resources, and solid industrial foundation in Wuhan, which continuously improves the innovation ecosystem around computing power, data, models, and talent, allowing young teams to realize that ’technology has demand, results have scenarios, and youth have a stage.’

Looking ahead, Zhou has a clear plan: to stand at the forefront of technological innovation while maintaining a long-term perspective and problem awareness, solidifying foundational research and engineering practice. He and his team will continue to focus on the deep integration of large models with industry scenarios, pushing artificial intelligence from “usable” to “easy to use” and from “single-point intelligence” to “system intelligence.”

AI Entrepreneur: Ruan Shuang

“The General Secretary has entrusted this young endeavor of artificial intelligence to us; we stand at the forefront of the times and must bravely shoulder the mission of our era,” said Ruan Shuang, a young AI entrepreneur in Optical Valley, on April 24. Over the past year, he and his team have explored the forefront of AI applications, transitioning from using AI in shrimp farming to integrating AI and big data in beef cattle farming.

At 36, Ruan is a co-founder of both Hubei Sigao Technology Development Co., Ltd. and Fushi (Hubei) Technology Development Co., Ltd. “During the initial startup phase from 0 to 1, the youth organization provided us with substantial care and support,” Ruan noted, mentioning the financial support, promotional assistance, and resource connections provided by the organization since they entered the incubator.

Sigao Technology has developed the “Thingo Universal Intelligent Agent Platform,” referred to as an enterprise-level “big shrimp.” “Digital employees can work 24/7 to help companies complete a large amount of repetitive and logical tasks, such as processing business documents, cross-account balance audits, automatic voucher generation, and batch settlement, achieving standardized and intelligent closed-loop management of operations,” Ruan explained.

Currently, Sigao Technology has established joint laboratories with universities like Wuhan University, accumulating over 100 intellectual property rights and covering various fields including finance, government affairs, manufacturing, and education.

“Fushi Technology is our new battlefield in agriculture.” Ruan leads his team to deeply integrate artificial intelligence into the entire agricultural industry chain, creating an AI and big data smart farm. By utilizing RFID ear tags, AI cameras, environmental sensors, and other hardware, combined with beef cattle growth models, nutritional formula algorithms, and behavior recognition AI models, they achieve precise feeding, health warnings, and full traceability, making beef cattle farming more intelligent, efficient, and green.

As AI surges, how can we “dance together”? “We must actively become leaders and co-creators of technology, continuously exploring efficient new scenarios empowered by AI, and realize our self-worth in human-machine collaboration,” Ruan stated, emphasizing the need to deepen cooperation with research institutions, increase R&D of core AI technologies, and improve the integration model of agriculture across the primary, secondary, and tertiary industries, promoting a transition from traditional extensive practices to intelligent precision in agriculture, allowing artificial intelligence to better serve life.

AI Doctoral Student: Ni Qiyuan

“The General Secretary’s words have greatly encouraged us young researchers; it is very meaningful and valuable to contribute my knowledge to the country’s major strategic needs,” said Ni Qiyuan, a doctoral student at Huazhong University of Science and Technology, as he adjusted algorithms on his computer in the National Key Laboratory of Multi-Spectral Information Intelligent Processing Technology on April 23.

At 25, Ni is a joint training doctoral student in the Excellence Engineer Program between Huazhong University of Science and Technology and the Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation. Choosing artificial intelligence as his major out of interest during his undergraduate studies, he has gradually realized the immense application value of AI across various industries as it becomes a hot future industry.

“Huazhong University has a tolerant and relaxed research environment, celebrating breakthrough achievements while respecting those who work quietly in research, creating a tropical rainforest-like environment for technological development,” Ni shared. Over the past year, he and his team have focused on algorithms for AI target detection and recognition, closely aligning their research with the national strategic needs in the aerospace sector, deeply participating in significant projects through school-enterprise cooperation, and tightly integrating laboratory research with frontline engineering applications.

“During critical phases of project development, to ensure progress, the team worked overnight, repeatedly debugging and optimizing to identify technical bottlenecks, ultimately completing milestone goals on time and with high quality,” Ni expressed, noting the immense honor of contributing to national major projects as a student.

“In 2025, we even achieved a national first!” Ni led his team to focus on a target detection and recognition project related to the Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation’s 25th Institute, emerging from over a hundred competing teams to win the championship (national first) in the 2025 Challenge Cup.

“Artificial intelligence is a completely new blue ocean, with many technical challenges and application scenarios waiting for us to explore,” Ni stated, emphasizing that as young researchers in the new era, they will remember the General Secretary’s earnest instructions, focusing on major national strategic needs in aerospace and continuously delving into key AI technologies to contribute their youthful wisdom to national strength construction.