Baidu World 2024: Developers, Users, Hardware and No-Code

Originally published in Chinese on November 13, 2024. Baidu World is the annual conference of Baidu, China's largest search company, and the 2024 edition was built around putting generative AI to practical use. Below are the announcements first, then my read on four things behind them: developers, users, hardware and no-code. What Baidu announced Generative AI in real use Baidu founder Robin Li said the real meaning of generative AI lies in practical application, not market hype. He predicted that AI will change from a simple tool into a personalized, intelligent agent. iRAG Baidu launched iRAG, short for image-retrieval-augmented generation. The technology pushes AI image generation to a realistic level, lowers the cost of creation and widens the range of uses. Miaoda, a no-code platform Baidu launched Miaoda, a no-code platform that lets people build software without programming, so that an idea is no longer held back by a technical barrier. It is expected to be released in the first quarter of 2025, and Baidu expects it to set off a broad wave of no-code development. An application boom