At ASUS, innovation is a core part of our DNA, helping us to continuously transform and evolve so that we can create a more incredible future for everyone. One of the many ways we advance and expand our capabilities is through Future Fest.
Established in 2020, this annual three-day event helps ASUS promote a culture of innovation by bringing together ASUS business units (BUs) and functional units (FUs), and as well as industry experts to exchange industry insights and discuss emerging trends and technologies. The theme for this year’s event was “Together We Innovate” and it focused on four key areas: generative AI, innovative applications, smart manufacturing, and smart healthcare.
Through sharing ideas between internal BUs and FUs, and learning from external industry experts, ASUS aims to inspire attendees to tap into their creativity and passion to build innovative AI applications across a wide range of fields.
Talking technology and more with TechTalk
The first segment of Future Fest is TechTalk. This year, ASUS invited three industry experts to share their knowledge and insights on the latest trends and technologies. This was then followed by representatives from key ASUS BUs and FUs who gave presentations about some of their AI-related products and services.
The first speaker was Kevin Lee, Chief Operating Officer for Taiwan Web Service (TWS), a subsidiary of ASUS, who talked about the economic potential of generative AI and its impact on the workforce. Kevin shared that generative AI is expected to accelerate productivity across various industries, and has the potential to add from US$2.6 trillion to US$4.4 trillion annually to the global economy.
Kevin also predicted that generative AI may automate 60 to 70 percent of peoples’ work due to its rapid development in understanding natural language. However, he pointed out that this does not mean AI will be replacing people in the workforce. Rather, the integration of generative AI can add value to a company’s operations by how fast it processes information, saving significant time for workers.
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Kevin also mentioned the significant advancements made in the fields of generative AI and large language models (LLMs). One such example is TWS’ Formosa Foundation Model (FFM-Llama2), the world’s first LLM with advanced capabilities in traditional Chinese. It offers enterprise-level generative AI solutions while ensuring flexible optimization and security.
The next speaker was Vivian Chen, Associate Professor of the Department of Information Technology at National Taiwan University. She discussed the achievements and limitations of conventional AI in language research. Compared to past language models that were mostly extractive-based and needed existing information to pull answers from, today’s LLMs can create new content in a way that is similar to how people utilize their higher-order thinking skills to analyze and evaluate information to come up with new ideas.
Vivian also noted, however, that these systems are not perfect. A key example is training data bias in LLMs. She stressed that this is an important concern to focus on, especially for the education industry.
The third speaker was Frank Wang, Research Director of Deep Learning and Computer Vision at NVIDIA. He delved further into generative AI models and discussed the general challenges involved, such as LLM hallucinations, how to increase the efficiency of LLMs, and how to improve multi-modality LLMs (models that combine different types of data to enhance their natural language processing ability).
A RoadShow of innovation
After the TechTalk segment on day one, the next part of Future Fest is was the RoadShow, a two-day showcase of ASUS’s internal projects and ongoing innovations. Multiple BUs and FUs had the opportunity to showoff products and solutions that encapsulated their concepts. This year brought together 52 exhibits featuring innovative and forward-looking technologies—all of which were developed through the ASUS Design Thinking process.
The BUs and FUs also used the RoadShow segment to explore possible partnerships with other ASUS teams who are working on ideas that intersect with their own efforts.
A culture of continuous collaboration
As the annual Future Fest looks to 2024 and beyond, ASUS hopes that it will continue to inspire through stimulating discussions covering industry trends and new technologies as well as through the rich and diversified exhibits of our BUs and FUs. The goal is to continuously leverage our collective wisdom in a collaborative environment to help further drive technological innovation so that we can create even more incredible products and services in the future.
About ASUS
ASUS is a global technology leader that provides the world’s most innovative and intuitive devices, components, and solutions to deliver incredible experiences that enhance the lives of people everywhere. With its team of 5,000 in-house R&D experts, the company is world-renowned for continuously reimagining today’s technologies. Consistently ranked as one of Fortune’s World’s Most Admired Companies, ASUS is also committed to sustaining an incredible future. The goal is to create a net zero enterprise that helps drive the shift towards a circular economy, with a responsible supply chain creating shared value for every one of us.