The pinnacle fusion of technology, capital, art, and fashion, the "EDGE Global AI & Web3 Investment Summit" successfully concluded.

2023-09-29 17:26

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On September 27th, the world's largest AI&Web3 investment summit "EDGE Summit" hosted by Vertex Labs came to a successful conclusion. With strong support from the Hong Kong government, more than 200 scholars, politicians, investors, entrepreneurs, and artists from various countries attended the event. During the two-day agenda from September 26th to September 27th, there were two full-day main venues, six sub-venues, two evening banquets, and more than 150 sessions in total, covering topics such as policy, Web3, AI, computing infrastructure, fashion, and film. It was a collision of world-class ideas.

Policy Wind Vane Preview

Former Deputy Director of the Innovation and Technology Bureau, Chung Wai Keung, delivered the opening speech on "Hong Kong Investment and Cross-border Data Policy Sharing", expressing Hong Kong's determination to fully develop the digital economy and strive for global leadership in the development of WEB 3 and AI.

Hong Kong Monetary Authority's Director and Head of Policy Research, Dong Yiyue, shared his insights on the application scenarios and development prospects of Web3 and blockchain industry in "Web3 Technology and Anti-Money Laundering". He pointed out that "the application of blockchain technology is a key area, and its application is not only related to cryptocurrencies, but can also have important impacts in other fields. As an international financial center, Hong Kong needs to retain blockchain technology and related talents in order to serve the financial industry. This requires the creation of appropriate regulations and business environment to attract talents and enterprises to stay in Hong Kong."

Dr. Feng Shengzhong, from the National Supercomputing Shenzhen Center, explained in his keynote speech the trajectory of technological revolution, from mechanical power driving efficiency, to electricity changing cognition, to today's computing power, which will serve as the driving force for the new technological revolution. Hong Kong, backed by the Greater Bay Area, has a rare opportunity to lead the trend of the times in talent, information, capital, industrial ecology, and even energy. The "Hong Kong-Shenzhen International Computing Power Center (AIHP)" was officially unveiled. The computing power center will integrate Hong Kong's investment advantages, Shenzhen's manufacturing power, and international information and creativity, creating a new chapter in the integration and cooperation of international supercomputing power, and is expected to bring more innovation and cooperation opportunities to the global technology industry.

Former Deputy Director of the Innovation and Industrial Bureau, Zhong Weiqiang, gave the opening speech.

Peak ideas collide

On the first day of the summit, scholars, entrepreneurs, and investors including Yat Siu, co-founder of Animoca Brands, Alvin Graylin, Vice President of Global Enterprise Development at HTC, Dominic Williams, founder and chief scientist of DFINITY, Wang Sen, former partner at TPG, and Livio Weng, Chief Operating Officer of HashKey Group, had in-depth discussions on various topics, including various attempts to fully integrate AI and Web3, new directions in the Web3 industry and technology, whether RWA can become the driving force of the next bull market, how Hong Kong can leverage its traditional advantages in the financial industry, and how policies can better adapt to the new era.

AbleGPT founding partner and former co-founder of iFlytek, Bai Qiang, PwC partner Chen Rui, and Tencent PCG technical vice president Li Zhuang, and other AI innovation leaders delve into the impact of AI on various infrastructure, industries, and investment trends.

The next day, Wang Yuehua, managing partner of De Ding Innovation Management, and Wang Xiaohua, chairman of Youlian Capital, and other senior investors discussed the capital trend and model innovation of AIGC. The guests reached a consensus during the exchange that although the AI field is currently and in the future highly regarded, entrepreneurship is very realistic and the window of opportunity will soon pass. In the past two or three years, the window of opportunity has become increasingly shorter, from community group buying, O2O, to the metaverse, blockchain, and the changes have been rapid. There is no qualitative difference between AI and these fields. Faced with great uncertainty and challenges, do not start a business just for the sake of starting one. Only by achieving sustainable and scalable development under certain commercial closed-loop conditions can one possibly win the favor of capital.

Technology and fashion, seamlessly linked

Hape is a European NFT blue-chip brand that once topped the OpenSea trading rankings. At the EDGE Summit, Hape founder Matt shared how to successfully build a fashion project in the Web3.0 field. He shared: "Many brands have failed when entering the Web3 field because they are still bound by traditional boundaries, namely collectors and holders. We believe that success requires an X factor, which is based on specific principles such as strong creativity, a strong team, a strong community, and passion. So what is the most important thing? Quality or quantity? In fact, it is much more complicated than that. You need to delve into the project and divide it into different levels, like a cake that must be delicious at each level. You need an idea, a roadmap, and the community must also be involved. In addition, it involves practicality and how to bring investment returns to holders." Since its launch, Hape has gathered about five million people in the Discord community, which is basically the size of a medium-sized city in the UK.

Former Oscar chairman, former president of Paramount Pictures, former board member of Marvel, brings a touching sharing of "Renaissance 3.0: Summarizing the past and creating the future of entertainment" - "Movies, narratives, are a miracle. If art is a mirror of human experience, then movies are the greatest tool for recording and protecting our collective history, memory, and culture. The concepts of Web3 and AI are exciting the world, giving us hope to influence the entertainment industry, making it better and more interesting. But please don't expect the magical work of AI to replace writers in writing. This is simply impossible and will never happen. It can never replace the heart and soul of great writers.

Famous Japanese artist Yoshihito Akatsuka, meet48 co-founder Maomao, LightCycle CEO Sara, Hape founder Matt Sypien, and CEO of MOV (Global) Jason Wong discussed the digital fashion revolution and entertainment consumption. These industry leaders believe that "technology should not replace art, but rather serve as a tool for art. In the current era, as content creators, we must grow together with technology."

"AI and Metaverse Bring the Era of Movie 3.0" roundtable discussion brought together a galaxy of stars, including Sean O'Kelly, Chairman of Brilliant Pictures, a world-renowned film company and movie mogul; Roger Christian, set decorator for Oscar-winning "Star Wars" and Oscar-nominated "Alien"; Gao Qunyao, CEO of Mobile Cinema and former Microsoft China President; and Stephen O'Reilly, director of ie: music. They discussed the new applications of AI and Web3 in the film and music industries, such as the combination of NFT and subscription models, wearable devices for virtual reality movie viewing, using blockchain to measure engagement, membership, and loyalty, and using AI to reproduce the voices of stars at different ages, as well as songs and music. They have embraced and integrated new technologies such as AI and Web3 in all aspects of the industry. Roger said, "Burying your head in the sand and saying 'oh' in the face of new technological trends is not beneficial. You know, we are afraid that it will take away our jobs. If you think this way, you must take responsibility now. Find out how to use all these technologies to overcome difficulties and enter an exciting new world."

On the evening of the 26th, the most grand banquet of the Metaverse era, LightCycle Night, was held on the stage of the Yabo Pavilion. China's first Metaverse girl group, meet48, performed on stage and interacted with fans. 300,000 fans worldwide participated in the voting through their digital wallet addresses, connecting fans and idols in a decentralized way. British national treasure-level singer Robbie Williams performed the exclusive Metaverse show "Rock DJ" for the LightCycle Metaverse platform as a partner of the event.

AI &Web3 cutting-edge technology and innovation

The latest generation of humanoid robot Desdemona (Desi) in the AI field, which has attracted much attention, made its debut on stage for the first time after leaving the laboratory. Edwin Eyre, CEO of YaYa Labs, unveiled the possibility of personality computing for us at the summit. DESI is learning music, art, and creation. She will be the first AI robot rock star on the planet, releasing her own albums and collaborating with human musicians for global tours. Edwin said that the best way to promote broader and deeper thinking about AI is to integrate cutting-edge technology into popular culture, which is YaYa Labs' mission.

Oculus VR cofounder Jack McCauley believes that AI is driven by video games, and without video games, GPU technology would not be pushed forward. The demand for graphics processing has driven the development of GPU technology.

Professor Qu Huamin from Hong Kong University of Science and Technology introduced the application of data science in Metaverse, and how large language models such as ChatGPT can become collaborative partners for data scientists. He emphasized the importance of data visualization and demonstrated how to use artificial intelligence and Metaverse's augmented reality technology to better present and understand data.

As the first basic public chain focusing on the construction of the metaverse, Caduceus shared a solution for building a metaverse world, including music festivals, NFTs, fashion, etc., to create a digital modern environment. It also mentioned an AI-based app store that can provide models and model-based services.

The Vertex Network for artificial intelligence computing and edge rendering has made groundbreaking progress. Vertex Network hopes to collaborate with Paramount, different GPU vendors, developers, and users to provide a smoother experience for ordinary device users, which is also a manifestation of technological democracy.

EDGE SUMMIT DEMO DAY attracted nearly 200 global projects to participate in registration, and 16 outstanding projects were selected to enter the final exhibition day of the conference and obtained a startup booth display at EDGE Summit. After 3 hours of rigorous evaluation by dozens of investment judges including Jackdaw Capital, Fosun Capital, Superchain Capital, Haskey Group, Coral Capital, DRK Labs, Cycle Network won the first place and received a $5000 funding support from the organizer Vertex Labs.

At the unveiling ceremony of the EDGE Summit, Ander Tsui, the chairman of the EDGE Summit and a promoter deeply rooted in the field of encryption, saw Web3+AI, an innovation for production relations, an innovation for production efficiency, complementing and promoting each other, jointly opening up the possibility of a future super narrative.

As he said, the world is on the edge of a huge change, and the deep integration of Web3 and AI may be the catalyst for a new round of technological revolution, while the seamless integration of technology and art is more likely to completely subvert our imagination of the future.

Continuing the spirit of the pioneering experiment of this event, EDGE will continue to promote the fusion of Web3·AI·Capital·Art·Fashion in the world, bringing the future into reality.

Goodbye, New World!