Chinese Academician: AI Can Help Industrial Software Beat Siemens Within Two Years

At a forum in China, academician E Weinan of Peking University said AI is basically "math plus computer engineering". He believes AI will greatly lower the barrier to research. With open labs and cloud services, any team or person with ideas and skills can join in tech innovation.

He said many companies lack original innovation, which leads to fierce low-level competition. High-end industrial software still depends on others, but an AI-native system could match or even beat Siemens in one or two years. Modeling of industrial production lines could be done in three to five years.

He also warned that the current research system faces big challenges. He stressed that disruptive innovation comes from free exploration, not assigned tasks. Research results will shift from papers to intellectual property, and universities need to build new ways to train talent.