Baidu launches ‘Verne Plan’ to bring sci-fi into reality

China's Internet giant Baidu is dead serious about its plan－ to be launched on April 1－to include science fiction writers in its research on artificial intelligence.

中国互联网巨头百度在4月1日推出的计划是认真的：邀请科幻作家参与人工智能的研究。

The Baidu Verne Plan involves setting up a consulting team to bring the world's best science fiction writers together with leading scientists in a quest to turn imagination into reality.

该计划称为百度凡尔纳计划，它建立了一个由世界上最好的科幻作家与顶尖科学家组成的顾问团队，探寻把想象变成现实之路。

The project, named after French novelist Jules Verne, has already invited six people to be the first group of advisers in the team, according to Beijing-based Baidu.

这个项目根据法国小说家儒勒·凡尔纳的名字命名，目前已经邀请了6人组成顾问团队的首批成员，据总部位于北京的百度公司介绍。

The company said that some of Verne's imagination seen in his books in the 19th century, such as helicopters, had been realized in the 20th century.

该公司说，凡尔纳19世纪的书中的想象，比如直升飞机，在20世纪成为了现实。

Apart from Andrew Ng, Baidu's chief scientist, the other five advisers are science fiction writers. They include Liu Cixin, who last year became the first Asian author to win the Hugo Award for Best Novel for his book The Three-Body Problem, and David Brin, an award-winning author from the United States.

除了百度首席科学家吴恩达之外，其他5位顾问都是科幻小说作家。他们包括去年凭借《三体》赢得雨果奖最佳小说的亚洲第一人刘慈欣，以及来自美国屡次获奖的作者大卫·布林。

Baidu said in a statement that the advisers would receive updated information on how the company is developing certain technologies. They will also be able to communicate with Baidu's research and development team to turn some of the ideas into products through brainstorming.

百度在一份声明中说，咨询师们会收到公司如何开发相关技术的更新信息。他们也可以与百度研究与开发团队交流，通过头脑风暴把想法变为产品。

Liu Cixin told The Paper in an interview: "This is an innovative organization. Many ideas, along with innovative work, will be born here. The project will focus on artificial intelligence, and there will be an opportunity for us to work with scientists once the project is officially launched."

刘慈欣接受《澎湃新闻》的采访时说："这是一家创意公司。许多想法和创新工作都会在这里诞生。这个项目会聚焦人工智能，当项目官方成立后，我们有机会和科学家一起工作。"

Baidu said the project is highly exclusive, open only by invitation.

百度说这个项目是高度排他性的，支队受邀者开放。

It is in line with the company's ambitions, as its President Zhang Yaqin has said artificial intelligence is the foundation to empower traditional industries and make them smart.

它与公司的目标一致，百度主席张亚勤说，人工智能是使传统产业变得强大和智能的基础。

He told China Daily, "Baidu has made some world-class achievements in the key subfields of artificial intelligence, such as image recognition, voice recognition, machine translation and self-driving cars."

他告诉《中国日报》："百度已在人工智能的关键子领域，如图像识别，语音识别，机器翻译和自动驾驶汽车等取得世界级的成就。"