On December 20, the 2nd Symposium on Digital Economy Development and Governance was held at the School of Economics and Management at Wuhan University. This symposium focused on the development of "Urban Large Models and Their Application Scenarios," attracting experts and scholars from government, industry, and academia to engage in in-depth discussions on the application prospects and challenges of urban large model technologies. The event provided valuable insights for the future intelligent development of cities.

Yu Yang, Deputy General Manager of Hubei Data Group, delivered the opening speech. He first expressed gratitude to Wuhan University and the Wuhan Academy of Social Sciences for organizing the forum. He pointed out that with the advancement of information technology, big data has become a key force driving social and economic development. As a critical application of artificial intelligence, urban large models face dual challenges in terms of data quality and model capabilities. He emphasized that future efforts should focus on increasing technological innovation, deepening cross-departmental collaboration, and promoting the application of urban large models across various fields to jointly build smart and livable cities. Following this, five distinguished guests delivered keynote speeches on the application and development of urban large models.

Fan Zhihong, Party Secretary and Director of the Wuhan Academy of Social Sciences, discussed the transition from "smart cities" to "AI cities" and analyzed the functions and application prospects of AI cities. He argued that the big data, computing power, and intelligent entities of future cities will form the foundation for emerging industries and urban intelligent governance. He proposed that future cities should possess five key characteristics: systematicness, independence, endogeneity, adaptability, and specificity, and emphasized that the "IQ" of a city will become its core competitive advantage.

Ke Qianfeng, General Manager of the Hubei Solutions Division at Alibaba Cloud, shared Alibaba Cloud's practical experiences in promoting the application and implementation of urban large models, particularly in the areas of government services, enterprise solutions, and urban governance. He pointed out that the key to building urban large models lies in constructing a self-evolving foundational service system, selecting mature multimodal models, leveraging local industrial advantages to develop sector-specific applications, and establishing an open and shared innovation platform.

Li Yansheng, Associate Dean of the School of Remote Sensing Information Engineering, delved into the integrated development of remote sensing technology and artificial intelligence, showcasing the wide-ranging applications of this combination in urban monitoring, land use mapping, and emergency management. The use of knowledge graphs has made land use mapping more precise, overcoming the traditional reliance on satellite images in remote sensing data.

Chen Yongwei, Research Director at Comparative Research Magazine, discussed the definition and development of cities, exploring the profound impact cities have on human society. He argued that the integration of smart cities with artificial intelligence large models will be crucial for future development. Solving urban problems requires not only static planning but also dynamic management through the combination of smart cities and AI technologies, thus building a more flexible, efficient, and humane urban system.

Professor Wei Lijia from our school highlighted the innovative research achievements of his team in the field of group intention prediction. By using the "Matching-LLM weighting method" and integrating large language models with individual characteristic data, the method can more accurately simulate and predict group intentions. He stated that this approach will be applied in real-world scenarios such as policy simulation and election forecasting.

During the free discussion session, Professor Luo Zhi, Associate Dean of our school, Chen Xiaoquan, General Manager of Alibaba Cloud's Hubei Division, and Jiang Baoguo, Head of Strategic Development at Hubei Data Group, engaged in an in-depth and lively discussion with the participants on topics such as smart city construction and the application and development of urban large models. The guests shared insights and reflections on smart cities and digital governance based on their practical experience and academic research.

This symposium not only provided a platform for in-depth exchange among experts and scholars but also promoted the exploration of urban large models in the construction of smart cities. Through discussions on cutting-edge technologies and innovative thinking, the participants jointly envisioned the vast prospects for the future intelligent development of cities and contributed wisdom and strength to promoting the deep integration of the digital economy and urban governance.