Highlights of DataFunCon 2024 Beijing: Big Data, Large Models, and AI Integration

On July 5, the two‑day DataFunCon 2024 Beijing opened at the Liting Huayuan Hotel, themed “Big Data·Large Models·Dual‑Core Era,” attracting hundreds of experts, scholars, executives, and enthusiasts from the big data and AI fields.

In the main forum, Alibaba Cloud researcher Xu Sheng delivered a keynote titled “Alibaba Cloud Intelligent Big Data Evolution,” outlining the transition from data lakes to lake‑warehouse integration and the convergence of big data with AI, and highlighting Alibaba Cloud’s global scale of processing 2.8 EB of data daily across 30 regions and 89 zones.

Xu emphasized that big data, search, and AI are now converging, and that Alibaba Cloud aims to link data lake‑warehouse computing with AI infrastructure to support large‑model development and innovative products.

ProtonBase researcher Jiang Xiaowei presented “Distributed Data Warehouse – Let Data Emerge Intelligence,” explaining the DIKW model (Data‑Information‑Knowledge‑Wisdom) and how data can be transformed into valuable insights and eventually wisdom, while envisioning the future emergence of AGI.

Professor Zhao Xin from Renmin University’s Gaoling AI Institute gave a deep dive on large‑model technology, covering language model capabilities, data resource construction, and evaluation, and stressed the importance of high‑quality data, scalable training architectures, cost‑effective learning methods, and model robustness.

The closing round‑table, hosted by DataFun founder Wang Dachuan with guests Xu Sheng, Zhao Xin, and Yuntian Tech CTO Guan Tao, discussed the trajectory from data emergence to value emergence, enterprise considerations for adopting large models, and strategies for different business sizes.

Additional sessions covered topics such as next‑generation data architecture, AB testing and causal inference, large‑model fine‑tuning, AI‑enhanced user experience, and AI agents, while partners like Alibaba Cloud, Yuntian Tech, and Alluxio showcased their solutions at the exhibition hall.

Photos, slide decks, knowledge maps, and technical maturity curves were made available for download via QR codes, and the conference continued the next day with a series of specialized forums on data governance, AI‑driven operations, multi‑cloud architecture, and real‑time analytics.