双语阅读英语外刊精讲：李彦宏登上时代周刊

2019-04-24 09:08:00来源：酷学英语

　　When Robin Li looks back at the question now, he can laugh. But things were different in 1992, when the Baidu CEO was a tongue-tied Chinese student applying for a computer-graphics graduate program in the U.S. The interviewing professor asked him, “Do you have computers in China?” It left the young man stunned. “I was very embarrassed,” says Li, 49, breaking into a grin from the penthouse office of his Beijing headquarters. “I thought, one day I’ll demonstrate that China has a really powerful computer industry.”

　　当李彦宏现在回想这个问题时，也许会笑出声来。但1992年的情况却不一样。当时的百度CEO还是一名说话结巴的学生，想申请参加美国的计算机图形研究生项目。当面试的教授问他：“你们中国有电脑吗？”这句话似乎让这位年轻人惊呆了。如今49岁的他站在百度北京总部的顶楼办公室回忆说：“我感觉很尴尬。但是我想，总有一天我会证明中国拥有非常强大的计算机产业。”现在，当他重新回想起当时的场景时，似乎可以欣慰地笑了。

　　Eight years later, he did. In 2000, Li founded Baidu, a search engine that today is second only to Google in popularity, and whose 80% market share in China makes it the world’s fourth most popular website. The company, whose name derives from a 13th century Chinese poem, has grown into a $60 billion behemoth rivaled in China only by social-media-focused conglomerate Tencent and Jack Ma’s online shopping empire Alibaba. Baidu Maps directs every Chinese motorist, Baidu search results enlighten every student. Nobody is asking Robin Li if computers exist in China any more.

　　八年后，李彦宏做到了。2000年时，李彦宏创立了百度，这是个如今仅次于谷歌的搜索引擎，其在中国的市场占有率达80%。这家公司的名字源自13世纪的中国诗歌，如今它已成长为价值数百亿美元的庞然大物。百度地图指引着每个中国司机，百度搜索结果启发着每个学生。现在，再也没有人问李彦宏“中国是否有电脑”。

　　China has now set its sights on the next tech frontier: artificial intelligence. At November’s Artificial Intelligence and Global Security Summit in Washington, Eric Schmidt, then executive chairman of Google parent Alphabet, predicted China’s AI prowess will overtake the U.S. within a decade. “By 2030, they will dominate the industries of AI,” he said.

　　中国现在将目光投向了下一个科技前沿：人工智能。去年11月，在华盛顿举行的AI与全球安全峰会上，时任谷歌母公司Alphabet执行董事长的埃里克˙施密特预计，中国的AI技术将在10年内超过美国。他说：“到2030年，中国将成为AI领域的主导。”

　　No one in China takes this challenge more seriously than Robin Li. Some $1.2 billion of his firm’s $9 billion revenue over the first three-quarters of 2017 was put back into R&D, according to published accounts–much of it into AI. He believes Baidu can dominate the global market for AI by harnessing China’s greatest advantage: scale. Li says, “Everyone speaks the same language; they all obey the same law.”

　　在中国，没有人比李彦宏更重视这个挑战。根据百度公布的财报，该公司2017年前三个季度的90亿美元收入中，约有12亿美元被投入到研发方面，其中大部分投给了AI。他认为百度可以利用中国最大的优势——规模优势，来主导全球AI市场。李彦宏说：“中国是非常庞大的统一市场，每个人都说着同样的语言。”

本文关键字: 双语阅读英语学习酷学英语时代周刊