天下无双

前几天，MacRumors 直接从 macOS Tahoe 26.7 RC 里挖出了苹果制作好的宣传视频：戴着 AirPods 拿起一本书，Visual Intelligence 看见书名，再让 Siri 把它保存下来。视频里的产品代号是 B790。按照 Mark Gurman 的说法，它原本就在苹果 2026 年的产品路线图上，后续量产版本 B798，则要等到 2027 年。

二 |     Editor's Note:
Ahead of the opening of the 2026 World AI Conference and High-Level Meeting on Global AI Governance, Chinese AI start-up Moonshot AI released its Kimi K3 large language model. As the world's largest open-source model by parameter count to date, this launch marks a significant step forward in the development of China's artificial intelligence models.
From the C919 airliner soaring into the skies to Unitree's humanoid robots stealing the show; from DeepSeek pushing the AI frontier to Moonshot AI's landmark unveiling of Kimi K3 - China's wave of homegrown innovations has dominated global headlines in recent years, delivering a steady stream of breakthroughs.
At a meeting in Beijing that brought together the national science and technology award conference, the general assemblies of the members of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and the Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE), and the 11th national congress of the China Association for Science and Technology in July, Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, stressed that the 15th Five-Year Plan period (2026-2030) is a critical phase for tackling tough challenges in building up the country's strength in science and technology.
"We must seize the historic opportunity, rise to the challenges of the times, accelerate efforts to achieve high-level self-reliance and strength in science and technology, and make steady progress toward the 2035 goal of becoming a leading country in science and technology," he said.
In the article "Strive for Greater Strength and Self-Reliance in Science and Technology" included in the fourth volume of Xi Jinping: The Governance of China, Xi pointed out, "Through years of endeavor, our country's overall strength in science and technology has improved substantially. We therefore have a solid foundation, and are fully confident in our ability to seize the opportunities offered by the new revolution in science, technology and industry to achieve greater results." The article also mentioned that "We should participate to the full in global science and technology governance, contribute Chinese wisdom, and shape a philosophy of technology for good purposes, so that science and technology better serve human wellbeing, and enable China's science and technology industry to contribute more to building a global community of shared future." 
In the 27th installment of the special series "Decoding the Book Xi Jinping: The Governance of China," the Global Times, along with the People's Daily Overseas Edition, continues to invite Chinese and foreign scholars, translators of Xi's works, practitioners with firsthand experience, and international readers to focus on the theme of striving for greater strength and self-reliance in science and technology. Together, they share views on China's tech growth, governance principles, and global cooperation in science and technology.
This is the 25th installment of "Practitioners' Insights." We turn our focus to a "digital track" laid for China's industrial internet: the Industrial Internet Identifier Resolution System. A decade ago, when a research team at the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT) took on the task, the prevailing view in the industry was that it was "almost impossible." At that time, China had neither a strong voice in international standard-setting nor a deep technological foundation, yet it set out to build a self-reliant and controllable digital identity infrastructure spanning the entire industrial chain.
Today, the system's core indicators rank among the world's best, and its application scale is the largest globally. From dependence to autonomy, from "follower" to "pacesetter," the leap was made possible by the unwavering footsteps of Chinese researchers on the path toward high-level scientific and technological self-reliance and self-strengthening.

    Photo: VCGIt was 11 pm in the laboratory, and the lights were still on. Liu Hongyan sat at his workstation, watching lines of code and logs scroll densely across the screen. It was his third consecutive night on duty. The system had just completed a major iteration, and as a key member of the R&D team, Liu had to make sure every module was running stably.
At daybreak, in an electric-vehicle factory, the assembly line was operating at full capacity. Each freshly produced power battery was assigned a special "ID" code. That code would stay with the battery as it entered storage, was loaded onto vehicles and hit the road, accompanying it through its entire lifecycle.
From the laboratory to the factory, this invisible data flow connects every stage of production, circulation, use and recycling across industries. And the underlying infrastructure making all of this possible is the "Industrial Internet Identifier Resolution System," which Liu and his colleagues helped build.
In simple terms, the system is like a "digital ID card plus navigation system" for the industrial world. In the real world, everyone has an identity card and every address has a street number; on the internet, every website has a domain name. Likewise, in the era of the industrial internet, every device, component, product and piece of data needs a unique, trustworthy and resolvable digital identity.
The Industrial Internet Identifier Resolution System is China's national-level digital infrastructure that supports the generation, query, circulation and management of those digital identities. Built and operated over nearly a decade under the leadership of CAICT, the system has become a fully self-reliant and controllable "digital track" serving China's industrial internet.
In the article "Build China into a Sci-Tech Powerhouse" included in Volume IV of Xi Jinping: The Governance of China, Chinese President Xi Jinping emphasized "increasing our country's strength and self-reliance in science and technology, and keeping us well-positioned in vital areas of science, technology and development."
Looking back on the decade-long campaign, Gao Qi, deputy chief engineer at CAICT's Industrial Internet and Internet of Things Research Institute, feels this especially deeply.
"As a critical piece of digital infrastructure, the Industrial Internet Identifier Resolution System is a vivid embodiment of this important principle in the field of industrial digitalization," Gao told the Global Times. What this system carries is precisely the historic mission of safeguarding the lifeline of China's digital industry, and achieving industrial self-reliance and controllability, he said.
Pioneering in uncharted territory
Fast-forward to 2015.
By then, Liu had only recently joined the CAICT. Before that, his work had focused mainly on developing software for internet domain-name resolution, so he already had a basic understanding of the underlying logic of "resolution." But when he was assigned to take part in planning and building China's Industrial Internet Identifier Resolution System, he knew immediately that this was something entirely different.
At the outset of the project, the most pressing challenge was a classic "chokepoint" problem. China gained full access to the global internet in 1994, which essentially meant the comprehensive adoption of technical protocols, industrial ecosystems and governance rules developed elsewhere. Building a Chinese-owned, independent and controllable identifier resolution system was not a matter of filling in a single missing technology. It meant creating an entire system from scratch. At the time, many in the industry believed the challenge was enormous, and some even said it was "practically impossible."
Why? Gao, one of the key strategic drivers behind the system, recalled that the challenge came on three levels.
First, China then lacked a voice in international standards and had little deep technical accumulation of its own, yet it was expected to build a system capable of covering the entire industrial chain and interoperating with dozens of heterogeneous systems. The technical difficulty was immense.
Second, in a landscape long reliant on foreign technologies, persuading tens of thousands of enterprises to adopt domestic identifiers was an enormous challenge in terms of industrial deployment and promotion. Many people dismissed the idea as sheer fantasy.
Third, with no clear expectation of return on investment, who would take responsibility for pushing the project forward and explore a sustainable operating model?
Gao said that from the project feasibility study stage, the team was thinking simultaneously about the technical roadmap, the system architecture and the industrial ecosystem as a closed loop. "We had to break through core technologies, but we also had to design a mechanism that would ensure companies would be willing to connect to the system and able to benefit from it," he recalled.
On the front line, Liu felt the pressure in a direct and concrete way. Time was tight, the mission was heavy and there was no ready-made experience to copy. Everything had to be researched and designed at the same time, developed and verified in parallel.
"There was also the pressure on the team," Liu told the Global Times. With the team under intense pressure, uncertainty in direction or repeated setbacks could easily cause anxiety among engineers. As both the leader of a development group and the person responsible for core module development, Liu had to solve technical problems while also keeping the team's pace steady.
The work was tense, but Liu felt calm and confident. "The project had already been thoroughly validated by experts and academicians in China, so the direction was clear. What we, as R&D personnel, needed to do was find a way to bring the design goals to life in the system," he said.
It was precisely this belief - the direction is clear, just keep moving forward - that sustained the team as it navigated uncharted territory step by step.
The road from zero to one is never smooth. Liu recalled a particularly tough test the team faced on the eve of deployment, just before the system was to go live. That day, testers suddenly reported a performance bottleneck. It was not a single-point failure; it was the kind of problem that rippled through the entire system, bringing many functions to a standstill. From morning until late at night, then from the early hours until daybreak, Liu and his teammates combed through the code line by line and tested again and again.
"As the launch drew near, it felt like the pressure had automatically spread to everyone," said Liu. "Everyone was staring intently at the system, and no one felt sleepy."
Finally, the problem was precisely identified and fixed. When the testers said the system had "passed," there were no cheers or high-fives. They simply exchanged glances and smiled. "That smile wasn't one of relief. It was the kind of smile that comes after winning a hard-fought battle," Liu told the Global Times. "I was really happy at that moment. Not just because the problem was solved and the system could go live, but because I confirmed something even more important: our team had cohesion. When it mattered most, we didn't fall apart. We could take on the toughest fights."
After countless days and nights, this group of Chinese engineers laid down a solid foundation for China's high-quality industrial development with technology and conviction. The "digital track" was finally in place.
Serve the industrial chain
In the "Build China into a Sci-Tech Powerhouse" included in Volume IV of Xi Jinping: The Governance of China, Xi noted that, "we should make solid efforts to promote the deep integration of sci-tech innovation and industrial innovation, and boost new quality productive forces."
On July 8, at a meeting that brought together the national science and technology award conference, the general assemblies of the members of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Engineering, and the 11th national congress of the China Association for Science and Technology, Xi further emphasized the need to promote the deep integration of sci-tech innovation with industrial innovation, opening up channels for accelerating the transformation of sci-tech achievements into real productive forces.
The value of technological innovation must ultimately be reflected in industry. From the very beginning, the Industrial Internet Identification and Resolution System was never designed to "publish papers." It was designed to address longstanding pain points in the development of the real economy.
According to Gao, enterprises have long faced three common challenges in the process of digital and intelligent transformation: data could not be found because different systems lacked a unified identity; data could not be connected because cross-company mutual recognition was absent; and data could not be put to good use because intelligent decision-making could not be formed. The Industrial Internet Identifier Resolution System was built precisely to tackle these three issues and provide foundational capabilities.
But for a new technology to truly integrate into industry, writing code in front of a computer is not enough. Over the past decade, Gao has led his team on repeated visits to key industries, pushing the system from "technically feasible" to "commercially usable." Liu and his colleagues have also visited many factory workshops and spoken face-to-face with business owners.
"Back in the office, what we saw were system metrics, interfaces, logs and data," Liu said. "But once we were on site, we saw individual parts, production lines and real business processes. It felt completely different."
During field research at enterprises, Liu and his coworkers witnessed firsthand how the system they had helped develop was enabling data connectivity across systems on production lines. They also learned that, in areas such as quality traceability, product management and supply-chain coordination, the system was helping companies reduce management costs and defect rates.
"At that moment, I felt that the identifiers were no longer just something on paper or on a platform - they were really being put to use. And once they start being used, they can go deeper and spread further," Liu recalled. As an R&D engineer, Liu said he felt proud to see companies using the system he had helped develop on the ground. "The late nights and the pressure we went through were all worth it."
Stories like this are countless in the system's rollout. In the new-energy vehicle sector, for example, unified identifiers give each battery pack a unique identity, allowing it to be "recognizable at all times and traceable throughout the chain." In high-end equipment manufacturing, data generated during the operation of large machinery is uploaded in real time through the system and analyzed to predict failure risks, enabling maintenance to be arranged in advance. In the pharmaceutical industry, identifiers make it possible to trace medicines through the entire process: from factory to pharmacy, every box can be verified.
Gao said that he is pleased to see more and more companies have shifted from "I have to use it" to "I want to use it." He told the Global Times the system not only helps enterprises cut costs and improve efficiency in practice, but more importantly, "some scenarios that used to rely on foreign identifier systems are now being gradually replaced by our independently controllable system."
From 'follower' to 'pacesetter'
A decade of dedicated work has yielded a remarkable harvest for China's Industrial Internet Identifier Resolution System.
The system now comprises 407 second-level nodes and more than 600,000 connected enterprises; the number of registered identities has surpassed 700 billion, with core indicators ranking among the world's best. The system has been deeply deployed across more than 40 industries, including automotive, electronics, pharmaceuticals and equipment manufacturing, and now covers every province on the Chinese mainland. Viewed globally, it has become one of the largest industrial internet identifier practices in terms of scale, the broadest in application and the most mature in industrial ecosystem.
Looking back on the past decade, Gao summed up the system's journey from "almost impossible" to global leadership as four key leaps.
The first was a strategic breakthrough, when the state explicitly incorporated the identity resolution system into its national strategy and completed the top-level design. The second was a technological breakthrough, marked by the independently designed national top-node architecture and advances in core protocols. The third was large-scale rollout, achieved through the innovative three-tier structure of national top nodes, second-level nodes and enterprise nodes. The fourth was value realization, as identities evolved from simply "enabling connectivity" to "creating value," with deep integration into blockchain, AI and other emerging technologies.
Each leap was driven not by chance, but by the coordinated advancement of technology, industry and ecosystem development. "We did not just build a system. We explored a China-specific path characterized by national strategic guidance, breakthroughs led by research institutions, industry leadership from enterprises and ecosystem co-construction across the industrial chain," Gao told the Global Times.
In Gao's view, the most essential "code" behind the building of this system is a steadfast commitment to greater self-reliance and strength in science and technology. "We did not simply copy foreign technologies. Instead, we focused on national strategic needs and pursued independent innovation, advancing basic research, key technological breakthroughs and industrial applications in parallel."
On July 8, at the meeting bringing together the national science and technology award conference, the general assemblies of the members of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Engineering, and the 11th national congress of the China Association for Science and Technology, Xi underscored that, "We must seize the historic opportunity, rise to the challenges of the times, accelerate efforts to achieve high-level self-reliance and strength in science and technology, and make steady progress toward the 2035 goal of becoming a leading country in science and technology."
In the field of the Industrial Internet Identifier Resolution System, China has, over the course of 10 years, transformed itself from a passive "follower" in global internet rules into a "pacesetter," completing the full journey from following, to running alongside, to leading in some areas.
Gao said the greatest significance of building this system lies not only in creating an independent infrastructure, but in forging a development path with Chinese characteristics. "Having our own identifier system means China can participate more proactively in global digital governance and contribute Chinese wisdom in new areas such as trusted identity, trusted data and intelligent interconnectivity, while providing a more solid technological foundation for building a community with a shared future in cyberspace."
On another ordinary evening at work, Liu's desk lamp was still on. He was fine-tuning a new data exchange protocol, while test results flickered continuously across his screen. Nights like this have long become routine for him.
Outside the window, the lights of the city were coming on one by one. Behind him, countless streams of data were flowing, being parsed and transmitted through the system - traces left by products across the global industrial chain, and the digital imprint of China's manufacturing sector as it moves toward high-quality development.
"I work on identity (system) for a day; I'll work on it for a lifetime." That is a phrase Liu often repeats. He says the road from "zero" to "one" has already been carved out; what matters now is to set out once again from "one." Beyond that road lies an even faster digital frontier.
。而最新挖出的系统代码，也第一次让我们看清了这副耳机究竟怎么「看」。其中最有意思的，是一个看起来有些寒酸的参数：AirPods 上的摄像头，只有 100 万像素。

三 |

图 | WIRED在手机已经讨论 2 亿像素、8K 视频的今天，苹果给未来 AI 硬件准备的摄像头，实际采集画面甚至可能只有 320×320。它显然不是用来拍照的。AirPods 上的摄像头，为什么只有 100 万像素？从目前挖出的代码看，这套摄像头至少存在两种工作状态。主动模式下，摄像头可以采集 640×640 图像，经过处理后最高输出 1024×1024；被动模式则采集 320×320，输出 320×320 或 512×512 图像。代码显示，左右两只 AirPods 可以同步获取 RGB 静态图像，通过相同的 Frame ID 对齐两个视角，再按照一定频率持续采集，交给 Visual Intelligence 处理。系统会同时处理环境语音、周围声音变化、姿态和头部旋转信息；两颗摄像头之间需要标定，摄像头与运动传感器之间也需要校准。如果头部运动过于剧烈，或者镜头被遮挡，对应画面会被直接舍弃。AccessorySensorManager 中甚至出现了「peripheral inference」相关代码，可以在设备侧判断画面中是否存在人物。这些，都是喂给 AI 的绝佳数据。对于 AI 来说，很多时候根本不需要 4800 万像素的照片。

四 | 模型只需要知道，桌上放着一本书，前面是家餐厅，手里拿着瓶饮料，路牌上写着什么。320×320 像素已经够用了。分辨率降下来，数据量随之减少，图像处理和传输的负担也会下降。对于电池只有耳机大小、又需要长时间佩戴的设备来说，功耗和续航是比清晰度更需要考虑的问题。

五 |

图 | iFIXIT过去二十年，消费电子里的摄像头主要服务于人。像素、传感器尺寸、动态范围、色彩，最终都指向同件事：得到好看的照片。但 AI 摄像头首先服务于机器。

六 | 照片甚至不需要留下来。机器看懂，就可以删掉。苹果并不是第一个沿着这条路做产品的公司。今年上市的光帆 AI 全感耳机就是很直接的参照。它同样把摄像头塞进左右两只耳机，采用两颗 200 万像素定焦摄像头，核心用途并非摄影，而是场景 AI 识别。现实世界先被摄像头转化成视觉数据，再交给模型理解。光帆甚至把 4G eSIM 和 GPS 放进耳机盒，让设备减少对手机的依赖。

七 | 200 万还是 100 万像素，在这里没有那么重要。工程问题已经变成：能不能看清，处理要多久，需要传多少数据，又要消耗多少电。更早的 Humane AI Pin 也尝试过类似思路，用摄像头给 AI 补上视觉。但 Humane 需要说服人们为了 AI，在胸前额外佩戴新设备。苹果没有这个问题。很多人本来就每天戴着 AirPods。它不需要重新发明 AI 硬件，只需要让已经存在的硬件，长出新的感官。AI 时代的 AirPods 不是耳机，而是传感器事实上，两只 AirPods 耳机，已经组成了一套传感器组合：摄像头观察眼前有什么，陀螺仪记录头部朝向，麦克风收集周围声音，位置和运动传感器补充人在哪里、正在做什么。比如走进书店，拿起一本书，然后问 Siri：「这本值得买吗？」单独把这句话交给今天的大模型，它其实什么也不知道。「这本」是哪一本？但如果 AirPods 刚刚看到了封面，知道头部正在朝向这本书，同时 iPhone 知道你身处书店，那么 Siri 才真正理解「这本」究竟指什么。

八 | 如果系统还知道你过去读过同个作者的两本书，其中一本看完了，另一本只读了三分之一，它甚至可以给出只对你有意义的答案。这里发生的变化很微妙。今天我们和 AI 交流时，一直在不停地向它解释自己。

九 | 我是谁，我在哪里，我刚刚看到了什么，我手里拿着什么，为什么突然问这个问题。很多 Prompt，本质上都在人工补充机器缺失的上下文。

十 | 摄像头、麦克风和位置、运动状态传感器所做的，就是逐渐把这些解释省掉。大模型已经知道很多关于世界的事情，却依然知道很少关于「你」的事情。随身 AI 也不应该每次被唤醒时，都像第一次见到你。

十一 | 摄像头 AirPods 补上的，恰好就是一种「属于个人的上下文」。

图 | Apple Insider手机拍照是非常明确的动作：拿起手机，打开相机，对准目标。但耳机不同。它一直戴在人的头上，因此与周围环境的交互就显得尤为重要。这次被挖出来的系统代码里，还有个很小的细节：每只 AirPod 似乎都能够控制硬件指示灯，包括开关和亮度。如果这对应摄像头的工作状态，那么当 AirPods 获取环境图像时，周围的人可能会通过灯光得到提醒——这倒是很符合苹果一贯的隐私保护策略。如果摄像头只是偶尔拍张照片，亮灯或许已经足够；但如果它需要以较低频率持续理解环境，问题就复杂了。

十二 | 因为 AI 需要的并不是某张照片，而是上下文，因此也需要持续打开各项感官，这时候恰当的提醒就非常重要。

十三 | 从这个角度上看，AirPods 的定位也发生了微妙的变化——不再是单纯的耳机，而是一种新的 AI 硬件形态。如果诸如此类的变化，不止于 AirPods，而是来到更多苹果产品上呢？我想这才是苹果在 AI 时代，最重要的战略。

十四 | 而其中最重要的时间节点，就是 2027 年。2027 年，也许正是苹果 AI 元年2027 年，对苹果而言本来就是特殊的年份——iPhone 发布二十周年。按照目前的爆料，苹果正在准备大幅改变设计的二十周年 iPhone，而摄像头 AirPods，也可能在同一时期登场。与此同时，苹果还有几条 AI 硬件产品线正在推进。除了摄像头 AirPods，还有智能眼镜，以及可以夹在衣服上、或者作为项链佩戴的 AI 挂饰。此前曝光的产品规划中，也出现过配备摄像头的 Apple Watch，让手表获得观察周围环境的能力。单独看，它们没有太多关系。耳机是耳机，眼镜是眼镜，手表是手表。但如果暂时把「产品」拿掉，只看它们身上的传感器，会看到另一幅图景。上下文网络的很多节点，今天已经在我们身上了。手腕上的 Apple Watch 知道昨晚几点睡着、今天走了多少路；口袋里的 iPhone 知道几点离开公司、去了哪家餐厅；Mac 知道下午打开了哪些文档；AirPods 则几乎一直贴着耳朵。苹果现在准备做的，是给这些设备继续增加感知能力。

十五 | 过去，这些信息分散在不同设备和 App 里。心率属于「健康」，照片属于「相册」，位置属于「地图」……AI 出现以后，它们第一次可以成为同样的东西：上下文。于是，AirPods 知道听到了什么，也可能知道正在面对什么；Apple Watch 知道身体正在发生什么；iPhone 知道在哪里、正在和谁沟通；Mac 知道正在处理什么工作。如果智能眼镜最终出现，它还会获得直接的第一人称视角。任何设备单独拿出来，都不足以真正理解人，但它们分别掌握着人的不同切面，一经协同，就拥有了对一个人的全景式了解。这也是苹果和许多 AI 硬件创业公司之间很难复制的差别。过去几年，行业一直在寻找所谓「AI 时代的 iPhone」——有人做 Pin，有人做项链，有人做眼镜，也有人试图重新发明手机。

十六 | 在苹果看来，未必需要找到唯一答案。因为手机、手表、耳机、电脑、平板、头显和家庭设备，它都已经有了。接下来要做的，是让这些设备拥有丰富的感知能力，再把不同设备获得的信息组织起来。最终形成的东西，可能比某款 AI 硬件本身重要得多：关于人的「个人上下文」。

十七 | 想象一个很普通的下午：Apple Watch 知道你昨晚只睡了五个小时，下午又跑了五公里；iPhone 知道十分钟后还有场会议；AirPods 的摄像头看到你站在便利店里，拿起一瓶能量饮料。然后你问：「这个适合我吗？」今天使用 AI，你可能还要先解释自己的睡眠、运动、接下来的安排，以及手里拿着什么。

十八 | 如果这些信息已经成为上下文，你只需要提问即可。这种能力不来自某颗摄像头，也不来自某款设备，而是围绕个人信息打造的 AI 硬件生态。大模型当然还会继续进步，但模型正在变成可以替换的能力，今天使用这个，明天可以换另一个。真正无法快速复制的，是一个人的上下文。过去五年去了哪里，读过什么，身体发生过什么变化，喜欢什么样的餐厅，什么时间容易疲惫。

十九 | 这些东西无法通过下载大模型重新获得。它只能一天一天积累。这也让苹果过去几年反复强调的端侧计算、Secure Enclave 和 Private Cloud Compute，有了另一层意义。真正了解你的 AI，需要处理的信息可能比今天的照片、聊天记录和浏览历史还要私人。

| 它不仅知道你说过什么，还可能知道在哪里说、当时看着什么、身体是什么状态，以及最后做出了什么选择。所以模型能力之外，还有个问题会逐渐变得重要：谁拥有这些上下文？苹果最理想的答案当然是，让它尽可能留在用户自己手里——或者说，留在苹果的设备，以及苹果构建的私有计算体系里。

| 如果这条路线成立，苹果最终建立的就不只是 AI 设备，而是跨越手机、耳机、手表、眼镜和电脑的感知网络。硬件会换，模型也会换。但如果 AI 已经认识你十年，事情就不一样了。到那时，人的重要数字资产，可能不再只是照片、文件和聊天记录，还包括只有自己的 AI 硬件生态才能完整拥有的个人上下文——源自一颗颗摄像头、一枚枚麦克风、一个个传感器——它们不再是为了记住这个世界而存在，而是为了记住你。

| 作者｜肖钦鹏