Recently, Guiyang hosted the 4th Joint Conference on Statistics and Data Science over a span of three days. The conference featured six keynote speeches and more than 700 thematic seminars. It drew the participation of four academicians from China and the United States, as well as 2,000 scholars from 20 countries and regions across the globe. A key consensus emerged at the conference: far from being replaced by AI, statistics is, in fact, the "foundational logic" that underpins AI.

Academician Chen Songxi from the Chinese Academy of Sciences highlighted that statistics provides the algorithmic bedrock and data intelligence necessary for AI. Without the support of statistical methods, the reliability, applicability, and credibility of AI would be severely undermined. Furthermore, statistics plays a crucial role in making AI more environmentally sustainable by reducing its dependence on computational resources and, consequently, lowering energy consumption.

Professor Jin Yongjin from Renmin University of China posited that every significant breakthrough in AI has been inextricably linked to advancements in statistical theory. Professor Wang Zhaojun from Nankai University delved into the multifaceted role of statistics, describing it as a theoretical foundation, a reliability "calibrator," and a closed-loop system for decision-making. Concurrently, AI is driving statistics to transcend traditional paradigms and embrace interdisciplinary integration.

Professor David Donoho from Stanford University proposed the establishment of a Nobel Prize for data science to recognize outstanding contributions in the field. Professor Jing Bingyi from the Chinese University of Hong Kong focused on the next frontier of AI—embodied intelligence—emphasizing that tools such as Bayesian reasoning are indispensable for constructing "world models" that can accurately represent and interpret the complexities of the real world.