Major Chinese conglomerate Alibaba launched on Tuesday in Hangzhou city Luo Han Tang, an economic think-tank which includes six Nobel laureates.

This comes following Alibaba’s Damour Academy for scientific and technological innovation in October last year.

Luo Han Tang’s first academic committee has fifteen members, including six Nobel laureates.

Group photo of Luo Han Tang academy. (Photo: Xinhua)

Alibaba said Luo Han Tang will invite more international scholars, including sociologists, psychologists, anthropologists and other interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary scholars. They will study the social and economic changes associated with scientific and technological innovation.

Alibaba said Luo Han Tang would serve the world through research.

Luo Han tang carries a dual mission: First,  to understand how digital technology can help realize the common interests of society, and second, to help establish a broad research community and provide a new paradigm for solving problems.

Jack Ma and member of Luo Han Tang. (File photos)

In the past two days, 15 global scholars, including Nobel Prize winners and Sun Yefang Prize winners, gathered in Hangzhou and held closed-door talks on the West Lake.  Alibaba chairman Jack Ma also participated in the talks.

The meeting focused on the challenges of digital economy. Topics such as data privacy, big data monopolies and entrepreneurial opportunities of platform economy have become the focus of discussions among experts.

Ma said that "the rapid progress of science and technology has changed all aspects of human society. While we enjoy the benefits of science and technology, we should also understand the challenges that science and technology bring to   society and think about solutions. As a technology company, Alibaba has the responsibility to do its best to study how to help society adapt to the progress of science and technology and meet the challenges that follow. This is also our intention in establishing Luo Han Tang”.

Scholars also came up with a Declaration of “Luo Han Tang”. The Declaration says the world is entering a new era of digital economy. But as every technological revolution has made a clear direction, our society is not ready to deal with a new world created by big data, machine learning, artificial intelligence, robots, and other digital technologies. Social scientists have a responsibility to better cooperate to help society adapt to the digital revolution.

(Compiled by Shi Haina)