South Korea Expands AI Caregiver Service to Protect Socially Vulnerable Groups
South Korea’s Seodaemun-gu will expand the number of “artificial intelligence (AI) caregiver service” target from 200 to 450 from next month.
Category: Asia
Baidu Releases ML Bio-computing Framework PaddleHelix
At the Wave Summit 2020 held on December 20, Baidu unveiled the company’s newest ML-based bio-computing framework named “PaddleHelix”.
Singapore Coffee Shop Builds a Robot Barista With Intel AI
At Crown Coffee, a small-yet-homey coffee bar in downtown Singapore, the autonomous robot barista “Ella” never gets your order wrong.
Zhengzhou China Launches Urban-Brain to Triage and Park 4.5 million Vehicles
China’s east-central city Zhengzhou has successfully used AI to triage parking for over 4.5 million vehicles in the area.
Multilingual AI News Presenter Broadcasts New Year’s Greeting on Behalf of Chinese Embassy in Trinidad and Tobago
Chinese Embassy in Trinidad and Tobago rolled out a multilingual AI presenter named “Xiao Ai” to broadcast New Year’s greeting in Chinese, English, French and Spanish.
MSRA Forms “OpenNetLab” Alliance with Top Asian Universities to Advance Network Research
Microsoft Research Asia announced the establishment of “OpenNetLab” network in alliance with top Asian academic institutions.
Zhou Ming, Assistant Director of Microsoft Research Asia NLP Resigns and to Join Kai-fu Lee’s VC Fund Innovation Works
NLP maverick Zhou Ming’s next stop is VC Fund Innovation Workshop funded by former colleague Kai-fu Lee.
Report by IDC and Inspur Shows China’s AI Infrastructure Reaches USD 3.93 Billion in 2020, with YoY Increase of 26.8 Percent
Market research company IDC and Inspur jointly released the 2020-2021 China Artificial Intelligence Computing Power Development Report.
Japan’s Kobe city utilizes AI to aid unemployment effected by COVID-19
The municipal government of Japan’s Kobe city has spent more than JYP 40 million to develop an AI employment support system “SODAMO” jointly with a career support company.
Japan Government Allocates USD 19M to Boost AI Matchmaking in 47 Prefectures
With annual birth rate plummeting to 5.8 percent in 2019, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga’s government pledges to allocate USD 19 Million in the next fiscal year to help local authorities run AI matchmaking.
LG Launches AI Research Institute, Invests KRW 200 Billion to Foster 1,000 AI Experts by 2023
South Korean conglomerate LG announced the setup of “LG AI Research Institute”.
AI in South Korea’s Asan Medical Center Aids Dermatologists in Detecting 43 Types of Skin Cancers and Diseases
A research team from Asan Medical Center (AMC) in Seoul has verified a deep learning-based algorithm for detecting up to 43 types of skin cancer and diseases.
MIIT: China’s Industrial Robot Output in October Increased 38.5 Percent YoY
According to official statistics released by China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), from January to October 2020, the nationwide industrial robots production grew to 183,447 units
Toshiba Debuts Logistic Robot for Overlapping Piled Luggage in Distribution Warehouse
Japanese conglomerate Toshiba announced it will launch a logistics robot that accurately recognizes randomly piled luggage utilizing AI in 2021.
Government Agency DGA Debuts the Thailand’s First National AI Centre
As part of the Thai government’s digital transformation roadmap for 2020-22, the Digital Government Development Agency (DGA) has launched the first national AI centre.
Tesla Puts Additional USD 6.3 Million in New Factory; Builds New R&D Center in Shanghai
Tesla confirmed to invest an additional USD 6.3 million in Shanghai to build a supercharging pile factory.
Do We Really Need Green Screens for High-Quality Real-Time Human Matting?
Researchers from the City University of Hong Kong and SenseTime propose a lightweight matting objective decomposition network (MODNet) that can smoothly process real-time human matting from a single input image with diverse and dynamic backgrounds.
New AI APP by Singapore Government Pledges to Block Scam Calls and SMS
Recent report by telecommunications giant Singtel show that scam calls have doubled from last year and that customers have received more than 5,000 calls so far in 2020.
40 Projects Worth Over USD 9 Billion Signed at the World Internet Conference in Wuzhen
On November 24, the World Internet Conference Digital Economy Industry Cooperation Conference was held in Wuzhen, China.
JD.com Set Up JD Exploration Research Institute to Further Research in Six Areas Including AI
At the JDDiscovery-2020 Global Technology Discovery Conference, the Chinese e-commerce giant announced a new research institute to further research in areas including AI, quantum computing and so on.
Tencent Robot X’s Jamoca Takes on Kung Fu Master Challenge to Walk on Quincunical Piles
Tencent Robotics X Lab announced new developments in mobile robot research – the four-legged mobile robot Jamoca.
China Drafts 14th Five-Year Digital Economy Plan; AI Industry Scale in 1H 2020 Reach USD 11.7 Billion
China is accelerating the preparation of the “14th Five-Year” digital economy plan, which will be the country’s first designated plan for the digital economy.
Microsoft Announces Strategic Cooperation with Spinoff XiaoIce; XiaoIce Wraps Up Pre-A Round Financing
Microsoft China and XiaoIce announced a strategic partnership, jointly launching 2B AI and cloud computing solutions in three areas: finance, automotive and content production.
Shanghai Electric and Siemens Energy to Establish Smart Energy Empowerment Centre
Chinese multinational power and electrical equipment manufacturing company Shanghai Electric signed a collaboration agreement with Siemens Energy on launching a new smart energy empowerment centre.
APAC Financial Institutions Embrace AI/ML
Asia Pacific (APAC)’s adoption of artificial intelligence and machine learning in financial markets is accelerating.
South Korea to Introduce AI to High School Education in 2021; to Train 5,000 Incumbent Teachers by 2025
South Korea will introduce AI to nationwide high school education in 2021
Japan’s Fujitsu, AIST, and RIKEN Achieve Highest Speed on the MLPerf HPC BL Processing Benchmark Using Supercomputer Systems
The National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), and RIKEN announced a performance milestone in supercomputing.
2020 Beijing AI Development Report: 1,500 companies, 4,000 scholars and 40,000 industry practitioners
Beijing Zhiyuan AI Research Institute released the 2020 Beijing AI Development Report, showing that Beijing ranks first nationally in 17 areas, including for having the highest numbers of companies and scholars.
World’s First Smart Freight Air Rail to Land in China’s Qingdao Port
The Qingdao Port and Wuhan CRRC Yangtze Group held a signing ceremony for the port’s new intelligent air rail.
Alibaba: 800 Million Consumers Have Each Used AI Technologies 20,000 Times on Average on Singles Day
China’s shopping spree Single’s Day is becoming a large-scale social digital innovation project, stated Alibaba CTO Cheng Li.
AI Patent Application Exceeds 30,000 and 180 Universities Add AI Majors in China Last Year
Among the top 100 highly cited AI papers in the past five years, China’s output accounted for 21 and rank second globally.
Shenzhen Rolls Out L4 Unmanned “Panda Bus” to Be Ride for Free
Shenzhen launched an unmanned “Panda Bus” connected by intelligent networks in Pingshan Park, which travels a 45-minute trip of 12 kilometres on planned routes.
New Report Number Shows AI Patent Applications in China Exceeded 30,000 in 2019
Report showed that China published 28,700 AI scientific papers in 2019, an increase of 12.4 percent over the previous year, and its activity in top international conferences in the field of artificial intelligence And the influence continues to increase.
Shanghai Aims to Develop AI Industry Clusters and Spearheads Measures in Lingang Free-Trade Zones
The Shanghai Municipal Commission of Economy and Information Technology and Shanghai Municipal Finance Bureau launched special funds to focus on developing integrated circuits, artificial intelligence, and biomedicine industry clusters.
Beijing to Open 100 Unmanned Taxi Stations
Self-driving taxis began to fully operate in Beijing and the weekly number of orders per day during the peak period has exceeded 2,600.
Singapore Computer Society Publishes Guide on AI Ethics & Governance Body of Knowledge
Singapore Computer Society (SCS) published AI Ethics & Governance Body of Knowledge document, to build on the Singapore government’s voluntary framework for the responsible AI use.
Uber to Establish $150 Million Joint Venture with SK Telecom to Expand in South Korea
South Korea’s SK Telecom plans to split up its ride-hailing department “T Map Mobility” by the end of this year, to create a service company with more than 200,000 drivers and 750,000 taxi users per month.
China’s Automatic Agricultural Equipment and System Sales Increased By 213% YoY in 1H 2020
From January to June 2020, China sold more than 11,700 sets of automatic agricultural machinery and systems, a year-on-year increase of 213 percent.
Singapore Tops in AI Investment as Input Gaps Between ASEAN Countries Widen
Singapore is the number one among ASEAN countries to invest in AI, with $68 worth of AI investment per capita last year.
Huawei Has Invested US$500 Million in Car Business Units in 2020 and Builds for Smart Electric Vehicles
Huawei’s chairman Xu Zhijun disclosed that the company has invested US$500 million in the smart car solution business unit this year, and has not yet considered about short-term profits.