Chinese AI Startup Brings Diabetes Prediction to Shanghai Hospital
Leading Chinese AI startup 4Paradigm has announced a strategic partnership with Shanghai’s Ruijin Hospital on AI application in healthcare, especially chronic health conditions.
Category: China
Real-time updates of China’s machine intelligence research and industry.
Waymo Slips into Shanghai
Synced has discovered that Alphabet self-driving subsidiary Waymo has set up an office in China.
On August 23, Synced found an entry in the National Enterprise Information Publicity System indicating that the limited liability company (solely foreign invested – 外国法人独资) Huimo Business Consulting (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. had been incorporated in Shanghai.
Intel and ByteDance Partner on AI Lab
At a press conference in Beijing today US chipmaker Intel and Chinese tech pioneer ByteDance announced they will collaborate on setting up an AI research lab, talent training, and development of AI applications.
AI’s Role in a $2.5B Q&A Site
On August 8th Chinese Q&A website Zhihu — named after the Mandarin phrase “Do You Know?” — announced it had raised US$270 million in its Series E funding round. With 180 million registered users and 110 million answered posts, China’s biggest Q&A website and fourth-largest social media platform’s total valuation now stands at US$2.5 billion.
Former Baidu Executive and AI Master Qi Lu Joins Y Combinator China As CEO
Three months after Chinese Internet giant Baidu announced that COO Qi Lu will step down in July due to “personal and family reasons”, Lu today unveiled his new adventure: Chief Executive Officer of Y Combinator China.
Suiyuan Technology Gets $50M to Build Cloud-Based Deep Learning Chips
Chinese AI maker startup Suiyuan Technology announced today that it has completed its Series Pre-A funding with nearly CN¥340 million (US$50 million). Funding was led by Tencent Holdings Ltd, Zhen Fund, Delta Capital, Yunhe Partners and Summitview Capital.
EV Startup Xpeng Gets CN¥4 Billion in Series B+
Guangzhou-based Xiaopeng Motors (Xpeng) announced today that it had scored CN¥4 billion (US$585 million) in its Series B+ funding round. This is the largest 2018 single-round funding total among Chinese Electric Vehicle startups (NIO, Byton, WM Motor, etc.), and pushes Xpeng’s valuation to CN¥25 billion (US$3.66 billion).
AI Drives Baidu Q2 Profits, but Stock Falls on Google Chinese Search Engine Speculation
On the same day Baidu was announcing another quarter of strong earnings, the Chinese search engine giant’s stock prices suddenly tumbled on a report American rival Google is planning to launch a new search engine for the Chinese market.
Tencent ML Team Trains ImageNet In Record Four Minutes
Since 2010, the annual ImageNet Large-Scale Visual Recognition Challenge has been the most widely recognized benchmark for testing image recognition algorithms. Tencent Machine Learning picks up the challenge with its new paper Highly Scalable Deep Learning Training System with Mixed-Precision: Training ImageNet in Four Minutes.
One Billion Billion! Tianhe-3 Exascale Supercomputer Prototype Passes Tests
Scientists at the National Supercomputing Center of Tianjin in China have unveiled their prototype of a next-generation exascale supercomputer. The centre says the Tianhe-3 (天河3号) can perform at one exaFLOPS, or a billion billion calculations per second— the threshold for coveted “exascale” status.
Smart Talk: China’s Open Voice Platforms
Over the past year Chinese startups and tech giants alike have developed their own voice technology ecosystems comprising product manufacturers, tech solution providers, content makers, and platforms designed to help hardware or skill applications “speak and be smarter.” In this article, we look at the current state of open voice platforms in China.
Meituan Announces Autonomous Delivery Open Platform
Meituan, one of China’s biggest group buying service providers, today announced an ambitious strategy to support autonomous delivery vehicles: “The company is going to use self-driving technologies to build the world’s largest interactive platform for intelligent delivery, and to speed up the development of unmanned delivery technology.”
Tuya Smart Gets $200M for its Smart Home, Smart Business & Smart City Strategy
Chinese IoT startup Tuya Smart has completed its Series C funding with nearly US$200 million, led by Future Fund, NEA, China Broadband Capital, Quadrille Capital and C.M.Capital. The company will apply the funds to its AI+IoT, Smart City, Smart Business and Smart Home technologies.
JD Unveils HD Maps for Robotics and Autonomous Driving
At the Big Data & Spatial Information Expo in Changsha city today, Chinese Internet giant JD demonstrated a series of intelligent technology applications, including Drones, Delivery Robots and Routing Inspection Robots, etc. The company also unveiled a new set of HD Maps.
FPGA-Maker Xilinx Buys Chinese Chip Startup DeePhi Tech
Xilinx, the world’s leading designer and supplier of programmable logic devices, today announced its acquisition of DeePhi Tech — a Beijing-based chip startup with a focus on machine learning, specializing in deep compression, pruning, and system-level optimization for neural networks.
Computer Vision Startup Yitu Nabs $100 Million in Funding
Shanghai-based computer vision company Yitu announced today that it has acquired an additional US$100 million in funding, with China Industrial Asset Management as the sole investor this round.
New Report Says Chinese AI is Rich in Funding but Short on Talents
The country is aiming to build the world’s top hub for AI innovations and talents, and yesterday, prestigious Tsinghua University issued a progress report. The 2018 China Artificial Intelligence Development Report provides an insightful, data-intensive overview of the current status of AI in China.
New Chips, L4 Autonomous Bus & Baidu Brain 3.0 Showcased at Baidu Create 2018
At the Baidu Create 2018 AI developer conference which kicked off today in Beijing, the company announced a series of AI-based innovations and product releases that seem designed to regain public trust.
China Has 4,040 AI Companies; Beijing Drives Industry Development
China now has some 4,040 AI companies, according to a whitepaper released by the Beijing Municipal Commission of Economy and Information Technology at this weekend’s 22nd China International Software EXPO in Beijing.
China’s AI Schools Are Accepting Applications: Here’s a List
The opportunities for studying AI at Chinese higher learning institutes have never been better or more varied. More than 70 Chinese universities and colleges have introduced AI-related majors, and 283 universities are licensed to offer data science programs.
Data Search Platform TianYanCha Knows Chinese Businesses
A business data search firm is bombarding China’s subways and business centres with ads. TianYanCha — literally SkyEye Search — has become the “go to” source for governments, consulting agencies, legal service providers, and media outlets who want to perform comprehensive business background checks.
Tsinghua University Launches Institute For AI; Hires Google’s Jeff Dean As Advisor
China’s prestigious Tsinghua University is opening a dedicated AI research centre. The Tsinghua University Institute for Artificial Intelligence will be led by Dean Bo Zhang (张钹) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Tsinghua Director of Academic Committee Andrew Chi-Chih Yao (姚期智), a Turing Award Laureate. The announcement was made at today’s Tsinghua-Google AI Symposium in Beijing.
Tencent Academic and Industrial Conference 2018 in Stockholm [Tencent X Synced]
The Tencent Academic and Industrial Conference (TAIC) will be held in Stockholm, Sweden on July 14th, gathering top AI researchers and young professionals from around the world. Synced is organizing the conference, where Tencent’s seven core business groups and invited academics and industry professionals will share insights on the current state of AI technologies.
China’s AISpeech Raises $76M on Advanced Speech Tech; Eyes AI Chips
Suzhou City-based AI and speech technology company AISpeech announced today it had raised CN¥500 million (US$76 million) in Series D Funding led by Oriza Holdings and China Minsheng Investment Group. Chinese media reports the company is also planning an IPO on a local stock exchange.
Sogou COO Liyun Ru Resigns; Jingfang Xu Will Lead the Search Division
Chinese search engine company Sogou announced today that COO Liyun Ru will leave his position on June 30th for personal reasons. Dr. Jingfang Xu will now lead the company’s Search Division and oversee AI smart search development.
Alibaba’s Cainiao Flexes its Logistics Muscles at GSLS 2018
Cainiao, the logistics arm of leading Chinese e-commerce platform Alibaba Group, hosted the 2018 Global Smart Logistics Summit (GSLS) in Hangzhou on May 31st. Speaking at the event, Alibaba founder and executive chairman Jack Ma called for tens of billions of US dollars in investment to build a national internet-based intelligent logistics backbone in China.
Chinese Chip Giant Cambricon Closes Series B With Valuation of $2.5 Billion
Cambricon Technologies announced today that it has secured hundreds of million dollars in its Series B funding round, with investments from China’s State-owned Capital Venture, SDIC Venture Capital, China Capital Investment Group, TCL Capital, CITIC Securities, Alibaba VC, Lenovo Capital & Incubator Group and others.
Chinese Computer Vision Unicorn Yitu Closes C+ Round With $200 Million
Chinese computer vision company Yitu announced today that is has secured US$200 million in its C+ funding round, with investments from GC Capital, ICBC International, and SPDB International.
Alibaba and RoboSense Announce First Solid-State LiDar-Driven Logistics Robot Cart
At the 2018 Global Smart Logistics Summit (GSLS) in Hangzhou on May 31st, Alibaba’s Cainiao and RoboSense jointly announced the G Plus, which they say is the world’s first unmanned logistics vehicle integrated with solid-state LiDAR.
Alibaba Cloud Farming Automation Wants Pigs That Can Run 200km
At the Computing Conference 2018 Shanghai Summit today, Alibaba Cloud announced the launch of its AI program ET Agricultural Brain, a step towards the interactive automation of pig farming, aiming at continuously embedding AI technologies into modern agriculture.
Testing Smart Speakers: A Look Inside the Alibaba Acoustic Lab
Each spring, tech hobbyists visit Alibaba for its annual open tour. This May 10, Synced toured the company’s acoustic lab, which is dedicated to R&D for its voice assistant Tmall Genie.
World #1 AI Startup SenseTime Gets Additional $620 Million
China’s computer vision startup SenseTime today announced it had raised US$620 million in Series C+ funding, a mere 50 days after it closed its Series C funding with US$600 million.
Cleaning-Robot Maker ECOVACS Goes Public on Shanghai Stock Exchange
Suzhou-based Ecovacs Robotics debuted on the Shanghai Stock Exchange today. The floor sweeping and window cleaning robot company issued 40.1 million shares at US $3.13 per share, and plans to use the funds raised via its IPO to produce four million home service robots, build an IoT ecosystem, and expand into the global market.
3D Sensor Unicorn Orbbec Closes Over $200 Million Series D
AI startup Orbbec (奥比中光) today closed an over US$200 million Series D funding round led by Ant Finance. Other investors include Saif Partners, Green Pine Capital, Telstra Ventures, and Renzhi Capital.
An Overview of China’s Top-Funded AI Startups
From 2015 – 2017 over 450 Chinese AI startups received funding totaling CN¥30 billion (US$4.8 billion). Although the number of funding rounds declined in 2017, the year’s total funding was more than double the total for 2015 and 2016 combined.
SJTU Develops World’s Largest 3D Photonic Quantum Chip
A Shanghai Jiao Tong University research team has developed the world’s largest-scaled 3D photonic quantum chip that can demonstrate a 2D quantum walk.
YITU CIO Hao Lu on AI Startups, Innovation, and Coming Home
While a Computer Science PhD candidate at the University of Washington, Hao focused on intelligent human-computer interaction research, and R&D and evaluation of intelligent systems and their tools.
Alibaba Says Its New “Tai Zhang” Is the World’s Most Powerful Quantum Circuit Simulator
Yaoyun Shi’s Team at the Aliyun Quantum Laboratory (AQL) today announced that they have developed the world’s most powerful quantum circuit simulator: “Tai Zhang.”
Cambricon Unveils its First AI Chip for Cloud Computing
Cambricon today unveiled its Cambricon 1M chip for edge computing, and the MLU100, the first in a new chip series for cloud computing.
UBTECH Robotics Gets US$820 Million Funding; Becomes the World’s Most Valuable AI Startup
Chinese AI and humanoid robotic company UBTECH Robotics today announced a staggering US$820 million in Series C funding. With its new estimated value of US$5 billion, Shenzhen City-based UBTECH becomes the world’s most valuable AI startup.