Baidu to Train 100,000 AI Talents in Three Years
In response to a growing shortage of AI talents, Zhang announced that Baidu will train over 100,000 AI talents with expertise in engineering and product development over the next three years.
Category: China
Real-time updates of China’s machine intelligence research and industry.
Baidu to Test Self-driving Food Delivery with Meituan
Chinese media is reporting that Baidu will launch a series of self-driving delivery tests in cooperation with Meituan-Dianping, a group-buying service for local food and retail businesses. The first tests will take place in Xiongan, about 100 kilometres southwest of Beijing…
China’s “National AI Team” Gets Busy
A phrase that’s cropping up a lot in Chinese media these days is “National AI Team (人工智能国家队).” While this may suggest a squad of scientists heading off to some sort of AI Olympics, it rather refers to a new class of AI companies that are either backed by national institutes or closely integrated into government-funded programs.
Tencent’s Smart Speaker Tingting Brings WeChat to the Entire Family
Tencent today officially launched its first-ever smart speaker, Tencent Tingting (腾讯听听), which can send or receive voice messages via WeChat.
Alibaba Unveils Ali-NPU; Acquires Chipmaker C-Sky Microsystems(Updated)
Alibaba’s R&D arm DAMO Academy announced yesterday that it is developing a new neural network chip called Ali-NPU for AI inferencing in the field of image processing, machine learning, etc.
China’s Yitu Battles for Position in Huge Facial Recognition Market
Founded by two Chinese AI experts in 2012, the company is particularly competent in recognizing human faces and vehicles. Such capability appeals to China’s public security departments.
China Prepares for AI Talent Shortage
Chinese State media People’s Daily recently reported the country is facing a shortage of five million AI talents.
A separate LinkedIn survey revealed that while there are some 1.9 million AI engineers worldwide, about one million reside in the US while China is home to just 50,000.
China Puts Education Focus on AI; Plans 50 AI Research Centres By 2020
China’s Ministry of Education last week issued its AI Innovation Action Plan for Colleges and Universities to the education departments at all levels and institutions of higher education.
AI Photographs Chinese Jaywalkers; Shames Them on Public Screens
China’s traffic police are using AI to tackle “Chinese-style jaywalking” at major urban intersections. Facial recognition cameras take a 15-second video and four snapshots of pedestrians crossing on a red light.
China’s SenseTime Scores US$600 Million in Funding to Become the World’s Most Valued AI Startup
China’s computer vision company SenseTime today announced it had raised a staggering US$600 million in Series C funding, setting a world record for an AI company and bringing its value to an estimated US$4.5 billion to make it the world’s most valued AI startup.
Lawyee Has Digitized 40 Million Chinese Court Records
Lawyee is a Peking University spinoff founded in 2003 that was one of the first companies specializing in building searchable legal databases and digitizing IT systems for Chinese courts and law firms.
Chinese Ministry of Education, Sinovation, and Peking U Join Hands to Train AI Talents
In Beijing today, China’s Ministry of Education, Sinovation AI Lab, and Peking University jointly announced the Global AI Talent Training Program for Chinese Universities.
Chinese Video Surveillance Giant Hikvision to Opensource its AI Technology
Hikvision AI Cloud is a distributed structure incorporating cloud computing and edge computing. Launched last year, it can extend an AI algorithm from the cloud centre to an edge network of on-premises video recorders and servers, and further to edge devices, such as security cameras.
Alibaba to Connect 10 Billion Devices in 5 Years
In a world of increasingly connected humans, the new frontier is devices and the Internet of Things (IoT). Alibaba Cloud wants to secure its position in this rapidly growing market by connecting ten billion devices over the next five years.
Huawei Introduces AI Development Board HiKey 970
Chinese tech giant Huawei unveiled its latest development board, HiKey 970, which is dedicated to AI-powered devices and applications.
Yu Zheng on JD.com’s Smart City Ambitions
Dr. Zheng joined JD Finance last month as Vice President and Chief Data Scientist, Urban Computing Business Unit President, and Urban Computing Lab Director. JD Finance is the fintech arm of JD.com, China’s largest e-commerce platform by revenue.
Fintech’s New Big Player: JD Finance Adds $2B, Hits $26-30B Valuation
According to a China Securities Journal report, the China International Capital Corporation (CICC) and China’s largest food processor, manufacturer and trader China National Cereals, Oils and Foodstuffs Corporation (COFCO) are looking to invest US$2 billion (CNY 13 billion) in JD Finance, the fintech spinoff of online retailer JD.com.
Alibaba Discounted its Top Smart Speaker to $15; Sold 1 Million
I purchased a Tmall Genie X1 — Alibaba’s flagship smart speaker — at the discounted price of US$15 during China’s November 11 “Singles Day” shopping festival. I was given order number 560,000-ish, and received the product a month later. The speaker is regularly priced at US$79, about the same as its American counterpart Google Mini.
Baidu Apollo Releases Massive Self-driving Dataset; Teams Up With Berkeley DeepDrive
Apollo Scape was released under Baidu’s autonomous driving platform Apollo, which Baidu hopes will become “the Android of the auto industry.” Apollo gives developers access to a complete set of service solutions and open-source codes and…
Baidu Launches Its Institute of Quantum Computing
Today Baidu announced Institute of Quantum Computing, which will conduct applied research and development on software and information technologies
Strengthening AI R&D Among China’s 2018 Innovation Goals
Chinese Premier Keqiang Li delivered this year’s official government work report, identifying “reinforcing the new generation of artificial intelligence research and development” among the state’s innovation focuses for 2018.
China to Facilitate AI Unicorns’ Going Public
Chinese media is reporting that several domestic brokers and investment banks were recently informed by the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) that it will relax regulations on prospectus approval time and profitability minimums for Chinese unicorns in the domains of artificial intelligence, cloud computing, biotech, and high-end manufacturing.
MIT and SenseTime Become Allies in AI
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Chinese AI Unicorn SenseTime today announced the MIT-SenseTime Alliance on Artificial Intelligence, a partnership the duo says “aims to open up new avenues of discovery across MIT in areas such as computer vision, human-intelligence-inspired algorithms, medical imaging, and robotics.”
Pandas and AI Lead the Way to the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics
The Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympics’ closing ceremony on Sunday was capped by a spectacular eight-minute presentation from 2022 host Beijing that featured state-of-the-art robotics and AI technology.
Chinese Self-Driving Startup CEO Suddenly Steps Down
Jin Wang, CEO of China’s self-driving startup JingChi, has stepped down just 11 months after founding the company.
JingChi said in a statement that “Jin Wang left the company due to family issues. Despite that, the company remains unchanged.”
Alibaba Launches 11-Qubit Quantum Computing Cloud Service
Alibaba took a big step towards quantum computing yesterday when its cloud service subsidiary Aliyun (“Alibaba Cloud”) and the Chinese Academy of Sciences jointly launched an 11-qubit quantum computing service.
Chinese Startups Hauled In Half of 2017 Global AI Funding
Over US$12.5 billion in funding flowed into AI startups in 2017, with Chinese startups receiving 48 percent of that, according to the new CB Insights report The State of Artificial Intelligence.
AI Adds Colour to Grandma’s Cherished Memories
Tencent Youtu — literally translated as “image optimization lab” — is the image processing, pattern recognition, machine learning, and data mining research arm of Chinese tech giant Tencent Group.
Baidu AI Can Clone Your Voice in Seconds
Baidu’s research arm announced yesterday that its 2017 text-to-speech (TTS) system Deep Voice has learned how to imitate a person’s voice using a mere three seconds of voice sample data.
Celebrating Chinese New Year 2018: Synced Announces 30 Best AI Use Case Award
Synced celebrates the Chinese New Year 2018 by announcing our 30 Best AI Use Case Award. The Award recognizes companies that have applied AI in various industries or organizations.
China’s Lunar New Year’s Gala Wowed Watchers with AI Innovations
China is determined to win the global AI race. The country continues to spark technological breakthroughs and establish AI-powered infrastructures for its cities and transportation networks.
China’s AI-powered NetEase is Music to Your Ears
Chinese netizens are all ears for the company’s “hearty” AI-powered music recommendations. In an interview with Synced, NetEase Data Scientist Jia Xu and Product Manager Bowen Shen explained the NetEase system, which learns how to predict what songs will resonate with a user’s particular taste in music…
Alibaba City Brain Goes Rural: AI Pig Farming in Sichuan
Sichuan pig farming corporation Dekon Group and pig feed supplier Tequ Group’s new partnership with Alibaba Cloud to apply its AI-powered “ET Brain” to pig farming. The trio are investing tens of millions of USD in the project, which was announced on February 6, 2018.
Chinese-American Startup Partnership Promises a Self-Driving Electric SUV by 2020
Chinese electric car startup BYTON says it will produce a self-driving SUV by 2020. The bold pledge came with the announcement of a partnership with Aurora…
Kuala Lumpur Gets Alibaba AI’s First Brain Implant
Alibaba’s cloud computing division Alibaba Cloud announced today that its AI-powered “ET City Brain” will be deployed in the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur in partnership with the Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC), the country’s digital economy development agency, and Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL).
Trio of China’s Big State Banks Invest in 4Paradigm AI
January 26th, Beijing-based AI firm 4Paradigm has announced strategic investments from the state-owned Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Bank of China and China Construction Bank.
Chinese Rideshare Unicorn DiDi Launches AI Lab in Beijing
China’s ridesharing unicorn DiDi Chuxing unveiled its “DiDi AI Labs” today in Beijing. The new AI lab expands on the DiDi Research Institute and DiDi Labs, and will cluster over 200 AI scientists and engineers
China Aims to Get the Jump on AI Standardization
China has just released its “Artificial Intelligence Standardization White Paper.” The 98-page document was edited by the China Electronics Standardization Institute under the guidance of the National Standardization Management Committee Second Ministry of Industry.
Amazon Go vs Alibaba Tao Cafe: Staffless Shop Showdown
Amazon and Alibaba’s brick-and-mortar-but-no-staff shops offer very different user experiences. To bring you first-hand feedback, Synced visited them.
Life After Baidu: Yuanqing Lin’s AI Startup Moves Fast on Funding and B2B Opportunities
Yuanqing Lin’s AI startup Aibee.ai — or AI2B, AI to business — has landed US $25 million in angel round funding. The company was founded by the former Director of Baidu’s Institute of Deep Learning (IDL), and provides general AI solutions such as computer vision and image and speech recognition for companies in education, finance, retail, real estate and other sectors.