AI Technology & Industry Review
The BAAI Conference 2022 kicked off on May 31 in Beijing and ran through June 2. AI experts, industry leaders, young talents and international delegates joined the virtual gathering and live stream for three busy days of high-level keynotes, tech talks, parallel forums and networking.
On November 23, Samsung Electronics announced the company is investing $17 billion to build a new semiconductor manufacturing facility in Taylor, Texas.
On October 30, Chinese President Xi Jinping said China will apply to join the Digital Economy Partnership Agreement (DEPA) as part of his video address a day earlier to the Group of 20 leaders’ summit in Rome, Italy.
According to Reuters, the Pentagon’s former software chief Nicolas Chaillan told the Financial Times on Sunday that “We have no competing fighting chance against China in 15 to 20 years. Right now, it’s already a done deal; it is already over, in my opinion.”
On October 6, Sony Group announced that the company will launch its edge AI platform service Aitrios AI sensing platform in Japan, the U.S. and Europe starting late this year.
On July 20, Quanergy Systems announced its 3D LiDAR solution has been selected to support the development of an Information, Communication, and Technology (ICT) system in Busan, South Korea. The ICT system is a key component of the South Korean government’s strategy to build data driven IoT smart cities. Busan is one of the pilot cities for the initiative.
On July 19, SenseTime, China’s leading AI company, announced the launch of the SenseTime International AI Innovation Hub.
On July 17, Baidu rolled out its Apollo Robotaxi in the streets of China’s southern city Guangzhou. Users can access the self-driving taxi service via the Baidu Map and Apollo GO apps, and board the vehicles from 9:30 to 23:00, at 237 stops across the city.
On July 13, Alibaba announced the establishment of the Alibaba Artificial Intelligence Governance Laboratory (AAIG, https://s.alibaba.com/cn/aaig). The laboratory will promote sustainable, reliable, credible, and usable AI.
At the World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) held in Shanghai on July 9, Daosheng Tang, the senior vice exectuvie of Tencent and president of the Tencent cloud and smart industry group, said that the company’s Yangtze River AI Supercomputing Center with RMB 45 billion (approx. USD 7 billion) investment will soon commence operation.
On July 4, according to notice mandated by China’s Cyberspace Administration (CAC), ride-hailing giant “Didi Chuxing” app has serious violations of laws and regulations with its collecting and use of users’ personal information.
On June 28, Shenzhen promulgated the draft of Regulations on the Promotion of Artificial Intelligence Industry of Shenzhen Special Economic Zone, which seeks to establish an overarching framework for AI, such as the approval framework for market entrance of AI products and services.
According to media reports on June 28, South Korea is investing KRW 1.1 trillion (USD 1 billion) on L4-level self-driving, involving the government’s science, transport and police units. The government task force also announced 53 projects for commercializing L4 and high levels of autonomous driving by 2027.
According to a securities report released on June 24, Toyota CEO Akio Toyoda is personally investing USD 45.3 million into Woven Planet Holdings, the smart city unit of his company spearheading autonomous driving research.
On June 26, China’s State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) announced that Tesla Motors (Beijing & Shanghai) are to recall approximately 286,000 vehicles over faulty active cruise control system.
On June 16, Tencent Quantum Lab and the Department of Physics of Tsinghua University signed an MoU regarding cooperation on functional material databases, machine learning-assisted material computation methods, and material virtual screening cloud platforms.
On June 21, the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) issued a document stating that it had appointments with major state-owned banks and mobile payment provider Alipay for providing cryptocurrency transaction services.
On June 22, LG Electronics announced the launch of a new “digital x-ray detector” (DXD). The new product is equipped with assisted AI diagnostic functions, which are designed by healthcare AI solutions company VUNO. The product will detect chest X-ray images for abnormal findings and enhance lesion areas with coloring and outline, to help medical professionals accurately identify lung diseases including tuberculosis, pneumonia, and cancer.
On June 18, China completes the building of the self-driving expressway in Jiangsu province, which will be open to traffic at the end of this month.
On June 11, China’s rise-hailing giant Didi Chuxing formally submitted its IPO prospectus to the SEC. In the 12 months ending March 31, 2021, Didi had 493 million global annual active users and 15 million global annual active drivers.
On April Fool’s Day in 2016, Google secretly uploaded a video of an autonomous bicycle roaming through the busy streets. Two days after the post went viral, Google clarified that it was actually the result of superb video editing. Five years later, Zhi Hui Jun, a vlogger from Beijing with more than 800,000 fans, spent four months (mainly on weekends) making the joke into a reality.
To meet the goal of carbon neutrality, Japan’s Fukushima Prefecture and conglomerate Toyota announced the plan to build a hydrogen-powered smart city on June 4. A dozen of companies including Asahi Group, Aeon, and Isuzu Motors is to participate in the project as of the announcement date.
On May 31, in Wuhan East Lake National Comprehensive Science Center， Huawei’s Wuhan Artificial Intelligence Computing Center was completed and putContinue Reading
Didi Autonomous Driving is to complete a USD 300 million new round of financing, with USD 200 million from the Guangzhou Automobile Group and its capital investment arm.
According to Nikkei reports, the Japanese government will provide half of the funds for TSMC’s relocation research facility in the Ibaraki Prefecture, which is north of Tokyo, and it is expected that R&D will be officially launched in 2022.
According to media reports on May 31, Shenzhen is building its tallest smart parking lot, which is expected to beContinue Reading
On May 30, media reported that the South Korean regulatory agency Fair Trade Commission has approved SK Hynix’s USD 9 billion acquisition of Intel’s NAND flash memory and SSD businesses.
On May 24, SoftBank Vision Fund 2 announced exclusively investment of USD 175 million in Riiid, a South Korean AI tutor company.
South Korea’s largest telecommunications company will join hand with the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) to establish a AI research institute.
On May 28, Reuters quoted sources saying that BMW, Daimler and Ford have set up facilities in China to store data generated by cars locally.
The magnetic fusion energy reactor Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST), known as the “artificial sun”, at the Hefei Institute of Material Science of Chinese Academy of Sciences, set a new world record.
On May 21, leading IoT cloud platform Tuya Smart hosted a panel to discuss resilience and innovation for the IoT industry in North America during COVID-19 outbreak.
On May 20, Zhang Yiming, the founder of ByteDance and owner of TikTok since 2012, issued an internal letter to all employees announcing his resignation as CEO.
On May 11, China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) unveiled the six pilot cities for smart city infrastructure and smart vehicle networks, including Beijing, Shanghai, Wuhan, Changsha and Wuxi.
On May 13, autonomous vehicle startup Pony.ai announced the expansion of its Robotaxi service in Beijing.
According to Chinese media report on April 19, there have been at least 21 AI chips investments involving 17 companies since the beginning of 2021, totaling approx. RMB 20 billion (USD 3.1 billion).
According to the Shenzhen Robotics Industry Development White Paper released on April 9, the total output value of Shenzhen’s robotics industry was RMB 143.4 billion (USD 22 billion approx.)
On April 8, Chinese robotics startup CloudMinds finished series B+ round of funding with RMB 1 Billion (approx. USD 150 million) investment led by SOEs Shanghai Urban Construction Investment and Shanghai Guosheng Group.
On April 7, media reports show that China’s top-tier electric vehicle manufacturer, XPeng or Xiaopeng Motors, has commenced R&D for owned self-driving chips.
Xiaomi, the Chinese electronics giant with a valuation over RMB 100 billion, has announced its entrance into the electric cars market on March 30th.