China’s first state-level artificial intelligence (AI) development planning was officially released in July. The 2017 Global (Shanghai) Artificial Intelligence Information Summit was held yesterday, and attenders from various fields expressed their thoughts about what kinds of competitive resources China has and in what fields the AI will be first used commercially.
Shanghai (Xuhui) Artificial Intelligence Development Cluster was officially kicked off on the same day. It is found that regions including Shanghai, Anhui and Jiangsu are moving faster in developing AI industry and formulate relevant supporting policies. The AI development has been widespread.
Top-level planning on AI is finalized gradually
Lu Xi, an inspector from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), said yesterday that the MIIT is taking the lead in drafting detailed action plan on the development of AI industry so as to promote deepening application of intelligent manufacturing, nurture intelligentized products, fortify industrial foundation and improve public service system. Meanwhile, the MIIT cooperates with relevant departments to provide supports in establishing relevant industrial development alliance, promoting research on major issues about AI, standard development, pilot and demonstration, industrial promotion and international cooperation.
Zhou Bo, executive vice mayor of Shanghai Municipality, disclosed that Shanghai has previously made deployment in the development of new generation of AI, centering on application-driven development, industry cooperation, technology leading and eco-cultivation.
The new generation AI development planning sets target and direction for the development of China’s AI industry. Luckily, China doesn’t fall far behind international giants in this forefront field. AI industrial tycoons including Baidu Inc., Alibaba, Tencent and Jingdong are making more efforts in R&D of AI. In addition, some AI start-ups which are advantageous in R&D are growing up rapidly.
Various capitals go into action without delay. Sense Time, developer of deep learning platform, finished B round of financing raising 410 million yuan at the beginning of this year, breaking the highest record of funds raised in AI field in the world. CDH Investments and Sailing Capitals made the investment, and top investment institutions like Wanda Investment, China International Capital Corporation Limited (CICC) and China Everbright Limited participated in it. Recently, AI chip company Beijing Cambricon Technology Co., Ltd. announced that it finished raising 100 million US dollars of funds from several investment companies. AI enterprise iPIN announced tens of millions of funds raised from Skychee Ventures.
AI will be applied in fields like security and protection
Sense Time’s CEO Xuli told the reporter that venture companies are different from big companies in doing innovation in AI. Before, China rarely paid attention to bottom frame of original technology, resulting in a problem that the industry needs to depend on others, for instance, operating system of mobile phone. AI’s development is also faced with such situation now, so Sense Time hopes to set up its own complete original technology system.
What is more crucial is that it influences the prospect of a company or the industry, especially in AI development fields involving national security and finance. “It is very had to guarantee that we move towards the totally same direction with foreign giants, but AI will exert influences on these basic industries in the future,” Xu said frankly. Therefore, it is a strategic deployment that the country advance and accelerate making breakthrough in original technology through top-level strategy.
Xu pointed out that currently AI will be first applied in fields which replace traditional labor-intensive industries, including recognition of remote-sensing map, security and protection, and finance. In the second phase, AI will bring new application scenarios and interactive models and change traditional business types including Internet. It is learnt that face recognition, video analysis and other visual AI technology of Sense Time have been already adopted in over 400 enterprises, such as China Mobile, Huawei, Unionpay and Weibo.
“If AI venture companies stay ahead in the key period of technology development, their own time windows and barriers including barriers in partners and products can be formed.” Xu stressed that Sense Time will be more inclined to develop independently in the future. The company will consider conducting strategic cooperation by introducing more industrial capitals, especially those enterprises which are able to introduce AI into commercial application scenarios. He suggested that local governments can consider providing market access and local protection so as to push forward commercial application of Chinese original technology as soon as possible.
Shanghai (Xuhui) Artificial Intelligence Development Cluster was officially kicked off on August 30. It is found that regions including Shanghai, Anhui and Jiangsu are moving faster in developing AI industry and formulate relevant supporting policies. The AI development has been widespread. Anhui province unveiled exposure draft of artificial intelligence industrial development planning for Anhui province during 2017 and 2025, proposing to propel construction of a platform supporting core technology of robot and support major automakers like Chery and JAC to jointly build R&D lab with Iflytek Co., Ltd. and Baidu. Jiangsu province will build AI industrial innovation base in Nanjing Jiangbei New Area and make high-quality enterprises in AI field become bigger and stronger.
Translated by Vanessa Chen
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