China's Race for Artificial Intelligence (AI) Technology

[cirr]

iFlytek plans incubators for startups

2017-10-25 07:41

China Daily Editor: Huang Mingrui

Robots, made by iFlytek Co Ltd from East China's Anhui province, on display at an industry expo held in Beijing. (Photo/Xinhua)

Leading Chinese artificial intelligence company, iFlytek Co Ltd, has announced it will set up a 1.02 billion yuan ($150 million) fund to support software and hardware developers. The move is part of its broad push to accelerate the application of AI in consumer electronics, healthcare and other industries.

The announcement came after the company's AI-enabled user interface platform accumulated 460,000 third-party developer teams in the past seven years.

Hu Yu, executive president of iFlytek, said the fund will be used to finance startups that have core technologies but lack business know-how, or companies that excel in commercializing products but are unable to integrate AI into their devices.

"As a company born out of the (Hefei-based) University of Science and Technology of China, we have been focusing on voice recognition technologies for 18 years. We know what problems technology-oriented startups will face and how to help traditional companies upgrade themselves through AI," Hu said.

The company's efforts are in line with General Secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee Xi Jinping's call to turn China into a country of innovators and to reach the frontiers of science and technology.

Innovation is the primary force driving development, Xi said in a report delivered to the 19th CPC National Congress on Oct 18. He called for more measures to cultivate young scientists, engineers and high-performing innovation teams.[Special Coverage]

Li Deyi, an academician at the Chinese Academy of Engineering, said because AI is being increasingly used in manufacturing, healthcare and other traditional industries, China is now in need of roughly 1 million AI specialists.

"Nurturing more AI professionals is key to being a world pioneer in cutting-edge technology," Li said.

According to iFlytek, it will partner with local governments across the country to build incubators to accelerate startups' growth. For instance, it has a 10,000-square-meter space in Changchun, capital of Jilin province, to help companies learn how to develop AI-enabled systems or gadgets for automobiles.

"We will not only offer software support and financial guidance, but also hardware components and an online AI curriculum," Hu said.

According to Hu, the company is partnering with Cambridge University in image recognition technology, and is planning to expand its presence in Europe by first entering into the United Kingdom.

On Tuesday, iFlytek also unveiled a smart microphone named Morfei, which has built-in voice recognition and natural language understanding technologies. The device is designed to lower the threshold for home appliance-makers and hotels to integrate AI technologies into their products.

http://www.ecns.cn/business/2017/10-25/278307.shtml

 

[qwerrty]

China vs US: Who is winning the big AI battle?
Oct 22, 2017
Masha Borak

China and the US are becoming the world’s biggest rivals in artificial intelligence: it’s Luke vs Darth Vader, Alien vs Predator, Rocky vs Ivan Drago. The Chinese government’s pivot to become the leader in this technology has created plenty of hype, but how are China’s ambitious AI aspirations playing out on the ground? Research by startup database IT Juzi and Tencent News offers a new view of China’s AI industry’s strengths and weaknesses.

The US is currently the definite champion in AI development, according to the data. There are 1.82 times more American AI companies than Chinese. Investments in the US are 1.54 higher than in China and the talent pool is 2.01 times larger. Out of the total number of AI companies in the world (2542 according to data from June 2017), the US hosts 42% of them, while China ranks second with 23%. The two countries beat Britain, Australia, Japan, Sweden, Singapore and other developed countries.

These strong AI foundations were built with the help of companies such as Google, Amazon, IBM, and Microsoft which started their ascendance early. But that gap could close soon: China’s tech trinity BAT is also building its AI ecosystems. There is Baidu’s AI assistant/platform DuerOS, self-driving platform Apollo and deep learning platform Paddle Paddle. Alibaba has its Platform of Artificial Intelligence (PAI 2.0), the Tmall Genie voice assistant, and customer service chatbot Dian Xiaomi. Tencent has developed a cloud service, an open-source computing platform called Angel, Wechat AI, and robot reporter Dreamwriter.

Giants aren’t the only ones wrestling in the ring: AI companies in China are springing up like bamboo shoots after a spring rain.

“China’s artificial intelligence can basically rival the world’s, but the dividends brought by industrial revolutions over the past 10 years will eventually be gone,” said Yao Qizhi, the first Asian winner of the Turing award, adding that supercomputers and theory are China’s biggest shortcomings.

These are not the only areas lagging behind the US, according to the report. A major impediment is the lack of AI talent. The numbers show that the US AI talent pool is 78,000-strong, while in China, that number is more than half lower—it has 39,200 AI experts. The reason behind this is the lack of quality training: out of the top 20 universities in the world in AI, 16 are affiliated to the US. Current academic capacities in China simply do not meet the demand.

The divide is also visible within the industry: China’s AI development will have to bridge the technology gap while paying attention to product differentiation and market demand. These are the three thresholds for AI startup development, the report states.

“For investors, the artificial intelligence technology industry is a promising tech industry, both large and small companies have begun to rise,” according to IT Juzi analyst and study co-author Li Jingwang. “But like the Internet bubble of 2000, they should be more cautious in choosing the right company.”

Chinese and American AI experts will have plenty of opportunities for a rematch. The most important areas in AI in the near future will be network security and fraud prevention, unmanned convenience stores, machine translation, the medical and pharmaceutical industry, and intellectual right protection. The two countries are currently building their strengths in different fields while AI startups are growing with their local financing trends.

Here are some more interesting numbers on China’s AI industry from the “2017 China-US AI Venture Capital State and Trends Research Report” (2017中美AI创投现状与趋势研究报告).

What are Chinese and American AI companies researching?

Image credit: 2017 China-US AI Venture Capital State and Trends Research Report

Thanks to advances in three crucial areas for AI development—algorithms, data and high-performance chips—the world is discovering new applications in the field. In China, the most popular growth areas are proving to be smart robots with companies such as Ubtech, Roobo, and Cloudminds, as well as unmanned areal vehicles (UAV) with drone giant DJI as the biggest player in the field.

Natural language processing (NLP), including semantic analysis, speech recognition, and chatbots have also proven a hot spot with Jinri Toutiao, iFlytek and Unisound as some of the more famous representatives.

The third popular category—face and image recognition—hosts companies such as Face++ and SenseVision. It covers video surveillance, automatic driving, and computer vision.

But what are China’s AI strengths comparing to the US? The research lists nine areas in AI according to the difficulty of starting a business. For instance, NLP and computer vision have lower technical difficulty, which is why this area is a common hotspot both in China and the US. The most difficult part of AI is processor and chip development due to the amounts of funding needed, long cycle of development, and fewer talents.

According to the research, China’s main strength lies in intelligent robots, while the US stands as the world’s machine learning application champion.

Image credit: 2017 China-US AI Venture Capital State and Trends Research Report

What industries are most affected by AI in China?
In China, the medical industry has become an interesting area for AI applications, including medical imaging and medical record analysis. This field has so far largely benefited from weak artificial intelligence, a form of AI specifically designed to focus on narrow tasks.

The automobile industry ranks second with self-driving and assisted driving, followed by education, finance, manufacturing, security, home and other industries.

Image credit: 2017 China-US AI Venture Capital State and Trends Research Report

How much money does the AI industry get?
Since the first AI investments in the US in 1999, the amount invested in AI globally has risen to RMB 191.4 billion. As of June 31st, 2017, Chinese AI companies received RMB 63.5 billion or 33.18% of the world’s AI funding, The US takes the lead with 51.10% (RMB 97.8 billion), while the rest of the world carved up the remaining 15.73%.

In 2016, China managed to edge closer to its main rival, but thanks to several big deals in the US, China’s total AI financing significantly lagged in H1 2017.

Another interesting piece of data is that China has a higher percentage of AI companies that have received investments (69%) than the US (51%). This shows that the main problem for AI development in China is not the lack of funds but the lack of technology and talent.

Image credit: China has a higher percentage of AI companies that have received investments (69%) than the US (51%).

 

[onebyone]

China has laid out a for a comprehensive national renaissance by 2050. Xi’s report includes 12 sections, each breaking into numerous parts covering issues including housing, health, science, defense, artificial intelligence and the sharing economy.

1. The Xi plan projects the basic realization of socialist modernization by 2035, resulting in a major expansion of the middle class, with continuing growth through 2050. In the Chinese political lexicon, this means becoming the economic and technological equivalent of a developed nation. In GDP per capita terms, this would imply up to three times the current level, to between $20,000 and $30,000. With this performance, China will formally surpass the U.S. well before 2035.

Nextbigfuture covered a projection that China could have moderately slowing growth from now to 2050

From now to 2020 China’s economic growth rate should be about 6.5%
by 2025 it may fall to about 5%
by 2030 to around 4%,
and then stabilize at 3% -4% for some time.

China GNI per capita should be about
2017 $8800
2018 $9300
2019 $9800 (about the current level of Malaysia
2020 $10200 (about current world average GNI per capita)
2021 $10800
2022 $11500
2023 $12100 (At about World Bank high income definition)
2030 $16000 (about the current level of Uruguay)
2040 $22000 (about the current level of Saudi Arabia)
2050 $29000-32000 (about the current level of Spain, Italy and South Korea)
This would be in line with China getting around $20,000 GDP per capita by 2035 and around $30,000 per capita in todays dollars by 2050.

2. Sustainability. The Xi plan calls for a concentrated drive to eradicate poverty, as the increasing wealth gap resulting from rapid development is the enemy of long-term sustainability. In the five years since the 18th Party Congress, at least 60 million people were lifted out of poverty. If such a rate is sustained, the tens of millions currently living below the poverty line will all be lifted out of poverty in only a few years.

The environment is, of course, the other threat to sustainability. The Xi plan maps out major structural changes to the economy and energy usage and envisions a substantially cleaner environment in two decades.

3. Expansion. The Belt and Road Initiative is larger than the Marshall Plan both in size and geography. China will export its infrastructure-led economic development to a vast number of developing and developed countries.

By 2050, the Belt and Road region aims to contribute 80 per cent of global GDP growth, and advance three billion more people into the middle class.

4. Identity. Xi is emphasizing the importance of Chinese traditional culture.

Xi Jinping said the PLA must fully modernize by 2035, having phased out the last of its antiquated equipment. The PLA must adopt the latest in information warfare technology, boosting the PLA’s ability to share data across the armed services. By 2050, the PLA must become a “top ranked” military, which means rough parity with the United States military.

https://www.nextbigfuture.com/2017/...-2050-health-ai-sharing-economy-and-more.html

 

[cirr]

AI startup draws big investors

2017-10-26 09:08

China Daily Editor: Huang Mingrui

Yao Song, co-founder and CEO of DeePhi Tech, introduces the company's latest processor in Beijing on Tuesday. (Photo provided to China Daily)

DeePhi Tech gets $40 million in funding for data center, security services development

Artificial intelligence processor startup DeePhi Tech has raised about $40 million in its latest round of financing, with investments led by Ant Financial Services Group and Samsung Venture Investment.

The deal is the first major investment in the AI semiconductor sector by Ant Financial, the financial affiliate of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. It is also part of China's broader push to develop world-level computer chips to power the cutting-edge industry.

Yao Song, co-founder and CEO of DeePhi Tech, said part of the new cash will be used to accelerate the development of AI products and services for the security and big data fields.

"The injection of Ant Financial's strategic resources will also support us in exploring more application scenarios for the financial industry. The partnership with Samsung will center around data storage," the Beijing-based company said in a statement.

The investment is also reportedly Samsung's first bet on China's AI startups.

Founded in 2016 by a group of researchers from Tsinghua University and Stanford University, DeePhi Tech focuses on offering deep learning algorithms and processors to accelerate the application of AI in diverse sectors.

"Currently, we generate about 70 percent of our revenue from the security sector and the rest from the big data industry," Yao said.

Earlier this year, DeePhi Tech had already secured tens of millions of US dollars in its series A round of financing from six investors, including United States AI chip producer Xilinx, semiconductor-maker MediaTek Inc, Tsinghua Holdings and Sigma Square Capital.

The latest investment came after Cambricon Technologies, an AI chip startup affiliated with the Chinese Academy of Sciences, raised $100 million from investors such as Alibaba.

Cambricon unveiled its first chip, Cambricon-1A, last year, which the company branded as the "first commercial deep learning application". It can be used in the fields of robotics, drones, autonomous vehicles and consumer electronics.

Xie Yuan, an AI expert and professor from University of California, Santa Barbara, said because young Chinese researchers' work on AI hardware architecture has reached a world-class level, there is a huge opportunity for them to lead in the high-tech field.

In the first half of this year, China's AI startups have secured a combined record financing of 19.3 billion yuan ($2.87 billion), according to a report released by the tech-investment data website itjuzi.com.

In July, China unveiled a national development plan to build a 1 trillion yuan AI core industry by 2030, which is supposed to stimulate as much as 10 trillion yuan in related businesses. Developing homegrown AI processors is an important part of the ambitious goal.

http://www.ecns.cn/business/2017/10-26/278455.shtml

 

[Menthol]

30 years... It's still a very very long way to go before China able to reach South Korea standard of today.

I guess China will take several generations before able to became a true developed country, unlike South Korea and Singapore.

 

[shadows888]

30 years... It's still a very very long way to go before China able to reach South Korea standard of today.

I guess China will take several generations before able to became a true developed country, unlike South Korea and Singapore.

50 million in south korea, 6 million in singapore.. what comparison? maybe you should compare say hangzhou (+/-8 million pop) to Singapore. or YRD or PRD to south korea.

 

[cirr]

Artificial intelligence is the new buzzword

2017-10-27 09:58

Shanghai Daily Editor: Huang Mingrui

Xiaozhi, dancing robots developed by Hazzi Robotics, perform at the exhibition.(Photo/Shanghai Daily)

Artificial intelligence is now the buzzword not only in science, but in almost all walks of life. "To advance application of AI in real economy" has officially been written in a report delivered at the 19th Communist Party of China National Congress which ended on October 24.

In fact, AI is taking up our daily life with a speed faster than many could have imagined.

Ordinary citizens got a chance to look at the latest development in artificial intelligence and robotics at the Hangzhou Artificial Intelligence and Intelligent Leisure Exhibition, which was held between October 20 and 23. Sixteen companies showcased their flagship products and technology at the Hangzhou International Expo Center.

A four-legged robot at the exhibition caught the eyes of many visitors. The robot "Chitu," weighing 75 kilograms at a stand-up height of 0.8 meter, was developed by a start-up team from the College of Control System and Engineering, Zhejiang University.

It took the team two years to launch a second-generation robot with funds from Nanjiang Robotics, a local company that produces wheeled warehouse robots. Chitu is likely to be used for safety patrol, post-disaster rescue operations and counter-terrorist practices.

"The robot can walk on slopes, gravy roads and other complex surfaces," said Zhao Yidong, a member of the project. "Compared to traditional wheeled robots, it can also jump and climb 17-centimeter-tall stairs."

Its walking speed can reach up to 1.5 meters per second — as good as grown-ups. It is electronically powered and capable of working for 40 minutes outdoors.

In May this year, the quadruped robot won the "Global Student Design Showcase" in NI Engineering Compact Award, an annual engineering and science conference hosted by National Instruments Corporation in the US.

While Chitu is still in the lab, some local companies are already reaping profits by mass producing household/commercial robots. Hazzi Robotics, for example, brought three types of products — Xiaozhi, a dancing robot, while Rongbao and Jubao are used for shopping guidance and reception.

A salesperson at the exhibition told Shanghai Daily that the prices of robots ranged from 3,680 yuan ($555) to 200,000 yuan each depending on the requirements of the customer.

In another booth, a staffer from Baidu, one of the top three Internet companies in China, was demonstrating how to interact with a built-in DuerOS home entertainment system.

DuerOS is a speech based interactive AI system initiated by Baidu in July this year in the hope of connecting every device. By using a remote control that accepts sound input, users can "talk" to their TV and command it to switch on and off or skip the introduction of a program.

"I can tell my TV to find a movie performed by the husband of a certain celebrity," Tang Xiaoyang, a marketing officer at Baidu, told Shanghai Daily. "I can also stop in the middle of a program and ask the device to search for a cast member's information to appear on the screen."

The process actually involves several AI or AI-related technologies including speech recognition, facial recognition and natural language processing. Meaning, once equipped with DuerOS, a device will be able to understand the human language and react with corresponding actions.

The same system can be transferred to cars, stereos, wearable devices or even home appliances. The DuerOS also works as an open platform that allows developers to submit their own AI applications.

Beside commercial uses, AI technologies are also applied in government administrations.

Another exhibitor, the Hangzhou-based Enjoyer Group, presented its comprehensive intelligent solutions for public medical care, traffic policing, environment monitoring, etc.

Tapping on the big data collected from the city's traffic police unit, it works out the best plan for the traffic light durations at each intersection, which greatly eases the problem of congestion on road. The project is a collaborative one with the Alibaba Group.

The exhibition was a part of this year's West Lake International Expo and the third World Leisure Expo, which kicked off on October 20, and featured 33 major events including forums, exhibitions, festivals and other leisure activities.

Roger Coles, chairman of the World Leisure Organization, told Shanghai Daily that he was amazed at the city's fast development in facilities and infrastructures. As it opens up with more tourism opportunities, the city would be recognized and appraised by more foreigner visitors.

http://www.ecns.cn/business/2017/10-27/278644.shtml

 

[cirr]

China's Siri-like iFlytek unveils smart microphone for home appliances

2017-10-27 10:34　Global Times　Editor: Li Yan

Artificial intelligence (AI) is no longer the future, it is the present. It has now penetrated almost every aspect of daily life.

A car equipped with an audio guide has become the driver's assistant. A doctor can precisely diagnose certain conditions with image analysis technology. When people step into their home, they can turn on lights and their air conditioner (AC) by using only the sound of their voice.

Those are just a few example scenarios given by industry insiders at a recent tech conference that demonstrated how AI is transforming people's lives.

The comments were heard during a key tech conference held by China's Siri-like voice recognition services provider iFlytek on Tuesday in Hefei, capital of East China's Anhui Province.

iFlytek, which has been ranked as one of this year's 50 smartest companies worldwide by MIT Technology Review, has been shifting its focus from software to hardware over recent years with the aim of responding to the rising demand for the application of AI technologies.

The voice recognition services provider has just launched its first smart microphone called MORFEI, which combines speech recognition technologies with mini-sized hardware. The surround sound microphone is designed for 5-meter sound pickup and can be integrated into other smart home appliances such as the refrigerator, AC, and TV.

MORFEI is the latest smart voice device since iFlytek and Chinese tech giant JD.com Inc came up with a voice-enabled AI product called DingDong two years ago, which is considered China's answer to Amazon's Echo and Google's Home.

Backed by its human-computer interactive interface AIUI, MORFEI can help start-ups design different features in accordance with customer demand.

"This [product] is part of the AI plus industry, for example, a manufactured smart home appliance can use this device to create voice command features," said Wang Wen, senior director of the smart hardware department at the consumer business group under iFlytek.

Established in 1999, iFlytek has become a major player in the voice recognition field and has prevailed in well-recognized global competitions such as the Winograd Schema Challenge and the NIST Speaker Recognition Evaluation.

"But only making technology breakthroughs is not enough," said Hu Yu, executive director of iFlytek, noting that AI should also be utilized in real-life scenarios and be used to solve industry challenges.

As a major tech provider, iFlytek's core technologies, including voice recognition, multi-language processing, machine translation and other smart customer services, have been used in the automobile, finance, home appliance and education fields.

Shift to hardware

As such technology, particularly language understanding and precise language translation, continues to mature, more and more tech firms in turn will continue coming up with innovative business models and unprecedented consumer products that are adopted on a wide-scale basis.

For example, Beijing-based consulting firm Analysis International forecast that speech automobile interaction systems will become a must for passenger cars in the next five years.

Furthermore, in 2016, iFlytek established three new business groups which focused on smart education, smart cities and consumer products.

"Diversifying its business will enhance iFlytek's competitiveness in the voice recognition sector," Feng Chao, analyst at Analysis International, told the Global Times.

In recent years, iFlytek has unveiled a series of services and products that can be used in real-time scenarios. For example, its dictation system called iFlyrec, which has been used in 271 courthouses nationwide, can listen to, recognize and then transcribe speech instantly.

Also, the company's speech recognition system has helped local police track telecom fraud and prevented potential losses of up to 500 million yuan ($75.37 million) in Anhui Province.

Besides DingDong, the company has launched other consumer products since last year. For instance, one of its devices can translate not only Putonghua into five other foreign languages, but also into other languages of China's ethnic minority groups, hinting a future without interpreters.

As such, 50 percent of jobs might be replaced by AI in 10 years, Liu Qingfeng, chairman of iFlytek, said at the conference on Tuesday.

"We might only need to work five hours a day. But although AI could take over some of our jobs, we could do other more valuable and creative things instead," he said.

Smart hardware and devices are only at the earliest stages of development, Wang Mengxuan, an analyst from Beijing-based industry consultancy iResearch, told the Global Times.

That meaning, for example, MORFEI will soon enable iFlytek to grab market shares in the smart speaker sector, which will further boost the AI industry's overall growth in the coming years, she noted.

The market scale of the country's speech and voice recognition market alone is forecast to surpass 100 billion yuan by the end of 2017, with a year-on-year growth of 69.8 percent, according to a report released by Analysis International in April.

Ongoing foreign competition

"Because voice and speech recognition technology is increasingly being used in Chinese consumer products nowadays, we hold optimistic views on the rapid growth of tech firms in China," Feng said.

However, despite the domestic industry's recent spike in development, foreign companies are currently still leading in the smart device world, she added.

For instance, U.S. tech giant Google Inc has applied its AI learning system TensorFlow to four of its major services - Google Home, Google Map, Google Glass and Google Assistant.

"Customers in overseas markets have much better user experience with smart devices, which are also more accepted," Feng noted.

But as an innovation-driven company, iFlytek will soon develop in a similar way that global tech giants such as Google and Intel have grown, Hu said. "We won't do everything on our own, we will team up with players in different sectors by offering voice-related solutions and attracting more start-ups to our open platform."

Further internationalizing its business is also part of the company's corporate strategy. However, it must accumulate abundant foreign language resources for its database, as noted at the conference.

It takes time to build up an ecosystem as the industry has not yet fully developed, Wang, the analyst, said.

http://www.ecns.cn/business/2017/10-27/278661.shtml

 

[cirr]

Tencent can now erase makeup from photos

2017-10-27

CGTN　Editor: Li Yan

Test result of the algorithm. (Screenshot via Tencent Youtu Lab)

What will you do after taking a selfie? Directly post it online or beautify it using photo-editing apps first? As virtual makeup apps gain popularity among both males and females, Chinese developers are working on a way to remove makeups from over-edited photos.

During the International Conference of Computer Vision (ICCV) held from October 22 to 29 in Venice, Italy, Tencent Youtu Lab, an artificial intelligence (AI) research lab under the Chinese tech giant Tencent, released a new algorithm through a paper submitted to ICCV that can reverse over-edited deceiving pictures.

Dubbed "makeup-go," the algorithm is claimed to be the first of its kind in the world, and it focuses on tackling the two issues of skin smoothing and skin color change.

One of the difficulties mentioned by the lab is that every virtual makeup software performs quite differently, which make it impossible to learn all operations that can smooth skin, suppress wrinkle and freckle, and adjust tone.

Therefore, the team designed a new network structure to reverse pictures "blindly." Learned from data of different software, the network can restore beautified images without knowing the exact algorithms.

Also, instead of directly regressing the pictures towards the unedited version, the network regresses levels of principal components of the edited parts separately. As a result, subtle detail information won't be ignored.

Makeup-go doesn't handle geometric face-lifting at the moment, the team said in the paper.

http://www.ecns.cn/2017/10-27/278680.shtml

 

[Bussard Ramjet]

Baidu, Aplus Capital and Frees Fund Invest In Chinese AI Acoustics Technology Start-up SoundAI
YIMIAN WUOctober 27, 2017 — 14:01 HKT



Baidu, Aplus Capital, Frees Fund and Linekong Interactive Group, a Hong Kong-listed company, jointly invested about RMB100 million (US$15 million) in a series A round in a Beijing-based start-up SoundAI in September, according to media reports and confirmed by both the company and Frees.

Bank of Beijing also participated in the investment by providing venture loans.

Founded in 2016 by Chen Xiaoliang, a former researcher from the Institute of Acoustics at Chinese Academy of Sciences, SoundAI develops sonic technology that focus on acoustics, including ultrasonic recognition, directional speakers, acoustic communication, three-dimensional sound, wireless audio, conference systems to support artificial intelligence technology application. Its technology can be applied in chips, modules, OS and cloud services, the company said.

“When Freeds Fund invested in SoundAI in 2016, we recognized the technology that Chen’s team have,” said Li Feng, Freeds Fund’s founder. “Smart speaker became popular in the first half of 2017, and the needs of voice interaction technology have increased, which accelerating SoundAI’s business, bringing them the opportunities to partner with Baidu and Xiaomi.”

The company’s technology has been used in Qihoo 360’s smart camera and Xiaomi’s AI speakers, the company says. It has also partnered with Baidu, Tencent, Alibaba, Xiao MI, and Huawei, according to the company’s website.

Last year, Aplus Capital led a RMB160 million (US$24 million) in a Pre-A round, with participation by Frees Fund. Frees Fund and Runzhe Capital also invested RMB120 million (US$18 million) in an angel round when the company was founded.

https://www.chinamoneynetwork.com/2...chinese-ai-acoustics-technology-start-soundai

 

[cirr]

Chinese firm launches robot to serve the elderly

2017-10-27 16:34 Xinhua Editor: Mo Hong'e

Siasun Robot and Automation Co., Ltd., China's leading robot manufacturer, on Friday launched a new service robot designed especially to serve the elderly.

Less than one meter tall, the robot can roam around a house and send images of its elderly users for remote monitoring. It is voice-controlled and can automatically avoid barriers and recharge itself.

Siasun, based in Shenyang, capital of northeast China's Liaoning Province, launched the new robot at the China International Old-Age Service Industry Expo, held in the city on Friday.

Dong Zhuang, a senior manager of the company, said it is Siasun's first service robot developed with cloud-computing technology, which gives it the ability to learn quickly. It can help users with health checks and chronic disease home care.

Dong said Siasun has cooperated with the Shenyang Deveau Home Care Center to develop the service robot in order to serve the elderly's needs for home care. The robot can facilitate communication between elderly people and their children through its remote-monitoring function.

Zuo Hongci, director of the Shenyang Association of Old-Age Service Industry, said seniors over 60 account for 23 percent of the city's total population. There is a big market shortfall of workers to care for the elderly. Intelligent service robots may play a big role in filling the need in the future.

Shenzhen-listed Siasun plans for its annual output to reach 10,000 industrial robots and intelligent manufacturing equipment units, and 2,000 service robots this year. The company boasts a development team of more than 2,000 people.

http://www.ecns.cn/2017/10-27/278707.shtml

 

[TaiShang]

China expected to turn the tide of global car industry with AI technology

By Jiang Jie (People's Daily Online) 08:24, November 02, 2017

Experts discuss at a panel discussion at the Future Forum on Oct.29 in Beijing. (Photo courtesy of Future Forum)

After 60 years of development, the rapidly advancing AI industry has yet to usher in a modern age the way Isaac Newton did with physics, but this provides a good opportunity for countries like China to turn the tide.

Addressing a panel discussion on Oct.29 at the Future Forum in Beijing, Wang Jin, founder of JingChi Corp, a self-driving technology company based in the US state of California, said he believes the global car industry now faces a chance to breakthrough, as competition heats up among several major players, namely China, US, Germany, and Japan.

China has poured huge investment into technology research and development. The time has come for China to join the competition over the leading role in the century-old automobile industry with its advantages in technology, noted Wang, who is also a former senior vice president of Baidu.

Figures released at the forum show that China is taking over the US in the number of thesis papers published on AI. Some 43 percent are written by Chinese scholars.

Engineers test in a self-driving car at Jingchi Corp (Photo courtesy of Jinchi Corp)

China’s outstanding performance on AI studies is not only demonstrated through the number of theses, but through many champion titles in international challenges.

On Oct.29, a Chinese AI company for the first time claimed the top of the world’s computer vision competition of Microsoft Common Objects in Context (MS COCO) Challenge in Venice, Italy. The company, Megvii, beat Microsoft, Google, Facebook, and other global tech giants, as well as many top universities including Carnegie Mellon University.

After its sweeping victory in the world’s only competition that gathers Google, Microsoft, and Facebook at the same time, Megvii announced on Oct.31 that it has completed a C-round financing of some $460 million, a world record in AI financing, Caijing Magazine reported.

Meanwhile, experts at the forum pointed out that the world is craving for more AI talents, and China is one of the most eager ones.

According to leading AI expert Li Feifei from Stanford University, the demands for AI talents across the globe greatly exceed the supply. The imbalance exists not only in academia, but also in business, requiring more AI education and research.

“The situation is worse in China, as it only started to getting its hands on AI about 10 years ago, hence the inadequate talent pools,” Zhou Zhihua, vice dean of the Department of Computer Science and Technology at Nanjing University told the panel, adding that few companies seeking AI talents are willing to help with AI education, and are looking for talents from other companies and research institutes.

Wang agreed that the scarcity of AI talents in China is greater than that in the US, taking the example of salary for AI-related employees. One tends to see up to 15 percent salary raise in China when transferred from the US, but it would be a decrease if one transferred from China to the US.

Professor Dawn Song from the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the University of California, Berkeley, said that the focus should be on fundamental research, even though companies want fast solutions rather than long-term cultivation, because this can beef up their problem-solving abilities when needed.

http://en.people.cn/n3/2017/1102/c202936-9287648.html

 

[cirr]

AI can see hot and cold

2017-11-02 09:04

Shanghai Daily Editor: Huang Mingrui

Artificial Intelligence technologies are being used to predict what will be hot and what will flop in the world of online programing, with a success rate of over 80 percent.

Such tech has already been used to help Chinese online video markets improve popular online programs and attract millions of clicks and views, China's leading online video service provider, iQiyi, said.

Next year iQiyi plans to create around 200 programs, with investment of 10 billion yuan ($1.5 billion), with the help of AI, which will be used to choose content production aspects like theme and characters, help purchase programs that audiences will enjoy, and classify audiences.

"AI has helped us better understand audience tastes, content production and advertising and marketing," Gong Yu, CEO of iQiyi said in Shanghai.

http://www.ecns.cn/business/2017/11-02/279330.shtml

 

[ashok321]

China on path to eclipse US with AI, warns Alphabet

WASHINGTON — Unless the U.S. launches a national initiative on artificial intelligence and considers immigration changes, China is likely to eclipse America as the dominant force in AI, Google’s top executive warned Wednesday.

Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google parent company Alphabet and the chairman of the Pentagon’s Defense Innovation Board, said the U.S. needs to “get our act together” if it doesn’t want to fall behind on the technology that could determine the future of both the defense and commercial sectors.

In the last year, Beijing released a formal AI strategy, which Schmidt, speaking at an event organized by the Center for a New American Security, said should set alarm bells ringing in America.


“It’s pretty simple. By 2020, they will have caught up. By 2025, they will be better than us. By 2030, they will dominate the industries of AI,” Schmidt said, describing the plan. And, he added, Beijing is on track to meet that; the CEO predicts China will reach parity with the U.S. sometime in the next five years.

“They have announced their strategy, so you’re crazy to treat them as somehow second-class citizens,” Schmidt said of China. And if America thinks China “won’t produce people who can do this, you’re wrong.”

For the U.S., the only option is what Schmidt referred to as a Sputnik moment — a national movement to focus research efforts and funding on understanding this technology and maintaining a definitive technological edge. That means investing heavily into basic research, something Schmidt noted the Trump administration’s first budget cut, as compared to previous years.

“This is the moment where the government, collectively with private industry, needs to say these technologies are important,” he said. “If you believe this is as important as I suspect all of us do, and certainly I believe, then we need to get our act together as a country.”

While China is acting to strengthen its knowledge base, Schmidt warned that America is hamstringing itself thanks to tough immigration rules that block some of the world’s best and brightest from coming to the U.S.

“Shockingly, some of the very best people are in countries that we won’t let into America. Would you rather have them building AI somewhere else, or would you rather have them building here?” Schmidt said, echoing long-standing complaints from the tech community over immigration issues — complaints that have only gotten louder under the Trump administration.

“Iran produces some of the smartest and top computer scientists in the world,” Schmidt added. “I want them here! I want them working for Alphabet and Google. I’m very clear on this. It’s crazy not to let these people in.”

 

[TaiShang]

Fear-mongering.

China is a developing country, US is a superpower that sails and shows boots on each sqm of the planet earth (except independent states and their waters).

The US has early comer's advantage. The US has the best brains that it collect all over the world (except less and less from China).

Besides, the US has so many secret programs that even Google exec does not know of.

Very soon they will even dethrone China from the supercomputer throne.