China's Race for Artificial Intelligence (AI) Technology

[JSCh]

China Now Has the Most Valuable AI Startup in the World
Bloomberg News
April 9, 2018, 9:00 AM GMT+8

• It becomes the world’s richest-valued private AI startup
• The company drives China’s ambition to dominate global AI

SenseTime Group Ltd. has raised $600 million from Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and other investors at a valuation of more than $3 billion, becoming the world’s most valuable artificial intelligence startup.

The company, which specializes in systems that analyze faces and images on an enormous scale, said it closed a Series C round in recent months in which Singaporean state investment firm Temasek Holdings Pte and retailer Suning.com Co. also participated. SenseTime didn’t outline individual investments, but Alibaba was said to have sought the biggest stake in the three-year-old startup.

With the deal, SenseTime has doubled its valuation in a few months. Backed by Qualcomm Inc., it underscores its status as one of a crop of homegrown firms spearheading Beijing’s ambition to become the leader in AI by 2030. And it’s a contributor to the world’s biggest system of surveillance: if you’ve ever been photographed with a Chinese-made phone or walked the streets of a Chinese city, chances are your face has been digitally crunched by SenseTime software built into more than 100 million mobile devices.

The latest financing will bankroll investments in parallel fields such as autonomous driving and augmented reality, cover the growing cost of AI talent and shore up its computing power. It’s developing a service code-named “Viper” to parse data from thousands of live camera feeds -- a platform it hopes will prove invaluable in mass surveillance. And it’s already in talks to raise another round of funds and targeting a valuation of more than $4.5 billion, according to people familiar with the matter.

“We’re going to explore several new strategic directions and that’s why we shall spend more money on building infrastructure,” SenseTime co-founder Xu Li said in an interview. The company turned profitable in 2017 and wants to grow its workforce by a third to 2,000 by the end of this year. “For the past three years the average revenue growth has been 400 percent.”


China Now Has the Most Valuable AI Startup in the World - Bloomberg

 

[TaiShang]

China Now Has the Most Valuable AI Startup in the World
Bloomberg News
April 9, 2018, 9:00 AM GMT+8

• It becomes the world’s richest-valued private AI startup
• The company drives China’s ambition to dominate global AI

SenseTime Group Ltd. has raised $600 million from Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and other investors at a valuation of more than $3 billion, becoming the world’s most valuable artificial intelligence startup.

The company, which specializes in systems that analyze faces and images on an enormous scale, said it closed a Series C round in recent months in which Singaporean state investment firm Temasek Holdings Pte and retailer Suning.com Co. also participated. SenseTime didn’t outline individual investments, but Alibaba was said to have sought the biggest stake in the three-year-old startup.

With the deal, SenseTime has doubled its valuation in a few months. Backed by Qualcomm Inc., it underscores its status as one of a crop of homegrown firms spearheading Beijing’s ambition to become the leader in AI by 2030. And it’s a contributor to the world’s biggest system of surveillance: if you’ve ever been photographed with a Chinese-made phone or walked the streets of a Chinese city, chances are your face has been digitally crunched by SenseTime software built into more than 100 million mobile devices.

The latest financing will bankroll investments in parallel fields such as autonomous driving and augmented reality, cover the growing cost of AI talent and shore up its computing power. It’s developing a service code-named “Viper” to parse data from thousands of live camera feeds -- a platform it hopes will prove invaluable in mass surveillance. And it’s already in talks to raise another round of funds and targeting a valuation of more than $4.5 billion, according to people familiar with the matter.

“We’re going to explore several new strategic directions and that’s why we shall spend more money on building infrastructure,” SenseTime co-founder Xu Li said in an interview. The company turned profitable in 2017 and wants to grow its workforce by a third to 2,000 by the end of this year. “For the past three years the average revenue growth has been 400 percent.”


China Now Has the Most Valuable AI Startup in the World - Bloomberg

That's exactly the reason why the US regime has been raising shrill voice at China constantly. Their concern is not a trade imbalance (they would be happy if the imbalance is caused by China selling millions of plastic toys); the reason is China's development in advanced and frontier technologies.

 

[Jlaw]

That's exactly the reason why the US regime has been raising shrill voice at China constantly. Their concern is not a trade imbalance (they would be happy if the imbalance is caused by China selling millions of plastic toys); the reason is China's development in advanced and frontier technologies.

I think you're the right. The trade imbalance is just the smoke screen. The real reason is Rothschild controlled US banks want total control of Chinese banking sector as a way to control Chinese as they control America now.

 

[TaiShang]

I think you're the right. The trade imbalance is just the smoke screen. The real reason is Rothschild controlled US banks want total control of Chinese banking sector as a way to control Chinese as they control America now.

Well, then bad news, because China will never allow control over critical sectors such as telecommunication, finance and minerals.

The US can cry another Crimea river.

China can simply play the US internal politics, hurt some critical voter bases in the US, and indirectly effect policy decisions. And it seems this is what China has been doing.

No drama Obama.

 

[cirr]

从云科技（CloudWalk Technology Co.）is another AI unicorn with an estimted value of some 3 billion USD

http://www.cloudwalk.cn/

 

[cirr]

Employers put emphasis on hiring top AI talent

2018-04-09 13:57 China DailyEditor: Mo Hong'e

People visit the Baidu exhibition stand at the Light of the Internet Expo in Wuzhen, Zhejiang province. (Photo provided to China Daily)

In 2017, after 11 years of study in the United States, a period topped by a master's in computer science from Harvard University, Tang Yuhan, 26, decided to return to homeland China.

He said he was more than satisfied to join an artificial intelligence or AI startup in Beijing. AI, he said, helped realize his dream of being "a surfer riding the waves of China's new era".

"I already missed the chance to see how the internet reshaped the country in the past decades. I don't want to miss this," he said. "It's a technology that will be seen in every aspect of life in the future."

AI appeared in this year's Government Work Report for a second time. The report said China would strengthen research and applications of AI in fields like medical care, education, culture and sports.

Globally, too, AI is making waves, and creating a dire need for skilled professionals. There are only about 300,000 globally, while the demand is for more than 1 million AI professionals, according to a report released by the Tencent Research Institute and online recruitment platform Boss Zhipin in December.

Demand rose more than five times from 2015 to 2017 since a mass of companies began to enter this field, the report said.

According to local media reports that quoted government officials, China alone needs more than 5 million workers with AI skills in the future, to support the booming industry.

Tang, the Harvard graduate, said when he was searching for jobs last year, almost all big names of corporate China had sought to make campus placements, including Baidu Inc, which launched a new round of overseas recruitment from March to April, the golden months for job hunting.

It plans to search for talent in nine top universities in the US, to fill positions related to machine learning, data mining and computer vision algorithms, according to the company's recruitment advertisement.

However, according to Tang, though more than 70 percent of his classmates chose AI-related companies, only 10 percent came to China.

"Competition among AI companies has turned to a scramble for talent," said Liu Wanqian, CEO and founder of PlusAI, a startup specializing in autonomous driving. It boasts a road test license in California.

Liu said the company needs 50 to 100 new AI personnel every year, to take up jobs involving examination of driving conditions and development of automatic braking.

"Solid educational background in basic AI-related subjects, including mathematics, computer programming and statistics is a necessity," he said.

Liu did not share details about the salaries of his AI specialists, but said they are roughly 20 to 50 percent higher than that of traditional technicians.

According to recruitment website Zhaopin, Meituan Waimai, a food delivery firm, offers 20,000 yuan ($3,164) to 25,000 yuan per month to AI product managers.

For similar positions, Baidu provides a monthly salary ranging from 20,000 yuan to 30,000 yuan, according to Zhaopin.

Du Lan, senior vice-president of iFlytek Co Ltd, an AI company in China, said it trains former technicians to become new AI professionals.

About 48 percent of its 9,000 employees are researchers in fields such as intelligent voice recognition, machine learning and natural language understanding.

"Like water and electricity, AI will enter every industry and family in the future," she said. "China has already taken a leading role in many innovations of this technology."

In order to meet the growing demand, Du said an educational system is required covering primary schools to vocational schools and universities.

 

[terranMarine]

That's exactly the reason why the US regime has been raising shrill voice at China constantly. Their concern is not a trade imbalance (they would be happy if the imbalance is caused by China selling millions of plastic toys); the reason is China's development in advanced and frontier technologies.

So what does the US want to accomplish by focusing on the trade imbalance? How does this so called trade war have a direct link with the above news?

 

[TaiShang]

In 2017, after 11 years of study in the United States, a period topped by a master's in computer science from Harvard University, Tang Yuhan, 26, decided to return to homeland China.

He said he was more than satisfied to join an artificial intelligence or AI startup in Beijing. AI, he said, helped realize his dream of being "a surfer riding the waves of China's new era".

"I already missed the chance to see how the internet reshaped the country in the past decades. I don't want to miss this," he said. "It's a technology that will be seen in every aspect of life in the future."

Returnees are China's human resource reserves.

Similar phenomenon happened in Taiwan in the 1990s.

 

[cirr]

'Unmanned bank' makes debut in Shanghai

2018-04-11 10:57

chinaplus.cri.cn Editor: Gu Liping

A China Construction Bank branch on Kiukiang Road, Shanghai, is being touted as the first "unmanned bank" on the Chinese mainland with its opening on April 9, 2018, reports the Shanghai Observer.

Instead of being approached by human personnel, the bank foyer is staffed by a robot, which serves as the bank lobby manager, and is able to communicate with customers to meet their needs and solve their problems.

The difference between a traditional self-service bank and the unmanned bank is the intelligent self-service equipment which is able to access various banking services within the branch.

Customers at the Kiukiang CCB branch have access to video teller machines, currency exchange machines, as well as interactive services including Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality. The self-service equipment can handle over 90% of the cash and cashless services of a traditional bank.

However, despite the term "unmanned bank," the Kiukiang CCB branch does still maintain a human staff.

 

[TaiShang]

China’s AI talent strategy: domestic boom, international lure

(People's Daily Online) April 12, 2018

Sourcing skilled researchers remains a major bottleneck in the global advancement of AI. This holds even true for China, a country that vows to become a leading AI power by 2030. Progressing at a dizzying pace, China’s AI industry has now entered a battle of top-tier AI talents, with a focus on AI education and international brain gain.

According to the AI Innovation Action Plan for Colleges and Universities, which was issued by China’s Ministry of Education in April, Chinese colleges and universities will become the world frontiers in AI and a hotbed for AI talents by 2030, while 50 world class AI textbooks, 50 national-level high quality online AI courses and 50 AI research centers will be established by 2020.

As for introducing foreign talents, Zhongguancun, China’s AI hub in Beijing, has offered permanent residence to 258 foreigners since 2016, a generous number for a country that has one of the world’s strictest immigration policies.

“It is a common sense that artificial intelligence will be the key technology that underpins national power in the future, and the future of AI lies in skilled talents and enormous data,” said Aron Niu, a Beijing-based AI researcher.

Talent growth

Boasting the world’s largest internet market with over 700 million web users, China’s AI industry is uncharacteristically low in talents. According to a report released by LinkedIn, of the 1.9 million AI talents in the world, China only accounts for just over 50,000 of them, while the U.S., which tops the rankings, has an AI talent pool of 850,000 individuals.

Seeing AI as the country’s innovation focus, China in 2017 issued the New Generation Artificial Intelligence Development Plan, in which it listed accelerating the education of top-notch AI talents as a primary task.

“We hope to cultivate our own scientists, engineers and entrepreneurs in the field of AI, making them the top-notch experts worldwide. China’s AI development needs more scientists, but skilled engineers are also important,” Zheng Nanning, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, told Science and Technology Daily.

The government’s focus on AI education has paid off. In 2017, 19 Chinese universities have added AI engineering as a new major for their undergraduate students, while the number is expected to reach 50 over the next two years.

In addition to professional education, AI classes have also entered elementaries and middle schools in China. According to China’s AI report in 2017, more AI-related coding courses will be set up at the elementary and secondary school levels over the next decade, helping the public better understand AI technologies.

“The governments’ emphasis on AI education will encourage more students to choose AI as their major, leading to a significant rise in the number of AI researchers and engineers in China,” said Niu.

Talents grab

While cultivating its own talents, China has also been making effort to lure skilled AI researchers and engineers worldwide. According to Reuters, China’s Zhongguancun now has 10 overseas liaison offices designed to attract tech talents in countries like the U.S. and Finland, favorable policies, such as allowing foreign professionals to bring in their own foreign maids, currently illegal in Beijing, are also being discussed further.

The amount of public funding available to researchers and competitive salaries might be a major factor that makes China an attractive place for top-tier AI talents. China received about 180 billion yuan ($28 billion) of investment and financing in the field of AI in 2017, vowing to bring the value of core AI industries to more than one trillion yuan by 2030.

“As a senior engineer, my salary before tax has reached 40,000 yuan per month, which is quite lucrative even for engineers in western countries,” said Niu.

The favorable policy and abundant investment has led to more foreign AI talents to China. According to LinkedIn, there are around 140,000 Chinese AI technical talents worldwide, with half of them working in the U.S, but the number of such individuals returning to China has been on the rise. From 2013 to 2016, the number of returnees who have overseas work experience grew by 10 percent every year.

http://en.people.cn/n3/2018/0412/c90000-9448828.html

 

[cirr]

Adaptive learning boosted by AI tech

2018-04-12 14:24 chinadaily.com.cn Editor: Mo Hong'e

Li Haoyang, founder of Yixue Education, a Chinese education company focused on adaptive learning, delivers a speech on AI education in Beijing on April 11. (Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn)

Adaptive learning is expected to become the next frontier of AI education and will revolutionize traditional ways of learning and teaching in China, industry experts said on Wednesday.

"Adaptive learning, enabled by artificial intelligence, builds a huge system based on big data to know students' exact weaknesses and helps them to improve," said Richard Tong, former senior implementation architect of Knewton, a US leading adaptive learning company.

He noted it's different from some AI education products in the market, as it is not a tool which only turns offline class teaching to online.

"It leverages advanced technologies to change from teacher-centered to student-centered to help students really improve their efficiency," he added.

He made the remarks at a global summit on intelligent adaptive learning co-held by Shanghai Yixue Education Technology Co Ltd, a Chinese education company focused on adaptive learning.

The company has developed an AI-enabled system to divide knowledge into small tailor-made chunks, so students can focus on their weaknesses instead of wasting time on what they have already mastered.

"We are now scrambling to divide knowledge points by learning abilities to help students not only grasp the knowledge point itself, but more importantly, the abilities that will indeed help them in the future," said Li Haoyang, founder of Yixue Education.

According to Li, the company is ramping up efforts to build a huge AI-enabled system in hopes of making a breakthrough globally in the segment.

Yixue's smart teaching has spawned success in China, with its paid users exceeding 100,000 across more than 20 provinces. The latest company data showed its total revenue surpassed 300 million yuan ($48 million) last year, 10 times that of the previous year.

The company has raised 270 million yuan from the country's two education giants TAL Education Group and New Oriental Education & Technology Group Inc, as well as the SIG Asia Investment Fund.

"When we invest in an AI education company, we pay attention to its ability to develop content, apply advanced technologies and operate educational services," said Wang Qiong, co-founder of SIG Asia Investment Fund. "It's these three factors that drove us to invest in Yixue Education."

"AI education is a promising field, as it doesn't use a traditional method and breaks current bottlenecks in the education segment," she added.

She added that compared with giants in the field, small education startups can focus on education business, which deserve more investment.

http://www.ecns.cn/2018/04-12/298915.shtml

 

[onebyone]

https://www.facebook.com/

 

[Mohrenn]

That's exactly the reason why the US regime has been raising shrill voice at China constantly. Their concern is not a trade imbalance (they would be happy if the imbalance is caused by China selling millions of plastic toys); the reason is China's development in advanced and frontier technologies.

I remember very well the times when you could read in every "serious" newspaper like The New York Time etc how China was unable to have any kind of innovation because of *Insert made up semi-racist sociological argument*.

What a bunch of sad losers, completely unable to see past their noses. Oh well, at least it makes things easier.

 

[cirr]

China pushes artificial intelligence education in colleges

2018-04-13 09:58 Global Times Editor: Li Yan

China pushes artificial intelligence education in colleges, to train 5,000 students

Artificial intelligence (AI) could become another popular major in China's college and universities, experts predicted, after an education ministry working plan was released to encourage the cultivation of AI talent in higher educational institutions.

The notice, announced on April 3, encourages colleges and universities to explore engineering courses that integrate AI with other subjects such as computer science, mathematics, statistics, physics, biology, psychology, sociology and law, and to train innovative people.

According to the plan, 100 special majors that combine AI and other subjects and 50 AI colleges and research institutes or interdisciplinary research centers will be set up by 2020.

"AI will be the trend during the next 30 to 50 years. For students who have an interest in related fields such as mathematics, biology and data analysis, AI should be an important subject worth their study and effort," Zuo Shiquan, head of the equipment manufacturing research institute under the China Center for Information Industry Development, told the Global Times on Thursday.

Experts also noted that the AI education should also include courses on ethical issues involving AI, so that the advanced technology will not develop out of control and harm society.

Colleges focusing on research and development in AI technology have been set up in several universities in China, such as Xidian University, Chongqing University of Posts and Telecommunications, National University of Defense Technology and Nanjing University.

An AI top talent experimental class has been set up in Xi'an Jiaotong University in Northwest China's Shaanxi Province, an enrollment official from the university told the Global Times on Thursday.

Peking University launched an AI talent international training program, supported by the Ministry of Education and Innovation Works, a Beijing-based incubator platform, on April 3.

The program plans to invite national and international experts as instructors and provide training for 100 teachers and 300 students in 2018, and 500 teachers and 5,000 students within five years.

The Boao Forum for Asia in South China's Hainan Province held a sub-forum Wednesday to discuss what the AI revolution means to human society and how the technology will improve people's lives.

"In the next five to 10 years, a growing number of companies will pay more attention to AI as they did on the internet 10 years ago. AI technology is deeply integrated in every industry," chinanews.com reported, citing Zhu Guang, Baidu senior vice president.

http://www.ecns.cn/2018/04-13/299004.shtml

 

[TaiShang]

Adaptive learning boosted by AI tech

By Cheng Yu | chinadaily.com.cn | Updated: 2018-04-12

Li Haoyang, founder of Yixue Education, a Chinese education company focused on adaptive learning, delivers a speech on AI education in Beijing on April 11. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Adaptive learning is expected to become the next frontier of AI education and will revolutionize traditional ways of learning and teaching in China, industry experts said on Wednesday.

"Adaptive learning, enabled by artificial intelligence, builds a huge system based on big data to know students' exact weaknesses and helps them to improve," said Richard Tong, former senior implementation architect of Knewton, a US leading adaptive learning company.

He noted it's different from some AI education products in the market, as it is not a tool which only turns offline class teaching to online.

"It leverages advanced technologies to change from teacher-centered to student-centered to help students really improve their efficiency," he added.

He made the remarks at a global summit on intelligent adaptive learning co-held by Shanghai Yixue Education Technology Co Ltd, a Chinese education company focused on adaptive learning.

The company has developed an AI-enabled system to divide knowledge into small tailor-made chunks, so students can focus on their weaknesses instead of wasting time on what they have already mastered.

"We are now scrambling to divide knowledge points by learning abilities to help students not only grasp the knowledge point itself, but more importantly, the abilities that will indeed help them in the future," said Li Haoyang, founder of Yixue Education.

According to Li, the company is ramping up efforts to build a huge AI-enabled system in hopes of making a breakthrough globally in the segment.

Yixue's smart teaching has spawned success in China, with its paid users exceeding 100,000 across more than 20 provinces. The latest company data showed its total revenue surpassed 300 million yuan ($48 million) last year, 10 times that of the previous year.

The company has raised 270 million yuan from the country's two education giants TAL Education Group and New Oriental Education & Technology Group Inc, as well as the SIG Asia Investment Fund.

"When we invest in an AI education company, we pay attention to its ability to develop content, apply advanced technologies and operate educational services," said Wang Qiong, co-founder of SIG Asia Investment Fund. "It's these three factors that drove us to invest in Yixue Education."

"AI education is a promising field, as it doesn't use a traditional method and breaks current bottlenecks in the education segment," she added.

She added that compared with giants in the field, small education startups can focus on education business, which deserve more investment.

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/201804/12/WS5acee9efa3105cdcf6517da5.html