China's Race for Artificial Intelligence (AI) Technology

[JSCh]

China Focus: China-developed AI helps assess brain injury patients
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-02 21:02:00|Editor: Li Xia

by Xinhua writer Yuan Quan

BEIJNG, Sept. 2 (Xinhua) -- Chinese researchers and doctors have built an artificial intelligence (AI) model with medical imaging to help determine whether patients with severe brain damage might regain consciousness.

Severe brain injury can lead to disorders of consciousness (DOC). Some patients can recover from an acute brain injury, but others fall into chronic DOC, also known as a vegetative state. They cannot communicate or act consciously.

China has more than 500,000 patients with chronic DOC caused by brain trauma, stroke, and other brain diseases, with 70,000 to 100,000 new cases each year. Most patients remain bedridden, and require laborious care, bringing great stress and heavy costs to their families.

Most doctors assess the chances of recovery according to three main indicators: the patient's age, the cause and the duration of the disorder. Studies have shown that patients with traumatic brain injury have a higher likelihood of recovery than those with non-traumatic brain injury, and young patients are more likely to have a favorable outcome than older ones.

Doctors also observe patients' actions, with tests such as clapping hands or tracking eyes, to find any evidence of awareness.

However, behavioral assessments are subjective and vulnerable to personal interpretation. For doctors, a lack of experience, poor training or ignorance of a patient's other health problems can give rise to misjudgments, said Song Ming, lead researcher of the study.

Researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, along with doctors from PLA Army General Hospital and General Hospital of Guangzhou Military Command, over five years developed an AI model, which can make an assessment based on images of brain functional networks.

"When a brain functions, multiple brain regions are involved, and they form a network, working together. Like two mobile phones, though no actual wire links them, they have a functional connection when people make a phone call," said Song.

To study the brain functions of DOC patients, resting state functional MRI (fMRI), a medical imaging technique, has been widely used in recent years. Through MRI scanning, Song and his research team have found typical features seen in the brain functional networks of DOC patients, which can be biomarkers to trace the level of consciousness and predict the possibility of recovery.

To train the AI, developers fed it tens of thousands of brain images of 63 DOC patients at least one month after their brain injury.

The model diagnosed patients who would recover consciousness and those who would not with an accuracy of 88 percent in 100 cases.

The research was recently published in the international journal eLife.

Reviewers of the journal were impressed by the sample size used in the paper, but Song thought more data was still needed to confirm the validity and reliability of the model.

"We believe the model can make an accurate assessment and might help families of DOC patients understand the outcomes in advance and make an informed decision," said Song.

It is not the first AI technology to help doctors. In June, a Beijing hospital made headlines after unveiling an AI system that can diagnose brain tumors and forecast hematoma expansion faster and more accurately than doctors.

Song thought most research and applications focused on diseases that can be observed by doctors through medical images.

In this study, doctors cannot see directly the brain functional network and its relevance to DOC.

"Thus, the model also provides a new clue to understand the disease," said Song.

 

[cirr]

Microsoft Considering Huawei AI Chips In Blow To NVIDIA: Report

September 5, 2018 - Written By Dominik Bosnjak

Microsoft is presently considering using new artificial intelligence chips from Huawei in a number of its data centers, potentially making a major infrastructure change that would effectively deal a significant blow to NVIDIA, The Information reports, citing sources familiar with the matter. The talks between the two are said to be at an early stage and no definitive agreement has been reached, with both involved parties offering no comments on the revelation.

Microsoft’s data centers tasked with machine learning processing and general AI computing predominantly rely on NVIDIA-made GPUs and the Redmond, Washington-based juggernaut has no interest in replacing the entirety of that hardware for the time being, insiders claim. Instead, the currently ongoing talks between Microsoft and Huawei are understood to be pertaining to the former’s data centers in China. Huawei’s home country houses a number of Microsoft’s data centers, with more being likely to open in the near future. Microsoft repeatedly pointed to AI technologies as the backbone of its long-term strategy and already uses such solutions in a wide variety of products and services, ranging from digital assistants and communication platforms to infrastructure management and Bing’s search algorithms.

Huawei believes its new chip that’s already being sampled can replace NVIDIA’s GPUs but has been tasked with modifying its solutions in order to comply with Microsoft’s performance requirements. Last week, Huawei’s subsidiary HiSilicon unveiled a consumer-facing chip for smartphones in the form of the Kirin 980, with that particular silicon boasting two neural processing unit for on-device AI, twice as many as last year’s Kirin 970. A potential partnership with Huawei revolving around data center technologies could put Microsoft at odds with Washington. As evidenced by the example of Google, U.S. lawmakers are taking issues with American companies collaborating with Chinese firms on what they deem are critical technologies, with the last clash between Capitol Hill and Alphabet’s subsidiary being prompted by widespread reports that a censored Google Search engine is on its way to China.

https://www.androidheadlines.com/20...huawei-ai-chips-in-blow-to-nvidia-report.html

 

[TaiShang]

Microsoft is presently considering using new artificial intelligence chips from Huawei in a number of its data centers, potentially making a major infrastructure change that would effectively deal a significant blow to NVIDIA, The Information reports, citing sources familiar with the matter.

True MAGA! Work with the best.

 

[JSCh]

The 4 Waves of AI: Who Will Own the Future of Technology?
By Peter H. Diamandis, MD Sep 07, 2018

Recently, I picked up Kai-Fu Lee’s newest book, AI Superpowers.

Kai-Fu Lee is one of the most plugged-in AI investors on the planet, managing over $2 billion between six funds and over 300 portfolio companies in the US and China.

Drawing from his pioneering work in AI, executive leadership at Microsoft, Apple, and Google (where he served as founding president of Google China), and his founding of VC fund Sinovation Ventures, Lee shares invaluable insights about:

1. The four factors driving today’s AI ecosystems;
2. China’s extraordinary inroads in AI implementation;
3. Where autonomous systems are headed;
4. How we’ll need to adapt.

With a foothold in both Beijing and Silicon Valley, Lee looks at the power balance between Chinese and US tech behemoths—each turbocharging new applications of deep learning and sweeping up global markets in the process.

In this post, I’ll be discussing Lee’s “Four Waves of AI,” an excellent framework for discussing where AI is today and where it’s going. I’ll also be featuring some of the hottest Chinese tech companies leading the charge, worth watching right now.

I’m super excited that this Tuesday, I’ve scored the opportunity to sit down with Kai-Fu Lee to discuss his book in detail via a webinar.

With Sino-US competition heating up, who will own the future of technology?

Let’s dive in.

The First Wave: Internet AI
In this first stage of AI deployment, we’re dealing primarily with recommendation engines—algorithmic systems that learn from masses of user data to curate online content personalized to each one of us.

Think Amazon’s spot-on product recommendations, or that “Up Next” YouTube video you just have to watch before getting back to work, or Facebook ads that seem to know what you’ll buy before you do.

Powered by the data flowing through our networks, internet AI leverages the fact that users automatically label data as we browse. Clicking versus not clicking; lingering on a web page longer than we did on another; hovering over a Facebook video to see what happens at the end.

These cascades of labeled data build a detailed picture of our personalities, habits, demands, and desires: the perfect recipe for more tailored content to keep us on a given platform.

Currently, Lee estimates that Chinese and American companies stand head-to-head when it comes to deployment of internet AI. But given China’s data advantage, he predicts that Chinese tech giants will have a slight lead (60-40) over their US counterparts in the next five years.

While you’ve most definitely heard of Alibaba and Baidu, you’ve probably never stumbled upon Toutiao.

Starting out as a copycat of America’s wildly popular Buzzfeed, Toutiao reached a valuation of $20 billion by 2017, dwarfing Buzzfeed’s valuation by more than a factor of 10. But with almost 120 million daily active users, Toutiao doesn’t just stop at creating viral content.

Equipped with natural-language processing and computer vision, Toutiao’s AI engines survey a vast network of different sites and contributors, rewriting headlines to optimize for user engagement, and processing each user’s online behavior—clicks, comments, engagement time—to curate individualized news feeds for millions of consumers.

And as users grow more engaged with Toutiao’s content, the company’s algorithms get better and better at recommending content, optimizing headlines, and delivering a truly personalized feed.

It’s this kind of positive feedback loop that fuels today’s AI giants surfing the wave of internet AI.

The Second Wave: Business AI
While internet AI takes advantage of the fact that netizens are constantly labeling data via clicks and other engagement metrics, business AI jumps on the data that traditional companies have already labeled in the past.

Think banks issuing loans and recording repayment rates; hospitals archiving diagnoses, imaging data, and subsequent health outcomes; or courts noting conviction history, recidivism, and flight.

While we humans make predictions based on obvious root causes (strong features), AI algorithms can process thousands of weakly correlated variables (weak features) that may have much more to do with a given outcome than the usual suspects.

By scouting out hidden correlations that escape our linear cause-and-effect logic, business AI leverages labeled data to train algorithms that outperform even the most veteran of experts.

Apply these data-trained AI engines to banking, insurance, and legal sentencing, and you get minimized default rates, optimized premiums, and plummeting recidivism rates.

While Lee confidently places America in the lead (90-10) for business AI, China’s substantial lag in structured industry data could actually work in its favor going forward.

In industries where Chinese startups can leapfrog over legacy systems, China has a major advantage.

Take Chinese app Smart Finance, for instance.

While Americans embraced credit and debit cards in the 1970s, China was still in the throes of its Cultural Revolution, largely missing the bus on this technology.

Fast forward to 2017, and China’s mobile payment spending outnumbered that of Americans’ by a ratio of 50 to 1. Without the competition of deeply entrenched credit cards, mobile payments were an obvious upgrade to China’s cash-heavy economy, embraced by 70 percent of China’s 753 million smartphone users by the end of 2017.

But by leapfrogging over credit cards and into mobile payments, China largely left behind the notion of credit.

And here’s where Smart Finance comes in.

An AI-powered app for microfinance, Smart Finance depends almost exclusively on its algorithms to make millions of microloans. For each potential borrower, the app simply requests access to a portion of the user’s phone data.

On the basis of variables as subtle as your typing speed and battery percentage, Smart Finance can predict with astounding accuracy your likelihood of repaying a $300 loan.

Such deployments of business AI and internet AI are already revolutionizing our industries and individual lifestyles. But still on the horizon lie two even more monumental waves— perception AI and autonomous AI.

The Third Wave: Perception AI
In this wave, AI gets an upgrade with eyes, ears, and myriad other senses, merging the digital world with our physical environments.

As sensors and smart devices proliferate through our homes and cities, we are on the verge of entering a trillion-sensor economy.

Companies like China’s Xiaomi are putting out millions of IoT-connected devices, and teams of researchers have already begun prototyping smart dust—solar cell- and sensor-geared particulates that can store and communicate troves of data anywhere, anytime.

As Kai-Fu explains, perception AI “will bring the convenience and abundance of the online world into our offline reality.” Sensor-enabled hardware devices will turn everything from hospitals to cars to schools into online-merge-offline (OMO) environments.

Imagine walking into a grocery store, scanning your face to pull up your most common purchases, and then picking up a virtual assistant (VA) shopping cart. Having pre-loaded your data, the cart adjusts your usual grocery list with voice input, reminds you to get your spouse’s favorite wine for an upcoming anniversary, and guides you through a personalized store route.

While we haven’t yet leveraged the full potential of perception AI, China and the US are already making incredible strides. Given China’s hardware advantage, Lee predicts China currently has a 60-40 edge over its American tech counterparts.

Now the go-to city for startups building robots, drones, wearable technology, and IoT infrastructure, Shenzhen has turned into a powerhouse for intelligent hardware, as I discussed last week. Turbocharging output of sensors and electronic parts via thousands of factories, Shenzhen’s skilled engineers can prototype and iterate new products at unprecedented scale and speed.

With the added fuel of Chinese government support and a relaxed Chinese attitude toward data privacy, China’s lead may even reach 80-20 in the next five years.

Jumping on this wave are companies like Xiaomi, which aims to turn bathrooms, kitchens, and living rooms into smart OMO environments. Having invested in 220 companies and incubated 29 startups that produce its products, Xiaomi surpassed 85 millionintelligent home devices by the end of 2017, making it the world’s largest network of these connected products.

One KFC restaurant in China has even teamed up with Alipay (Alibaba’s mobile payments platform) to pioneer a ‘pay-with-your-face’ feature. Forget cash, cards, and cell phones, and let OMO do the work.

The Fourth Wave: Autonomous AI
But the most monumental—and unpredictable—wave is the fourth and final: autonomous AI.

Integrating all previous waves, autonomous AI gives machines the ability to sense and respond to the world around them, enabling AI to move and act productively.

While today’s machines can outperform us on repetitive tasks in structured and even unstructured environments (think Boston Dynamics’ humanoid Atlas or oncoming autonomous vehicles), machines with the power to see, hear, touch and optimize data will be a whole new ballgame.

Think: swarms of drones that can selectively spray and harvest entire farms with computer vision and remarkable dexterity, heat-resistant drones that can put out forest fires 100X more efficiently, or Level 5 autonomous vehicles that navigate smart roads and traffic systems all on their own.

While autonomous AI will first involve robots that create direct economic value—automating tasks on a one-to-one replacement basis—these intelligent machines will ultimately revamp entire industries from the ground up.

Kai-Fu Lee currently puts America in a commanding lead of 90-10 in autonomous AI, especially when it comes to self-driving vehicles. But Chinese government efforts are quickly ramping up the competition.

Already in China’s Zhejiang province, highway regulators and government officials have plans to build China’s first intelligent superhighway, outfitted with sensors, road-embedded solar panels and wireless communication between cars, roads and drivers.

Aimed at increasing transit efficiency by up to 30 percent while minimizing fatalities, the project may one day allow autonomous electric vehicles to continuously charge as they drive.

A similar government-fueled project involves Beijing’s new neighbor Xiong’an. Projected to take in over $580 billion in infrastructure spending over the next 20 years, Xiong’an New Area could one day become the world’s first city built around autonomous vehicles.

Baidu is already working with Xiong’an’s local government to build out this AI city with an environmental focus. Possibilities include sensor-geared cement, computer vision-enabled traffic lights, intersections with facial recognition, and parking lots-turned parks.

Lastly, Lee predicts China will almost certainly lead the charge in autonomous drones. Already, Shenzhen is home to premier drone maker DJI—a company I’ll be visiting with 24 top executives later this month as part of my annual China Platinum Trip.

Named “the best company I have ever encountered” by Chris Anderson, DJI owns an estimated 50 percent of the North American drone market, supercharged by Shenzhen’s extraordinary maker movement.

While the long-term Sino-US competitive balance in fourth wave AI remains to be seen, one thing is certain: in a matter of decades, we will witness the rise of AI-embedded cityscapes and autonomous machines that can interact with the real world and help solve today’s most pressing grand challenges.



The 4 Waves of AI: Who Will Own the Future of Technology? | SingularityHub

 

[JSCh]

Opinion: China is surging ahead in cancer treatment R&D, especially through AI
Li Xing
2018-09-17 12:28 GMT+8

Editor's note: Li Xing is the CEO and founder of Deep Intelligent Pharma Co., Ltd. The article reflects the author's opinions, and not necessarily the views of CGTN.

Recent years saw the accelerated pace of research and innovation in cancer treatment, and CAR-T (Chimeric Antigen Receptor T-Cell Immunotherapy) became the focus of increased attention in 2017.

Statistics show that 143 CAR-T studies have been conducted in the United States, while 141 CAR-T related researches have been done in China, gradually making the country world's first echelon in CAR-T research.

CAR-T has become one of the few areas in which China can compete with western countries in medical research and development (R&D).

Recently, nine companies including JW Therapeutics, Fosun Kite Biotechnology, CARsgen Therapeutics, HRAIN Biotechnology, Genor Biopharma have established the Immune Cell Therapy Alliance of Shanghai (iCTAS).

A technician conducting an experiment in the National Gene Center, Hefei, China, July 18, 2018 /VCG Photo.

It can be foreseen that small companies that want to make quick money cannot survive in the CAR-T field in the future, while the "regular armies" can survive which have scientific strength, research data, production capacity, and capital.

The CAR-T collaboration between Janssen Biotech, Inc. and Legend Biotech last year can be seen as a microcosm of the rise of Chinese cell therapy. Geographically speaking, North America and East Asia are the two major centers of global cell therapy.

The United States and China have the biggest number of cell therapy R&D in the world, and the total number of the two countries account for three-quarter of the global cell therapy R&D.

On October 28, 2016, China entered the history books as the first country ever to use the revolutionary CRISPR gene-editing technology on humans.

Britain's Dakota Clarke after regaining her sight post two-year long revolutionary stem cell treatment in China, February 2009 /VCG Photo.

In addition, China's emerging artificial intelligence (AI)-driven new drug R&D has also provided the country with a good opportunity to get ahead in the race of emerging cancer treatment technologies and drug development.

The AI-driven super brain can calculate with huge computational power, integrate global databases, learn the hidden rules, drug design and optimization, and even design drugs from scratch.

AI can not only play a role in the early stages of drug discovery but also shorten the drug clinical development cycle, thus bringing good drugs to market at an early date. This is a historic opportunity. If China catches this fast train, the future is very promising.

 

[JSCh]

AI Algorithm Is High Point of Chinese AI Congress 2018
MIAO QI
DATE: MON, 09/17/2018 - 15:20 / SOURCE:YICAI

AI Algorithm Is High Point of Chinese AI Congress 2018​

(Yicai Global) Sept. 17 -- Evolutionary algorithms and solutions and their practical applications really stole the show from the eye-catching driverless vehicles, drones and robots at the 2018 World Artificial Intelligence Conference, Yicai Global noted when exploring the exhibition area prior to today’s opening in Shanghai.

Technologies which usually hide behind the scenes also came out on stage at the two-day event.

At over 10 million per day, the city’s subway ridership is massive, Cai Feng, the Shanghai Shentong Metro Group guide, told Yicai Global in front of a big real-time data display in the mass transit company’s display.

Shanghai’s subway has equipped 70 percent of trains with instant failure report mechanisms, uploading and relaying all real-time train conditions to the control center for timely decisions and solutions, Cai said.

“Failure feedbacks used to take over 10 minutes at a minimum, but now they are instantaneous, thus reducing failure handling time,” Cai said.

Shentong Metro Group released its payment app in May. It lets passengers enter stations by scanning a code with their smartphones. Riders now no longer need to line up for tickets as the app allows electronic payments.

This is China’s first real-time QR code. It imposes high requirements for connections and QR code algorithms. The app has enrolled 7.4 million real name registered users three months after its release, or 20 percent of passengers, Cai told Yicai Global.

At another stand, Shanghai Electric Vehicle Public Data Collecting, Monitoring and Research Center’s (SHEVDC) Big Data platform having achieved real-time monitoring, was displaying actual new energy vehicles running on the road.

“The application platform refreshes every 30 seconds. Look, the current NEV traffic count is 25,788. We have linked about 200,000 NEVs to this platform, covering all of Shanghai’s,” Zhang Wenjie, the SHEVDC’s senior project manager, told Yicai Global.

Each car’s data is embedded directly at the finished vehicle assembly plant. The system can use these data to instantly calculate the NEVs’ charge levels, helping authorities to direct and manage them, Zhang said.

 

[JSCh]

Hype vs reality: AI development discussed at Shanghai conference
Gong Zhe
2018-09-18 11:50 GMT+8

Many much-hyped AI functions need more than five years to become reality, said Phil Todd, managing vice president of US research firm Gartner.

The hype cycle

He showed a graph representing the "AI hype cycle," to separate the reality from the hype.

The graph was updated in July 2018 to represent the latest status.

Phil Todd explains the AI Hype Cycle at WAIC in Shanghai, August 17, 2018. /CGTN Photo

In Gartner's view, we will only be sitting in autonomous vehicles a decade later despite the huge amount of news reports showing progress.

But AI based speech recognition will be widely used before 2020.

Many AI-based technologies, though much anticipated, may need another five years to see actual application. These techs include AI governance, augmented reality, smart robots, graph analytics and many others.

The industry map

The same conclusion was also drawn by the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT). Head of the academy Liu Duo introduced an update to its "Global AI Industry Map," saying AI industry is still far from matured.

"Although major countries are putting big efforts into the AI sector, only technologies like speech recognition and machine vision is maturing fast to reach practical level," she said.

A part of the Global AI Industry Map, version 2.0 /CGTN Photo

A part of the Global AI Industry Map, version 2.0 /CGTN Photo

With that said, the future for AI is as promising as the hype indicated.

"As we all know, AI needs three things to develop: Chips, algorithms and data. These three things are getting massive now," she told the audience.

The yearly growth rate of data used for deep learning will be 24 percent in the next decade. And many companies, especially those in Europe and Asia, are trying hard to develop faster chips and algorithms to process those precious data.

Watch the WAIC 2018 exhibition and get amazed by latest AI products​

China vs. US?

After the breakout of the China-US trade war, the world has been paying much attention to the AI sector of the two countries.

Is China leading the world AI development instead of the US? Which country will eventually gain dominance in the sector?

Gartner's Phil Todd told reporters at the conference these are not the right questions.

"The development of AI is not a competition between countries. It's a global co-op," he explained.

"The trend of globalization is obvious," added CAICT's Liu Duo.

So what are the right questions to ask then? Liu Duo said, "We may need to pay more attention on how the general public view AI."

"There are a lot of ethical problems we need to solve for AI development. It's too early to draw any conclusions around how should we regulate AI in the future. But we have to start the discussion now," she told CGTN.

"From my point of view, it's dangerous if humans failed to meet a proper consensus before AI is widely applied."

(Cover photo from VCG)

 

[TaiShang]

Visual AI technology to shine in 2018,
China leads in facial recognition

By Li Xuanmin Source:Global Times Published: 2018/3/29

China leading the way in facial recognition sector

High-speed train passengers have their faces scanned at the barrier gates of a station in East China's Zhejiang Province so they can enter. Photo: VCG

Endless queues and long waits at the ticket inspection desks at China's major train stations were signature of the Spring Festival travel rush before this year. Every year, as the country's biggest national holiday unfolded, a huge flow of travelers would leave staff at the check-in desks feeling swamped.

But with the installment of artificial intelligence (AI) in dozens of train stations this year, including a facial recognition system which is able to process passenger identification within five seconds and therefore speed up the waiting process, busy scenes started to become something of the past.

When a passenger approaches the camera inside the facial recognition system at the station, it scans their face and then quickly compares it to the photograph shown on their identification card in real time. If the information matches, the barrier gates will open and allow the passenger to go through.

Such use of facial recognition technology is in line with discussions heard at the recent two sessions meeting, a key annual political event, which focused on the widespread application of a security network named Tianwang ("Sky Net" in English) currently being used by China's public security department.

The network, according to reports by the People's Daily, has the potential to recognize the facial features of anyone in the world and match them on the spot with photographs on a database of criminal suspects. In fact, it can analyze photographic identity so quickly that it can scan every single Chinese face on the planet in just one second, and it would only take two seconds to scan every face in the world, with an accuracy rate of up to 99.8 percent.

Those are just two examples that highlight the development of Chinese visual AI technology, which industry insiders predict could contribute to robust growth in the global technology sector this year.

Growing trend

"The year 2018 will mark a fast-track year in facial recognition technology, whose speed of growth is likely to override other AI sectors including robotics, voice recognition and natural language processing," Yang Yuxin, the vice president of Beijing-based operating system provider Thundersoft Software Technology Co, told the Global Times on Wednesday.

An industry report published on news website sohu.com in March echoed Yang's prediction by summarizing the financing of China's AI start-ups and concluding that the computer vision and image analysis sector has been the "hottest" destination for domestic investors lately.

The sector has even topped the country's investment list with a financing amount of 14.3 billion yuan ($2.27 billion), representing 23 percent of the total funds flowing into the global AI industry.

One of the reasons behind the popularity of AI-powered visual technology is the wide range of scenarios in which it can be applied, making it easier for investors to "envision a bright business prospect and quickly capitalize on their investment," Yang explained.

Security is just one of many areas where visual technology is being applied. In addition to targeting consumers, AI start-ups have already started to tailor their visual technology services to domestic companies focused on such technology as unmanned vehicle-makers and manufacturing.

For example, Thundersoft has partnered with local factories to facilitate the application of AI visual technology in production lines so as to maintain quality control and supervise the production environment, Yang said. The move has helped manufacturers reduce labor costs and improve efficiency.
Lu Feng, an industry analyst at Beijing-based consultancy firm CCID Consulting, also underscored the trend of combing AI visual technology with 2018's emerging industries, for example, the new retail sector.

In unmanned supermarkets, which are part of the new retail concept, visual technology can help capture and analyze consumer behavior, through which, companies can improve their store's setting and displays to attract more buyers. Adopting a facial recognition system could also prevent shoplifting and help analyze consumer data.

With market players deeming those technologies as promising, they have in turn pumped up the number of start-ups in the sector. Currently, there are 146 visual AI technology companies in China, the biggest number of any type of AI firm across the country, the news report by sohu.com showed.

But analysts do not expect all those start-ups to thrive.

"I think an industry reshuffle will take place next year… the clock is ticking and visual AI start-ups that focus on researching basic algorithms should scramble to find applications, otherwise their capital pool will dry out in 2019," Yang noted.

M&A in Europe

Taking into account the abovementioned scenarios and China's large amount of data, the nation has an edge over US rivals in terms of AI visual technology application. However, in terms of the industry's foundation, such as basic theory and algorithms, domestic companies are still catching up with the standards set by foreign competitors, Lu noted.

But recent mergers and acquisitions (M&A) inked between Thundersoft and European peers may offer some insight into Chinese companies that are aiming to introduce cutting-edged AI technologies.

Thundersoft, for example, announced on Thursday that it has acquired Bulgarian software provider MM Solutions AD (MMS) in a deal worth 31 million euros ($38.16 million).

"Acquiring MMS will largely reduce the time we take to achieve new technological breakthroughs, which in turn will elevate our technological competitiveness… It's like strengthening our innovation ability through external dynamics," Zhao Hongfei, CEO of Thundersoft, said.

In a similar move, Thundersoft also acquired Finnish auto software maker Rightward for $68 million in December 2016.

Asked why Thundersoft has been eyeing European firms recently, Yang explained that compared with the US, European AI start-ups can be seen as "unexploited gold mines" with long-term business prospects and market competitive M&A prices.

"Most European firms have rich experiences in developing technology, they also have a very strict system when training talents," Yang said.

By this, Yang was referring to the fact that it can take about 18 months for MMS to fully train a visual technology engineer. In contrast, the training period is generally six months in China. Yang also noted that after the MMS deal was completed, he would send some employees from Thundersoft to MMS for further training.

Furthermore, the European capital market has not been developing as fast as either market in China or the US, meaning it is usually a great bargain when Chinese investors acquire European tech peers.

"We bought the two European tech firms at a price that was less than ten times their price-earnings (PE) ratio. The price has to be at least twenty times the PE ratio here in China," he added.


Newspaper headline: Visual AI technology to shine in 2018

http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1095874.shtml

 

[JSCh]

20 Sep 2018 | 13:16 GMT
Former Head of Google China Foresees an AI Crisis—and Proposes a Solution
Q&A: Kai-Fu Lee talks about AI, jobs, and the human heart
By Eliza Strickland

Photos: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt​

When the former president of Google China talks about artificial intelligence and its potential to cause global upheaval, people listen. His hope is that enough people will listen to avert catastrophic disruption on three different scales: to the global balance of power, to national economies, and to human beings’ delicate souls.

Kai-Fu Lee has been fascinated by AI since he was an eager computer science student applying to Carnegie Mellon University’s Ph.D. program; his admission essay extolled the promise of AI, which he called “the quantification of the human thinking process.” His studies led him to executive positions in Apple, Microsoft, and Google China, before his 2009 founding of Sinovation Ventures, a venture-capital firm focusing on high-tech companies in China.

His new book, AI Superpowers: China, Silicon Valley, and the New World Order (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt), is something of a bait and switch. The first half explores the diverging AI capabilities of China and the United States and frames the discussion as a battle for global dominance. Then, he boldly declares that we shouldn’t waste time worrying about who will win and says the “real AI crisis” will come from automation that wipes out whole job sectors, reshaping economies and societies in both nations.

“Lurking beneath this social and economic turmoil will be a psychological struggle,” he writes. “As more and more people see themselves displaced by machines, they will be forced to answer a far deeper question: In an age of intelligent machines, what does it mean to be human?”

In a wide-ranging Q&A with IEEE Spectrum, Lee not only explored this question further, he also gave his answer.

Kai-Fu Lee on . . .

• Why China Will Overtake the U.S. in AI
• “50 Percent of Jobs Are in Danger”
• The Inevitability of the AI Revolution
• Facing Death
• A “Blueprint for Coexistence”

---> Former Head of Google China Foresees an AI Crisis—and Proposes a Solution - IEEE Spectrum

 

[cirr]

Chinese acoustics tech startup SoundAI unveils AI sound box lamp

2018-09-20 16:32:45 Xinhua Editor : Gu Liping

Chinese acoustics technology start-up SoundAI has teamed up with Internet giant Baidu to roll out a smart sound box lamp solution built on AI technologies.

Equipped with the company's smart voice interaction system, the AI sound box unveiled Wednesday is also an intelligent lamp capable of offering a wide range of shades and light colors.

The gadget also integrates Baidu's AI voice control system DuerOS, enabling smart services such as playing music, reading audio books and turning on or off home appliances, with a voice interaction process that takes less than two seconds, the company said in a statement.

Founded in 2016, SoundAI develops sonic technologies focusing on acoustics, including far-field voice interaction and real-time communication technologies, to support AI technology applications. The company's technology has been used in Alibaba's Magic Box, Qihoo 360's smart camera and Baidu's and Xiaomi's AI speakers.

China has become the world's fastest growing smart sound box market. Data from global technology market analyst firm Canalys shows that China contributed 52 percent to worldwide growth volume in the second quarter of this year.

http://www.ecns.cn/news/2018-09-20/detail-ifyyehna1448313.shtml

 

[JSCh]

Beijing targets subleasing of affordable housing in city
Source:Global Times Published: 2018/10/8 23:18:40

Beijing authorities will accelerate the deployment of face-recognition technology to clamp down on illegal subleasing of government-funded affordable rental housing, reports said Monday.

Face recognition technology will be installed in all Beijing's affordable housing and data will be gathered on residents' use of water, electricity, heating and the internet, Shanghai-based news portal thepaper.cn reported on Monday.

The technology had been installed with more than 20,000 pieces of data "gathered in Beijing's 12,600 affordable housing as of June 2018," the Xinhua News Agency reported in July.

Officials from the Beijing Municipal Commission on Housing and Urban-Rural Development inspected projects in four districts during the National Day holiday.

The inspection identified problems in registering families' information, reporting channels and adoption of face recognition technology.

Authorities checked on agencies located near the affordable housing projects and found that some housing managers were improperly handling alleged subleases.

Any agency assisting in illegal subleasing will be fined 30,000 yuan ($4,400) and banned from trading apartments, the news site said.

The agents will also be fined 10,000 yuan each and families that engage in subleasing will be ejected and banned from applying for future housing.

People who confidentially report illegal subleasing can receive cash rewards, Beijing-based newspaper The Mirror reported Monday.

 

[JSCh]

Huawei Releases AI Strategy and Full-Stack, All-Scenario AI Portfolio - Huawei
Oct 10, 2018

[Shanghai, China, October 10, 2018] The third annual HUAWEI CONNECT, a global event for the ICT industry, opened today at the Shanghai World Expo Exhibition and Convention Center. Themed “Activate Intelligence”, this year's event focuses on AI: its challenges, opportunities, innovations, and practices.

Huawei Rotating Chairman Eric Xu announced Huawei’s AI strategy, as well as its full-stack, all-scenario AI portfolio at HUAWEI CONNECT 2018.

At the event, Huawei Rotating Chairman Eric Xu announced Huawei’s AI strategy, as well as its full-stack, all-scenario AI portfolio. Huawei’s AI portfolio includes its new Ascend series of AI chips – the world’s first AI IP and chip series designed for a full range of scenarios (see below for more information). The portfolio also includes new products and cloud services that are built on Ascend chip capabilities. With its full-stack AI portfolio, Huawei aims to provide pervasive intelligence to help drive industry development and build a fully connected, intelligent world.

Ten future changes: Driving Huawei’s AI strategy

Huawei predicts that by 2025, the world will see upwards of 40 billion personal smart devices, and 90% of device users will have a smart digital assistant. Data utilization will reach 86% and AI services will be readily available, as prevalent as the air we breathe. According to Huawei, AI has become a new general purpose technology and will change all industries and organizations on earth.

Proactive change is the first step towards a better future in AI. Huawei has defined ten changes that will help pave the way. They include:

1. Faster model training
2. Abundant and affordable computing power
3. AI deployment and user privacy
4. New algorithms
5. AI automation
6. Practical application
7. Real-time, closed-loop system
8. Multi-tech synergy
9. Platform support
10. Talent availability

These ten changes are not only Huawei's hope for the AI industry; they are the inspiration behind its AI strategy.

“Huawei’s AI strategy is to invest in basic research and talent development, build a full-stack, all-scenario AI portfolio, and foster an open global ecosystem,” said Eric Xu during his keynote.

He explained: “Within Huawei, we will continue exploring ways to improve management and efficiency with AI. In the telecom sector, we will adopt SoftCOM AI to make network O&M more efficient. In the consumer market, HiAI will bring true intelligence to our consumer devices, making them smarter than ever. Our Huawei EI public cloud services and FusionMind private cloud solutions will provide abundant and affordable computing power for all organizations – especially businesses and governments – and help them use AI with greater ease. Our portfolio will also include an AI acceleration card, AI server, AI appliance, and many other products.”

Huawei’s AI strategy has five areas of focus:

1. Invest in AI research: Develop fundamental capabilities for machine learning in domains like computer vision, natural language processing, and decision/inference, etc. Huawei places special emphasis on machine learning that is:

• data and power-efficient (i.e., less data, computing, and power needed)
• secure and trusted
• automated/autonomous

2. Build a full-stack AI portfolio:

• Deliver abundant and affordable computing power
• Provide an efficient and easy-to-use AI platform with full-pipeline services
• Make the portfolio adaptive to all scenarios, both standalone and cooperative scenarios between cloud, edge, and device

3. Develop an open ecosystem and talent: Collaborate widely with global academia, industries, and partners.

4. Strengthen existing portfolio: Introduce an AI mindset and techniques into existing products and solutions to create greater value and enhance competitive strengths.

5. Drive operational efficiency at Huawei: Apply AI to massive volumes of routine business activities for better efficiency and quality.

Xu envisions that Huawei’s full-stack AI portfolio will speed up AI adoption in all industries to provide pervasive intelligence for a fully connected, intelligent world.

Huawei’s full-stack, all-scenario AI portfolio: Abundant and affordable computing power will enable inclusive AI

As part of its full-stack AI portfolio, Huawei today unveiled the Ascend AI IP and chip series, the world's first AI IP and chip series that natively serves all scenarios, providing optimal TeraOPS per watt. The Ascend series delivers excellent performance per watt in every scenario, whether it’s minimum energy consumption or maximum computing power in data centers. Their unified architecture also makes it easy to deploy, migrate, and interconnect AI applications across different scenarios.

The Ascend 910 and Ascend 310 chips, which were announced at today’s event, mark Huawei’s leading AI capabilities at the chip level – the bottom layer of the stack. These chips will help greatly accelerate AI adoption in all industries.

Apart from the Ascend series of chips, Huawei’s full-stack AI portfolio also includes the following:

• CANN (Compute Architecture for Neural Networks): A chip operators library and highly automated operators development toolkit
• MindSpore: A unified training and inference framework for device, edge, and cloud (both standalone and cooperative)
• Application enablement: Full-pipeline services (ModelArts), hierarchical APIs, and pre-integrated solutions

Why "full stack" and "all scenarios"?

“Full stack” refers to the functionality of Huawei’s technology. Huawei’s full-stack portfolio includes chips, chip enablement, a training and inference framework, and application enablement.

By “all scenarios”, Huawei means different deployment scenarios for AI, including public clouds, private clouds, edge computing in all forms, industrial IoT devices, and consumer devices.

Providing inclusive AI is one of Huawei’s core goals in developing a comprehensive AI strategy and full-stack, all-scenario AI portfolio. Huawei is ready to work with all stakeholders to turn AI into a practical reality, making it inclusive and available for every person, every home, and every organization.

In September 2017, Huawei released Huawei Cloud EI, an AI service platform for enterprises and governments. In April 2018, Huawei announced HiAI, its AI engine for smart devices. The company’s full-stack, all-scenario AI portfolio is designed to provide powerful support for Huawei Cloud EI and HiAI.

Backed by its AI portfolio, Huawei Cloud EI will be able to deliver a full-stack portfolio for enterprise and government customers, and HiAI will provide a full-stack portfolio for smart devices. HiAI services are deployed on Huawei Cloud EI.

HUAWEI CONNECT 2018 – "Activate Intelligence" – is held at the Shanghai World Expo Exhibition and Convention Center and Expo Center from October 10 to 12.

This year’s HUAWEI CONNECT conference is designed to help all businesses and organizations step over the threshold and stake their claim in the intelligent world. You will be joined by the best minds in the industry – including global ICT leaders, industry experts, and ecosystem partners – to chart the way forward and explore new opportunities.

For more information, please visit: Link

https://twitter.com/x/status/1049906529376325632

 

[TaiShang]

China advances its AI agenda with new national platform

By Zhang Hongpei Source:Global Times Published: 2018/10/12

The Chinese AI start-up CloudWalk on Friday launched an open-source platform offering basic resources to companies and public institutions that will allow them to develop artificial intelligence (AI) services, marking the country's strengthening efforts in realizing its target by leading the world in the AI sector by 2030.

The Guangzhou-based CloudWalk, an AI start-up known for its facial recognition technologies, became the first enterprise to launch such a platform, a task assigned by the National Development and Reform Commission in 2017.

In comparison to traditional AI platforms, the new one features data and information protection. It is more easily integrated with a variety of business applications and aims to accelerate industrial upgrading, said Zhang Li, senior vice president of CloudWalk, during a conference held on Friday in Beijing.

"The US has targeted China's economic transformation, from low and middle level to middle-and-top one, and especially our gradually enhancing high tech sector," said Hou Yunchun, deputy director at the Development Research Center of the State Council, at the conference.

"We have no way out but to improve our economic standards based on the new round of technology revolution represented by AI."

"Cooperation with developed countries including the US is also quite necessary and we have to acknowledge the current gap in terms of technology research," Zhou Xi, founder of CloudWalk, told the Global Times Friday.

"In the era of AI, platform plays the role of determining the battle," Zhou said, noting that providing and developing workable solutions is the key.

http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1122763.shtml

 

[TaiShang]

Huawei to invest 1 billion yuan in fostering AI specialists

China Plus Published: 2018-10-13


China's telecommunications giant Huawei announced plans on Friday for a three-year talent development program that will see one billion yuan (144 million U.S. dollars) invested to cultivate one million artificial intelligence (AI) specialists, reports Chinanews.com.

Artificial Intelligence [Photo: VCG]

The announcement was made at this year's Huawei Connect conference, where Huawei's Vice President Zheng Yelai said, "We have assembled a professional team to carry out the plan, and we have cooperated with many elite universities in China in order to develop a better AI curriculum." He also said that some overseas universities will join the program in the future, and that Huawei will invest more money if it's required.

Fostering talent has always been one of Huawei's priorities when it comes to developing its AI strategy. Zheng said that Huawei provides employees with free training on AI, and held its Worldwide Developers Conference to improve their AI engineering skills. "AI will be a basic skill set for engineers," Zheng said.

According to a recent report by the Tencent Research Institute, the world is short 700,000 AI specialists. Only 367 universities offer AI majors, and less than 20,000 students graduate with an AI major each year.

http://chinaplus.cri.cn/news/china/9/20181013/195106.html

 

[JSCh]

New AI-powered lab set up to support aviation sector
By WANG YING in Shanghai | chinadaily.com.cn | Updated: 2018-10-12 15:25

Xiamen Airlines' passenger airplanes are seen at Fuzhou Changle International Airport in Fuzhou, Fujian province, on March 21. [Photo provided to China Daily]

China's first algorithms laboratory for the aviation sector was jointly launched by Tongji University and Xiamen Airlines in Shanghai on Oct 11, and the two parties expect the lab to play a key role in utilizing artificial intelligence to solve problems and improve the overall efficiency of the industry.

The lab, which is situated within the campus of Tongji University, will have about 20 permanent researchers from Tongji University and Xiamen Airlines.

"In the past few years, the rapid development of the aviation sector has led to a growing density of flights and an increasingly complex airlines network which makes it more difficult than ever for management by human," said Wang Hongjian, chief information officer of Xiamen Airlines.

Wang added that the joint lab is also expected to play a key role in assisting or even replacing human labor in the scheduling of aircraft and crew.

Last June, Liang Zhe, a professor with Tongji University who is in charge of the lab, and his team designed a solution for large-scale flight delays that outperformed more than 1,600 teams from around the world in a smart aviation AI contest organized by Alibaba Cloud, the cloud computing arm of Alibaba Group.

This award-winning solution has since been implemented by Xiamen Airlines and has greatly shortened the flight recovery time in large-scale flight delays caused by weather.

Through the joint efforts of Tongji and Xiamen Airlines, the lab also creates smart solutions for safe and convenient air trips, said Wang.