Domestic technology companies are stepping up efforts to develop new businesses and strengthen their research and development (R&D) in the artificial intelligence (AI) industry to make their mark in the local and global markets, moves that a senior researcher at U.S.-based Google said are the "right strategy."
Companies and governments all over the world have come to realize that AI is an important technical frontier, and many people are trying to drive innovation in this area, which is believed to be the right strategy, Greg Corrado, a senior AI research scientist working with Google, told a seminar held on Thursday at the company's Beijing office.
UBTECH, an AI and humanoid robotic company based in Shenzhen, South China's Guangdong Province, completed its round-C funding of $820 million on Thursday, the single largest round of funding in AI history, according to a statement UBTECH sent to the Global Times.
The investment, led by Tencent, brought UBTECH's valuation to $5 billion.
"We will increase investment R&D work in humanoid robot servo, and will further improve our brand awareness worldwide," said James Zhou, founder and CEO of UBTECH.
Alibaba announced on Thursday that it acquired Beijing Sound Connect Technology Co, in a bid to strengthen its sound recognition and human-machine interactive technologies.
Beijing Sound Connect Technology Co is a pioneer in domestic voice enhancement and far-speaking voice interaction interface technology.
In 2017, Alibaba said it would strengthen technology research input, aiming to invest more than $15 billion in R&D in the following three years. The Alibaba DAMO Academy, its global research program, was established in 2017 to seek technological cooperation worldwide.
Separately, Lenovo Group, Dawning Information Industry Co (also known as Sugon) and iFlytek displayed new AI products at a product launch conference held by AI chip start-up Cambricon on Thursday.
Lenovo Group released its first server platform equipped with Cambricon chip-powered MLU100 intelligent processing cards, and Sugon launched its latest AI management platform.
