Online giants zero in on AI industry

Companies see dawning of golden age for rapidly growing sector

SHENZHEN - Executives at Chinese internet giants Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent, are making a game-changing shift in strategy to focus on the development of artificial intelligence, believing the next decades will be a golden age for the rapidly evolving industry.

"We used to see artificial intelligence only as a way to improve our computing and processing abilities. But AI can actually use data to develop a self-learning ability and generate its own rules," Ma Huateng, chairman and CEO of Tencent, said at the China IT Summit in Shenzhen on April 2.

In March 2016, Google's artificial intelligence program AlphaGo scored a landmark 4-1 victory over South Korean Go master Lee Se-dol in a five-round showdown. The machine's victory was noted by AI enthusiasts around the world.

Tencent developed its own AI program, Jueyi, which has scored several key victories against top world talent.

"If we develop a simulator, define its parameters, let it fully explore, study and make mistakes, programs will figure out how things work, far exceeding our imagination," Ma said, adding that Chinese IT companies are actively developing AI.

Many companies are seizing territory, Ma said.

Baidu set up a national deep-learning technology lab in Beijing in March. The lab gathered AI experts from Baidu, Tsinghua University, Beihang University and the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology.

"The internet is just an appetizer. The main course will be AI. In the future, machines will develop to a point where they can understand humans and their intentions," says Baidu Chairman Li Yanhong.

Baidu has invested heavily in machine-aided study, image recognition, voice recognition and driverless vehicles.

"AI will be a magnanimous industry that will last for a very long time. I'm certain that the industry will develop fast over the next 20 to 50 years," Li says.

At a separate AI conference in Beijing last week, Zhang Yongqiang, deputy director of Zhongguancun Management Committee, said the AI industry would see a "new age", promoted by many government policies.

In May last year, the government made a three-year action plan to develop AI.

The industry market size was 23.9 billion yuan ($3.5 billion; 3.3 billion euros; 2.8 billion) last year and will reach 38 billion yuan in 2018, according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

AI has been applied widely in security, finance and medical fields. DeepGlint is a Beijing-based company that has developed a smart video surveillance system, which it said can help police track suspects.

"If you upload facial images, or other information such as clothing, height, body size and car license plate numbers into the system, it will scan huge amounts of video for matches," says Zhao Yong, DeepGlint's founder.

"It is impossible for police officers to scan millions of hours of video footage to locate a suspect, but it is possible for the system to do it."

"Machines can do what people can't. We must make machines our best partner, rather than letting them replace us," says Jack Ma, founder of Alibaba.

"We should not be worried about how much the internet is impacting traditional business. Rather, we have to use the internet and AI to our advantage."

Xinhua