While global tech giants including Amazon, Google and Microsoft are aggressively developing AI (artificial intelligence) applications, China's web giant Tencent has actually outperformed them with the deepest deployments in the field, Gerardo Salandra, chairman of the Artificial Intelligence Society of Hong Kong, has claimed.
Salandra made the remarks while delivering a keynote speech on AI development at a forum held at the just-concluded 2018 Global Sources Consumer Electronics Show in Hong Kong.
Salandra said that amid the rapid development of such AI technologies as machine learning and deep learning, many large-size enterprises are actively developing related algorithms, analyses, platforms and application integrations, while AI startups are also proliferating to cover a wide range of fields including voice recognition, face recognition, health and medical management, advertisement analysis and retail channels. The growing applicability of AI technologies to industries and consumer practices will revolutionize the overall industry ecosystems, he stressed.
Many AI startups boast strong innovation prowess. US-based The Grid, for instance, now can leverage AI to design websites to optimize the website design process, and Hong Kong-based SAMY.AI uses AI to help enterprises conduct systematic integration of human resources to boost internal communication efficiency and reduce turnover, according to Salandra.
Meanwhile, Noah Silverman, director of Hong Kong-based Helios.ai, said that if enterprises want to incorporate AI to pursue product or service differentiations and reduce operation costs, they should have application model selection, material analysis accumulation and machinery computing suitability perfectly done first.
Brent Barnes, chief operating officer of Global Sources, also noted that the commercial applicability of AI has been on the rise. He cited IDC statistics as indicating that total expenses in AI systems by global enterprises surged nearly 60% on year to reach US$12 billion in 2017, and such expenses are estimated to see a 50% CAGR during 2016-2021 and soar to US$57.6 billion by 2021.
Gerardo Salandra, chairman of Hong Kong AI Society
Photo: Max Wang, Digitimes, April 2018
Article translated by Willis Ke
