AI travel platform Tripeur raises $1m; Indonesia to replace officials with AI

#China #digitaleconomy - With a combined GDP of over $1.6 trillion, and a population of nearly 70 million, the Greater Bay Area (GBA) is perhaps the best contender in becoming Asia’s version of both Silicon Valley and Wall Street. (E27)

#India #funding - AI corporate travel booking platform Tripeur, has raised $1 million funding from SenseAI, Better Capital, Alacrity India, Patni Wealth Advisors, and others. Existing investors Incubate Fund and Rajul Garg also participated. (PRNewswire)

#China #robotaxis - Self-driving startup WeRide on Thursday began piloting a robotaxi service using a fleet of Nissan cars in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou. A fleet of 20 Nissan’s fully electric vehicles (EV) offered rides in an area 144.7 square kilometers (around 55.8 square miles) in the city’s eastern Huangpu and Guangzhou Development districts. (TechNode)

#SouthKorea #construction - Hyundai Engineering and Construction Co. plans to test articulated industrial robots at construction sites with the aim to cover 20 percent of the work done at construction sites by 2026. (Korea Bizwire)

#SouthKorea #OTT - To survive the fierce competition in South Korea’s over-the-top video-on-demand market, KT Corporation has launched a new mobile video content service, promising to provide differentiated high-quality content and high-definition images using 5G and artificial intelligence technologies. (Aju Daily)

#Indonesia #government - President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has said the government will replace some civil service positions with AI, instructing ministers to remove two ranks of public servants in a move to improve government efficiency. (The Jakarta Post)

#China #airports - A report published by SITA, 2019 China IT Insights, has revealed that 88 per cent of airports and airlines are intending on planning or researching and developing major AI programmes by 2022, with a focus on virtual agents and chatbots. (IAR)

#China #media - China’s state-run Xinhua News Agency has launched an aAI anchor, a move it claims to be a world first. Modeled on the agency’s Zhang Zhao presenter, the new anchor learns from live videos and is able to work 24 hours a day, reporting via social media and on the Xinhua website. (Daily Star)

#China #US #tradedeal - A four-day rally that had lifted world stocks to near-record highs stalled on Thursday after China said it would retaliate for U.S. legislation backing Hong Kong’s protesters, leaving investors concerned as to the extent of the Chinese response. (Reuters)

#China #US #tradedeal - Keyu Jin, associate professor of economics at London School of Economics, describes the phase one agreement as a “face deal” that would allow both sides to say they’ve made some progress. However, Jin says that its a big gift for President Trump because we’ve seen the stock markets rally, but unless old tariffs can be rolled back, it won’t really bee seen as a victory for China. (CNBC)

#China #US #Huaweiban - Huawei was about to overtake Samsung as the top seller of smartphones this year, when the company was put on the trade blacklist by the US government due to national security concerns. In an interview with CNN, Ren Zhengfei decided to break the silence and address the issue implying that the the US has treated Huawei unfairly. (PanDaily)