Details of Singapore AI strategy revealed; Voice ordering rises on Singles Day

#China #venturecapital - Tech funding in China has undergone a ‘capital winter’—referring to the significant slowdown in investment and fundraising activities. However, areas such as cloud, AI, and blockchain, are still generating excitement among investors. (Technode)

#Asia #unicorns - Companies and organizations, both big and small, are now increasingly utilizing AI technologies to help them gain a competitive edge in their industries or fields. This is true as well for the startups and unicorns, such as Grab, that operate in the Southeast Asia region. (Next Unicorn)

#India #startups - India is the third-largest startup nation. A number of its business-to-consumer (B2C) ventures, from e-commerce major Flipkart to ride-sharing platform Ola, are known across the world. Now, a new wave of business-to-business (B2B) startups in niche segments is silently creating a significant impact globally. (QZ)

#Singapore #AIstrategy - An inaugural roadmap that lays out Singapore’s plan to leverage AI to transform the economy was unveiled on Wednesday, in the country’s most ambitious push yet to become a global AI powerhouse. (Business Times)

#Singapore #AIstrategy - More initiatives tapping on AI technologies, such as machine learning and computer vision, are in the pipeline over the next decade, according to five projects unveiled on Wednesday as part of Singapore’s new “National AI Strategy”. (CNA)

#India #Singapore - The Singapore government has unveiled a new strategy to strengthen its AI game and become the AI major by 2030. The prime focus of this initiative is solely focused on the development and use artificial intelligence by implementing projects in key high-value sectors. (Analytics India)

#Singapore #AIpolicy - A new initiative called Veritas is under way to help financial institutions evaluate their AI-and data analytics-driven solutions against the principles of fairness, ethics, accountability and transparency. These principles were devised by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and the financial industry last year. (Straits Times)

#Singapore #AIpolicy - The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) announced today that it is working with financial industry partners to create a framework for financial institutions to promote the responsible adoption of Artificial Intelligence and Data Analytics (AIDA). (AsiaOne)

#India #AIpolicy - The Tamil Nadu government will be releasing the policy in the next three weeks, along with a separate rulebook for the state agencies and vendors. (Inc24)

#China #ecommerce - More than 1 million orders were placed and processed through voice command via Alibaba’s Tmall Genie during its 11.11 Global Shopping Festival on Monday. According to Alibaba’s statistics, more than 40 per cent of Tmall Genie users have tried voice shopping. (Inside Retail Asia)

#Thailand #R&D - Microsoft Thailand is working with the Digital Economy and Society (DES) Ministry to establish an artificial intelligence lab to cater to the farming sector and the smart city project. (Bangkok Post)

#India #robotics - Amid several incidents of casualties among troops during counter-terror operations, the Indian Army has decided to use robots and AI to help hundreds of thousands of soldiers deployed in restive areas of Kashmir. (Sputnik News)

#Singapore #travel - Come 2025, travelers visiting Singapore will have to clear security at automated border checkpoints with their fingerprints, and facial and iris scans, according to an article from the Straits Times. (TTGAsia)

#China #Hikvision - Two senior executives at Hangzhou Hikvision Digital Technology are under investigation by China’s securities watchdog for alleged disclosure violations, the world’s biggest manufacturer of surveillance cameras said Wednesday. (Asia Nikkei)

#India #security - The Railway Protection Force, established by the Railway Protection Force Act, 1957 which works for the protection and security of railway property, reportedly aims to link the proposed facial recognition system with existing databases. This includes, but is not limited to the Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and Systems (CCTNS). (Analytics India)

#China #USA #tradedeal - President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that he is hopeful that a trade deal with China will soon be reached amid concerns in the global stock markets over the continuing trade war. Speaking at the Economic Club of New York, Trump slammed Beijing for having “ransacked” the United States’ economy and jobs, but said that his administration has made a “tremendous amount of progress” in trade talks with China. (Fox News)

#Singapore #AIrace - Singapore has unveiled an ambitious strategy to become a global leader in artificial intelligence by 2030, attempting to carve out a niche for itself in an increasingly politicized technology. (Bloomberg)

#China #USA #AIrace - Debates about whether China or the U.S. will dominate the 21st century are thus necessarily debates about who will lead in AI innovation, and whether democratic or authoritarian systems are better suited to that challenge.  (Bloomberg)

#China #USA #research - US researchers were the top collaborators with their China counterparts from August last year to this July, according to Nature Index, a database of academic papers compiled by international journal publisher Nature Research. The number of joint research articles published by US and Chinese institutions also continued to grow. (SCMP)

#China #USA #funding - Palo Alto, California-based early-stage venture firm Amino Capital is raising $100 million for a USD-denominated fund to finance data-driven startups primarily located in the United States and China. (DealStreetAsia)