SenseTime closes pre-IPO round; G7 urged to act to combat China AI

#China #HongKong #funding - China’s AI unicorn SenseTime has completed its pre-IPO round in late last year, with a post-fundraising valuation that reaches USD 12 billion, according to an exclusive Tencent News report. (KR Asia)

#China #Germany #funding - Agile Robots, which offers professional robotic solutions, has raked in as much as $130 million in 2020. Existing investors including Sequoia Capital China, Hillhouse’s venture capital unit GL Ventures, and Linear Venture re-upped their investment in the current round. (Deal Street Asia)

#China #funding - Didi Chuxing Technology Co. is close to finalising a $1.5 billion round of funding for its on-demand trucking unit Didi Freight from investors including Temasek Holdings Pte,, Jack Ma’s Yunfeng Capital and IDG Capital. (Caixin Global)

#China #funding - Uisee Technology, a Chinese autonomous driving technology startup, raised $154 million to build L4 autonomous vehicles for logistics. (The Robot Report)

#China #AntGroupIPO - Responding to pressure from Chinese regulators, Jack Ma will restructure Ant Group into a financial holding company supervised by the People’s Bank of China, according to The Wall Street Journal. (Pymnts)

#China #AVs - Blackberry and Chinese search engine giant Baidu have agreed to expand a partnership that aims to give automakers the tools they need to launch next-generation connected and autonomous vehicles in China. (TechCrunch)

#China #R&D - China’s State Council mapped out clear objectives in 2017: to keep pace with leading global AI developments in 2020, make breakthroughs that place China at the cutting edge of AI research by 2025, and then become a source of major AI innovations by 2030. (KR Asia)

#China #US #AIrace - A study by the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) assessed AI using 30 separate metrics including human talent, research activity, commercial development, and investment in hardware and software – with a score assigned to each metric for each region, on a 100-point scale. (TechWire Asia)

#China #media - UAE-based Bentham Science has launched a new subscription-based journal, The Chinese Journal of Artificial Intelligence. The first issue of the journal will be available online by the start of the year, 2021. (Eureka Alert)

#SouthKorea #robotics - Korea has adopted industrial robots more quickly than the United States, Japan and Germany — so fast that it’s starting to affect the employment rate for humans and even their wage increases. From 2000 to 2007, robot sales averaged around 7,000 units a year. (Korea JoongAng Daily)

#SouthKorea #healthcare - The Sejong city government said Wednesday that it had introduced an artificial intelligence (AI) medical image analysis assistance system in two locations – the Sejong City Health Center, and the Southern Integrated Health Center. (Korea Bizwire)

#China #emotionrecognition - Technology that measures emotions based on biometric indicators such as facial movements, tone of voice or body movements is increasingly being marketed in China, researchers say, despite concerns about its accuracy and wider human rights implications. (Japan Times)

#India #economy - India’s Ministry of Statistics is ramping up use of AI for collecting, analyzing and reporting data to better monitor the economy. The measures include a $60 million program with World Bank help using an information portal that collates real-time data.“ (Bloomberg)

#China #US #G7 - Almost 70 prominent legislators from the G7 group of rich nations and the European Parliament have penned a letter to the leaders of their countries urging them to “unite around a plan of action” against China that addresses its growing market power in AI, quantum computing and 5G technology. (Science Business)

#China #Taiwan #semiconductor - Taiwan’s role in the world economy largely existed below the radar, until it came to recent prominence as the auto industry suffered shortfalls in chips. Taiwan’s grip on the semiconductor business — despite being under constant threat of invasion by Beijing — also represents a choke point in the global supply chain. (The Print)

#SouthKorea #music - While fans are elated by the news of the revival of singer Kim Kwang-seok’s voice using AI, such attempts are fraught with ethical and legal concerns. (VICE)

Carrington Malin helps large organisations, digital brands and fast growing tech ventures with brand, communications and go-to-market strategies.