China is aggressively executing AI vision: CBInsights

China is aggressively executing a thoroughly designed vision for artificial intelligence (AI), according to CBInsights. The Chinese government is promoting a futuristic artificial intelligence plan and is clearly beating the US. It accounts for a 9 per cent share of deals and took 48 per cent of all dollars going to AI stratups globally in 2017.

China surpassed the US for the first time in share of dollars in AI startups in 2017. It accounted for only 11.3 per cent of the global funding in 2016, says the ‘Top AI Trends to Watch in 2018’ report by CBInsights.

The US still dominates globally in terms of the number of AI startups and total equity deals. But it is gradually losing its global deal share, noted the report.

Chinese companies seem to be overtaking their US counterparts in AI patent applications too.

“Based on basic keywords searches of title and abstract, AI-related patent publications in China are surging far ahead of patents being published in these spaces by the US Patent and Trademark Office,” said the report.

AI is also being used for manufacturing apparel. Recently, Chinese t-shirt manufacturer Tianyuan Garments Company signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Arkansas government to employ 400 workers at $14/hour at its new garment factory in Arkansas. Operations were scheduled to begin by the end of 2017.

Tianyuan’s factory in Little Rock, Arkansas, will use sewing robots developed by Georgia-based startup SoftWear Automation to manufacture apparel for Adidas. It appears much of the heavy lifting will be done by the robots with human workers taking over high-end jobs including robot maintenance and operation, says the report.