China is moving into more hardcore tech innovation with A.I.

William Bao Bean, general partner at early stage venture capital firm SOSV, said at a panel at the Singapore Week of Innovation and Technology that significant sums of money were flowing into AI. "So the last 15 years, entrepreneurs and [venture capitalists], like us, have been investing in companies that solve basic problems," he said, adding most of the problems today are solved "pretty well" in the country. Currently, China is a "lot more like the U.S., where, in order to make an impact, you have to have a revolution in tech," Bao Bean said. Global consulting firm KPMG said in January that China set a record high in terms of VC investments in 2016, despite a global slowdown in the field. The firm said the strong performance was expected to continue as AI becoming a stronger focus for investors.