China is funding Baidu to take on the US in deep-learning research

While US-based companies like Alphabet, IBM, Facebook, and Microsoft typically dominate US artificial-intelligence headlines, China's government is now accelerating the country's own contributions to the field. China's National Development and Reform Commission, a government agency tasked with planning economic and social strategies, will fund search giant Baidu's development of a national deep-learning research lab, according to a post on Baidu's Chinese WeChat account. The amount of funding was not disclosed, but Beijing-based Baidu will work with Tsinghua and Beihang universities, as well as other research Chinese institutions. One important caveat: The laboratory won't be a physical structure, but instead a digital network of researchers working on problems from their respective locations, according to the South Morning China Post. The research will focus on computer vision, biometric identification, intellectual property rights, and human-computer interaction.