The article highlights four companies in the Global X Artificial Intelligence & Technology ETF (AIQ) that are shaping the growth path of technologies along the AI value chain.

CHIBA, JAPAN - OCTOBER 15: A robot arm controlled remotely by an operator is seen in the ANA ... [ ] Holdings Inc. booth during the Ceatec Japan 2019 consumer electronics show on October 15, 2019 in Chiba, Japan. For all the high-technology available and widely adopted in the business world, many traditional industries have not been significantly impacted by it. Sure, developments in 3D printing, big data, cloud computing have created new industries unto themselves. Yet many classic industries, such as healthcare and insurance, have not tapped into the true potential of technologies like artificial intelligence to change the way they do things. That being said, there are always innovators and pathfinders that pursue revolutionary change in their industry.

In May, Google made quite the splash when it unveiled Duplex, its eerily humanlike voice assistant capable of making restaurant reservations and salon appointments. It seemed to mark a new milestone in speech generation and natural-language understanding, and it pulled back the curtain on what the future of human-AI interaction might look like. But while Google slowly rolls out the feature in a limited public launch, Alibaba's own voice assistant has already been clocking overtime. Jin Rong, the dean of Alibaba's Machine Intelligence and Technology Lab, said the agent was already servicing millions of customer requests a day. By signing up you agree to receive email newsletters and notifications from MIT Technology Review.

Recent news about growth of Chinese robotics and related AI indicate just how massive their investments are and how well they are paying off. For example, 90% of the personal robots on display at the IFA consumer electronics trade show held in Berlin in September were developed and manufactured by Chinese companies. Further, Preqin reported that Q3 venture-backed deals totaled $49 billion. Included in the top 10 deals were Uber-competitor Grab's raising $2 billion from SoftBank and Didi Chuxing and Alibaba's $1.1 bn investment in eBay-like Tokopedia and $.8 bn to Cainiao (see below). Half of the top 10 were in Asia; only three were for US-based companies.

In implementing AI, Alibaba is applying numerous complex machine-learning methods and disciplines, such as online machine learning, transfer learning, deep learning, artificial neural networks and reinforcement learning. The latter mimics the way the human brain learns through experience. Simply put, the computer "learns" to recognize patterns in data that lead to right and wrong answers through an iterative process, similar to the way a child learns by trial-and-error to throw a ball. This technology depends on the creation of software algorithms that enable computers to reach correct conclusions by being fed huge numbers of examples, building up a base of "experiences" that can be applied to recognize patterns and solve problems in new situations. These learning machines become smarter and more accurate as they are given more and more data. This means Alibaba, with its vast computer resources and access to online data from hundreds of millions of consumers, is well positioned to introduce practical, real-world AI applications into everyday use. The company over the last 17 years has built up one of the world's largest distributed-computing networks, allowing it to marshall the computational horsepower necessary for AI. Alibaba's cloud computing subsidiary, one of the world's top 5 public cloud providers, has developed an operating system called Apsara that organizes data centers into a computational engine that can process more than 175,000 transactions a second.

Cainiao Network, the logistics arm of Alibaba, said it will strengthen the deployment of artificial intelligent (AI) technology in its courier network by putting 1 million smart logistics vehicles into the market to cope with exploding delivery volumes in the future – expected to reach 1 billion a day within a decade. The smart logistics vehicles, co-manufactured with other automobile companies including SAIC Motor Corp and Dongfeng Motor Corp, will optimise the delivery route for the couriers based on Cainiao's advanced big data and algorithms, Cainiao Network's president Wan Lin said at a logistics forum in Hangzhou on Monday. According to Cainiao, the new smart vehicles have been introduced in Shenzhen and Chengdu as part of a trial programme, where they reduced travel distance and air travel rates. The logistics industry could see savings of as much as 10 billion yuan (US$1.4 billion) annually after all the vehicles are put in services within the next decade, the company estimates. Cainiao is pushing forward with its smart logistics initiative because a "consumption upgrade" in China will drive the evolution of new logistics systems which will require the entire logistics industry to optimise its efficiency to the fullest, according to Wan.

Alibaba has gone from an ecommerce company to its own economy. The Tmall Global Shopping day, Alibaba's Single's Day event, recorded 120.7 billion RMB (17.8 billion USD) in sales in one day. They also revealed some interesting plans for the coming future. Robotics, AI, AR, and VR will be adopted across sectors like ecommerce, logistics, service sector, and finance to make user's daily life smarter. YunOS, a cloud-based data and service oriented operating system for the Internet of Things, will power a wide range of smart devices including smartphones, wearables, Internet cars, robots, and smart household appliances.

Alibaba has gone from an ecommerce company to its own economy. The Tmall Global Shopping day recorded 120.7 billion RMB (17.8 billion USD) is sales on one day. At their Single's Day event earlier this year, they revealed some interesting plans for the coming future. Robotics, AI, AR, and VR will be adopted across sectors like ecommerce, logistics, service sector, and finance to make user's daily life smarter. YunOS, a cloud-based data and service oriented operating system for the Internet of Things, will power a wide range of smart devices including smartphones, wearables, Internet cars, robots, and smart household appliances.