Newly developed products include a device for grading school exam papers and an A.I. chatbot that can answer questions spoken into a microphone in one of half a dozen different languages, including Chinese, English and Russian. The answers appear on a screen. Cheng Chen, the general manager of iFlyTek's consumer business group in charge of A.I. translation, said the aim of the exam machine, which allows teachers to grade papers without reading them, was not to eliminate teachers but to "help them use their time better on more creative, essential things." On-again, off-again restrictions on the export of advanced American-made A.I. chips to China which she said were "the best for training large language models," had not hurt the company, she insisted, adding that the Chinese company Huawei was providing adequate substitutes. Recent U.S.-China trade frictions have had little impact on its market value.

Chinese voice biometric systems developer iFlyTek has entered into collaboration with the Chongqing Economic and Technological Development Zone to nurture and mature over 100 artificial intelligence and automotive ecological startups within five years through an incubator program. The program will happen via the setting up of an'AI Automotive Ecology Acceleration Center,' according to iChongqing, a publication of the Chongqing International Communication Center. Apart from developing these startups, the project intends to create over 20 AI automotive projects. It will also introduce iFlyTek's advantages in AI, resources, and industrial ecology solutions to its intelligent automobile eco-partners, according to the announcement. The company's solutions include multi-microphone array noise reduction and biometric identification.

Huawei has helped Chinese authorities create surveillance technology that targets the country's Uyghur minority population, an investigation has alleged. A series of marketing presentation slides reviewed by the Washington Post found Huawei had a role in developing surveillance projects created in a partnership with other Chinese companies. They included analysis of voice recordings, monitoring detention centres, tracking locations of political individuals of interest, police surveillance in the western Xinjiang region, and corporate tracking of employees and customers. While the slides did not specify who the presentations were for, the report said some of them showcased surveillance functions specific to police or government agencies, which suggests Chinese government authorities may have been the intended audience. Huawei said it had no knowledge of the projects mentioned in the Washington Post report.

In his pre-Wuhan Virus book, "Artificial Intelligence (AI) Super-Powers: China, Silicon Valley, and the New World Order," Taiwan-born American computer scientist, Kai-Fu Lee, having spent considerable time in China, awakens the reader to a new world of dramatic changes, realignments and sociological challenges. It is the end of the world as we know it. And the future is already here, although the author gives us about 20 more years to see it implemented. In Kai-Fu's opinion, the world has moved from theoretical discovery to practical applications and from the age of expertise to the age of data. AI is the energy of the new age.

Asia is leading the pack in AI business deployment compared to less than a third for US companies. The adoption rate in the rest of the world remains low, as firms do not understand the deployment of AI¹ in their operations. The surveillance behavior of Chinese firms continues and contravenes privacy. MIT's decision to end its collaboration with iFlytek¹⁰ from China makes sense and will set the trend for other companies. Artificial intelligence does not have to hurt people but rather be ethical, responsible, and accountable.

The age of artificial intelligence (AI) was widely proclaimed in 2017 when Google's AlphaGo program comprehensively defeated Ke Jie, world champion player of Go, the complex Chinese board game. Since then the excitement has ebbed as Washington and Beijing fought a trade war, and China's start-up funding dipped in part because the original AI hype lost its shine. This raises the question of whether AI -- defined as algorithms that mimic human intelligence -- can deliver on its potential, and when. The answer is crucial because AI could become the ultimate industry disrupter, threatening tens of millions of jobs in Asia as business processes are automated. In addition, AI is the subject of intense rivalry between the US and China.

MIT has terminated a research collaboration with iFlytek, a Chinese artificial intelligence company accused of supplying technology for surveilling Muslims in the northwestern province of Xinjiang. The university canceled the relationship in February after reviewing an upcoming project under tightened guidelines governing funding from companies in China, Russia, and Saudi Arabia. MIT has not said why it terminated the iFlytek collaboration or disclosed details about the project that prompted the review, but it has faced pushback from some students and staff about the arrangement since it began two years ago. "We take very seriously concerns about national security and economic security threats from China and other countries, and human rights issues," says Maria Zuber, vice president of research at MIT. US companies and universities have built ties with Chinese tech firms in recent years. But the relationships have come under increasing scrutiny as relations between the two countries have soured.

According to Li Feng, deputy director of the Shanghai Museum, AI technology will allow the museum to offer smarter services for visitors. It will also help when restoring cultural relics and researching ancient Chinese books and documents. Two other companies, Axess (Beijing) Technology Co Ltd and Tongji Architectural Design (Group) Co Ltd, will also join the'smart museum' project. The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco previously announced a major AI exhibition. 'Uncanny Valley: Being Human in the Age of AI' is debuting at San Francisco's de Young Museum in February.

Chinese artificial intelligence startup iFlytek says it has developed AI-powered technology that can accurately identify a person by his or her voice, for use in law enforcement. The company expects to be able to roll out a voiceprint recognition system nationwide in two to three years, said Fu Zhonghua, the deputy head of iFlytek's research center here. The Chinese market for such technology has the prospect of becoming a driver of earnings growth for iFlytek, which has been hit with U.S. sanctions for its alleged role in China's internationally criticized treatment of Muslim minorities. "Because recordings are important evidence when it comes to phone scams, demand for voice recognition is growing," Fu told reporters at the lab. The voiceprint recognition tool harnesses iFlytek's strength in using AI to analyze data.

The blacklisted companies include Hikvision and Dahua, both of which are global providers of video surveillance technology. Hikvision said in a statement Monday that it respects human rights and strongly opposes the Trump administration's decision. The company said it has spent a year trying to "clarify misunderstandings about the company and address their concerns," and that this will hurt its U.S. business partners. Prominent Chinese AI firms such as Sense Time, Megvii and iFlytek are also on the list. Sense Time and Megvii are known for the development of computer vision technology that underpins facial recognition products, while iFlytek is known for its voice recognition and translation services.