Hexa Food's IoT team has deployed Huawei's ModelArts coupled with the intelligent device Atlas 500 to accurately identify the quality of the chilies it uses in spice blends. The AI can distinguish good chilies from bad, improving production efficiency and the quality of spices available to chefs and homes across Malaysia. Known as the "Kingdom of Spices", Malaysia is a multi-ethnic nation comprising Malays, Chinese, Indians, and the indigenous Orang Asli people. Its diverse culture is reflected in its cuisine, which draws from a multicultural heritage that sees hundreds of spices add flavor to the Malaysian diet. And of these, the colorful, aromatic, and spicy chili powder is a mainstay of many of the nation's signature dishes.

Having visited more than 40 countries, 200 cities and lived in six countries in the last 10 years as well as working in the disruptive Internet of Things (IoT) space, the subject of how to make cities smarter and more citizen friendly is of particular interest to me for both professional and personal reasons. More than half of the world's population now live in cities -- and the figure will rise to more than two thirds by 2050, according to a United Nations forecast. Growing numbers of city residents put pressure on energy and water resources, transport networks, environment, national healthcare budgets as well as many more aspects of the city. In the last few weeks I have been thinking about the most important problems that the most cities around the world may face, but they can be solved or reduced by Internet of Things and artificial intelligence (AI) enabled solutions. By IoT we simply mean when objects are connected to the Internet and exchange data.