China's startup ecosystem, which produced several world-leading companies, has been in the news in the recent past about the impact of the government regulations on the big technology firms. However, despite the regulatory shakeups and the COVID-19 pandemic notwithstanding, China has emerged as a powerhouse for artificial intelligence (AI) unicorns, according to Thematic Research at GlobalData, a leading data, and analytics company. GlobalData's research shows that of the total of 45 AI unicorns globally, China has the biggest share with 19 unicorns headquartered in the country. These 19 unicorns are collectively valued at $43.5bn. Priya Toppo, Analyst of Thematic Research at GlobalData, comments: "China is a leading player in AI, with a number of established companies such as Baidu, Hikvision, iFlytek, Tencent, and Alibaba. The country also has a strong AI startup ecosystem, which is evident from the large number of AI unicorns (privately held startup valued at $1bn or more)."

Machine learning is an artificial intelligence (AI) technology which allows machines to learn by using algorithms to interpret data from connected'things' to predict outcomes and learn from successes and failures. There are many other AI technologies - from image recognition to natural language processing, gesture control, context awareness and predictive APIs - but machine learning is where most of the investment community's funding has flowed in recent years. It is also the technology most likely to allow machines to ultimately surpass the intelligence levels of humans. Many companies, like Alphabet, have already become'AI-first' companies, with machine learning at their core. At the same time, many ML techniques are getting commoditized by being open sourced and pre-packaged into developer toolkits that anyone can use.

Machine learning is an artificial intelligence (AI) technology which allows machines to learn by using algorithms to interpret data from connected'things' to predict outcomes and learn from successes and failures. There are many other AI technologies - from image recognition to natural language processing, gesture control, context awareness and predictive application programming interfaces (APIs) - but machine learning is where most of the investment community's funding has flowed in recent years. It is also the technology most likely to allow machines to ultimately surpass the intelligence levels of humans. Many companies, like Alphabet, have already become'AI-first' companies, with machine learning at their core. At the same time, many ML techniques are getting commoditized by being open sourced and pre-packaged into developer toolkits that anyone can use.