Enterprises reveal their latest applications of AI in HK Technology Conferences

aleksandra.cfte
Sep 4, 2018 · 4 min read

Karin Chang, CFTE alum, shares her experience attending the 2018 AI Summit and RISE Conference in Hong Kong, two of the world’s largest tech events. They were held successfully from the 9th to 12th July and the 1st of August respectively.

FinTech, Blockchain, Cryptocurrency, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Robotic Process Automation are some of the recurring themes for both start-ups and enterprises across both conferences. I found that the talks involving applications of AI appealed to me most. I keep on dreaming about what the future would look like powered by the AI applications I had the opportunity to learn about in recent conferences — I’m sure it is not too far away from now!

I’m not sure if you know Sophia. She is a social humanoid robot developed by Hong Kong-based company Hanson Robotics. She was presented at both the Rise conference and AI Summit.

“Robots can be as creative as humans” session by Hanson Robotics

Ben Goertzel and David Hanson from Hanson Robotics demonstrated how Sophia is as broadly intelligent as humans. The kind of intelligence Sophia possesses: logical, musical, interpersonal, intrapersonal, existential, visual, linguistics, naturalistic and kinesthetics. She even sang at RISE!

One of the most popular sub-domains within AI is Natural Language Processing. Sogou, the Chinese search engine showcased its NLP proficiency in RISE. The talk by Wang Xiaochuan, CEO of Sogou, was conducted in Mandarin, which wasn’t a problem for non-mandarin speakers, as bilingual subtitles were available. These were dynamically generated in real time and would be updated based on the speaker’s latest dialogue. I can’t wait to see a new world with no language barriers!

“The next frontier of artificial intelligence” session by Sogou

They also introduced a virtual anchor technology that simulates natural speech and expression.

JD.com, China’s leading online retailer, also announced its mission to transform from a ‘technology-empowered retail’ to ‘retail technology company’ at the AI summit. It also demonstrated some great uses of NLP in the retail sector.

“Transforming Service Experiences with AI” session by JD.com

Have you ever seen the bird below? I’m sure you haven’t as it is indeed created by AI, based on the text description alone. JD.com has been applying AI to create machine generated content in the e-commerce website to deliver a more personalized and automated experience to customers.

The applications of AI also extend to the entertainment industry. The session from Digital Domain, Hong Kong-based owner of Oscar-winning visual effects house, was one of my favourite sessions at the RISE conference.

Daniel Seah, CEO of Digital Domain, unveiled how Brad Pitt’s character was shot in the Hollywood movie “The Curious Case of Benjamin Buttonusing AI. A database of hundreds of captured facial expressions and body movements of the actor was created. This allowed the face of the character to age from 44 to 87 and enable it to express all human emotions. Totally mind blowing!

A variety of other companies also demonstrated AI applications such as autonomous driving and chatbots. With all these amazing applications, AI is going to integrate with our everyday life. We may soon discover that the ‘people’ we get in touch with might actually be humanoid robots like Sophia! However, there are also enormous risks to our wellbeing that we may encounter. How AI will be regulated and monitored will be a hot topic in the coming future; we would like to make sure it is ethical and unbiased as well as being able to live with humankind peacefully.

Thank you CFTE for the opportunity to attend these conferences.

Karin Chang

Centre for Finance, Technology and Entrepreneurship

An education platform providing courses to help finance professionals adapt to a world of Fintech disruption

aleksandra.cfte

Written by

Centre for Finance, Technology and Entrepreneurship

An education platform providing courses to help finance professionals adapt to a world of Fintech disruption

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