A bright future for Artificial Intelligence throughout Asia

SILICON Valley has long been viewed as the cradle of innovation when it comes to emerging technologies. As home to the likes of Google, Facebook and Apple, it is easy to see why. However, that dominance is being challenged. Today, Asia is rapidly becoming the home of the Next Big Thing in terms of Artificial Intelligence (AI). Just as the 2000s were the decade of web-enabling, and the late 2000s to mid-2010s signalled the time of mobile-enabling, we are now seeing the birth of the era of AI-enabling of every facet of our lives, from autonomous driving to virtual assistants.

Indeed, AI was one of the hot topics at CES 2018 in Las Vegas last month and Chinese web giant Baidu used tech's biggest annual exhibition as a platform to send a clear message to its global rivals in the sector - China is catching up to the US. In a presentation, the firm's COO and group president Qi Lu, a former Microsoft executive, noted that Baidu has more data than almost anyone else, thanks to its search business, while the talent level in China is also rising and government policy in the country is highly supportive of AI-related projects.

If you were a US rival of Baidu, you might have left the event a little worried. Meanwhile, in Singapore, the government has set up a national AI programme to spur innovation. The aim of the Research Programme on the Governance of Artificial Intelligence and Data Use, among other objectives, is to establish Singapore as a global thought leader in AI and data policies and regulations.