Shanghai to hold global conference on AI in Sept

Shanghai will hold the 2018 World Artificial Intelligence Conference in September, part of the city's effort to boost an industry that is projected to generate over 100 billion yuan ($15.1 billion) in two to three years.

The announcement was made by Shanghai Vice-Mayor Wu Qing in a press briefing last week, when he detailed a number of AI-themed activities taking place this year and outlined the city's key objectives in the AI realm.

The AI conference, which will be attended by top-notch researchers and senior executives from the industry, will host forum summits, special activities and a number of exhibitions to discuss and showcase the latest AI developments from September 17 to 19, Wu said.

A three-month long competition, the 2018 AI-Win, is ongoing from June to August, during which AI specialists on robotics, machine-human interface, medical innovation and smart driving share their researches and explore the possibilities for more real-life applications.

Winners of the competition will be announced in September.

The events reflect a broader ambition of Shanghai in the AI sector, whose output reached 70 billion yuan last year, according to Chen Mingbo, director of the Shanghai Commission of Economy and Information Technology.

According to Chen, the city is eyeing to set up an AI fund with more than 100 billion yuan and is inviting public participation. It also plans to create 10 public platforms for AI innovation, six demonstration zones and 60 AI applications.

Shanghai has unique AI advantages in categories such as connected cars, smart manufacturing and medical image recognition, according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.