The development of artificial intelligence goes by leaps and bounds and AI has great potential for a wide range of applications, including security surveillance, financial industry, health care, self-driving vehicles and many others. Deep-learning and computer vision technologies are used to enable machines to understand digital images and recognise objects and faces. China is especially succeeded in this field and expanding the possibilities of computer vision and commercially successful applications.
More than 100 000 people in the world can be called AI experts and about 30,000 to 40,000 of them are Chinese. According to the Tencent Research Institute, China already has 146 computer-vision companies, which is more than another field in the country’s AI industry. Those companies have raised a total of $2.2 billion from investors, or 23% of the total funds raised by all AI startups. SenseTime, local facial recognition startup, was valued at more than $2 billion in its latest funding round. Between May and December 2017 SenseTime, Yitu Tech and Megvii raised nearly $1 billion.
Computer vision is the next big thing in AI. Recently Apple showed their advancements in computer vision with its new iPhone X, which allows users to unlock their smartphones via Face ID. Surveillance startups grow like mushrooms, reflecting the hunger for smarter surveillance systems and more accurate face-recognition technology for security purposes. Chinese cities are investing billions of yuan to improve their surveillance systems. For example, the city of Fuzhou recently paid 800 million yuan for a facial recognition project and Shanghai spent tens of billions of yuan to upgrade the local police system’s technology. If earlier AI was used mostly in military industry, now it helps a public security system. It’s estimated that the total annual revenue of China’s public security market reached nearly 700 billion yuan in 2017.
SenseTime has developed algorithms that can recognize faces more accurately than human eyes, as the system is achieving an enormous 98.52% correct recognition. With a help of Yitu Tech, public security authority now can locate a suspect from a massive video footage more carefully. If previously security officers could identify a suspect with a 20% accuracy, now they can do it with 85%. Another Chinese startup Megvii Technology is developing a world’s largest face-recognition technology platform Face++ and identifying faces, text and images for more than 300,000 companies and individuals around the world.
Classic surveillance systems are dying and large giants, as Hikvision Digital Technology and Dahua Technology are facing a very strong competition from newcomers. They are investing in new computer vision algorithms but they have been unable to catch up to tech startups in term of accuracy. At the same time, traditional firms, with their well-established business networks and access to resources make it harder for startups to win the market share. Yitu and Megvii have started to develop and promote their own equipment, such as surveillance and access-control systems, to directly compete with traditional giants.
The market is bringing new opportunities. China’s public-security system is working to integrate databases on vehicle registration, traffic infractions, residents’ identity, and telecom use. While most computer-vision startups focus on facial recognition and public security, some experts said there are many other potential business opportunities worth exploring.
For example, the biggest players on the market started to expand to other industries, including online financial services, helping banks to verify customers’ identities through online interviews. SenseTime has focused on facial recognition capacity for mobile phones, while Megvii and Yitu have each developed opportunities in industrial automation and medical services.
Alibaba and Tencent don’t stand aside. Alibaba developed image-search service helping shoppers to locate items they want to buy on its e-commerce sites, integrating computer vision algorithms with cloud computing to develop an AI city management system in Chineses cities. Tencent’s computer vision unit has set up footholds in the public security, financial service and medical care sectors.
Artificial intelligence is innovation and the battle in computer vision is just underway. The fate of large players, newcomers and all market will be determined by new technological advancement, data access, fundraising and commercialization.
Author: AI For Security
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