Chinese Gov’t & Baidu Set to Establish China’s First National Laboratory for Deep Learning

The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) in China recently approved the establishment of the country’s first national laboratory for deep learning, this according to the report by the South China Morning Post.

Baidu, operator of China’s biggest online search engine, has been commissioned by NDRC to lead the deep learning laboratory and to collaborate with researchers from China’s top universities and research institutes.

Giving a green light for the creation of China’s very first national laboratory for deep learning, according to the South China Morning Post, signals the Chinese Government’s intent to surpass the United States in the field of artificial intelligence.

Lee Kai-fu, founder of Chinese venture capital firm Sinovation Ventures, told the South China Morning Post that the significant number of engineering and science college students in China gives this country a distinct advantage in AI development.

“About 40 per cent of the leading AI research papers in the world are published by the Chinese. The really top-level AI experts are still those from North America and the UK, but the Chinese are expected to get better and better with their quick learning and the improvement of platforms they work for,” Lee said.

As reported by the South China Morning Post, Baidu confirmed the establishment of this deep learning laboratory via the company’s official WeChat account. Baidu, accordingly, aims to make this deep learning laboratory “boost China’s overall competence in artificial intelligence” and will focus on research about machine learning-based visual recognition, voice recognition, deep learning intellectual property and new types of human machine interaction.