Guangdong to further support AI firms

South China's Guangdong province will spare no effort to support artificial intelligence and robotics companies in achieving breakthroughs in technology industrialization, product marketing and service commercialization in the coming months, a senior official said.

The latest move aims to continuously provide high-quality and affordable products and services for local companies as well as households, accelerating the empowerment of thousands of industries with AI and deepening the application of "robot+" scenarios, said Qu Xiaojie, deputy director of the Guangdong Department of Industry and Information Technology.

"Meanwhile, Guangdong, a global innovation center, sincerely welcomes scientists, entrepreneurs and young talent from around the world in the fields of AI and robotics to invest and develop the AI and robotics industry in the province," he said.

Qu said that his department would ensure coordination of resources, cultivation of enterprises, industrial agglomeration, ecological optimization and promotion of exchanges to support innovation and development by enterprises in the AI and robotics industry in the province, which is also a major production base in the world.

Qu made the remarks at a news conference in Guangzhou, the provincial capital, on Wednesday.

Qu said Guangdong has potential to develop the AI and robotics industry, as the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area combines the advantages of electromechanical and digital intelligence technology, with a complete AI and robotics industry chain, complete support facilities, fast response, high quality, good service and excellent ecology.

The province, an economic powerhouse of the country, has become a mecca for global talent, technology and capital, he said.

Guangdong has excellent computing chips like the Huawei Ascend and self-developed general-purpose models like Tencent Cloud, according to Qu.

And the eight major models in the AI industry of Guangdong have been preliminarily applied in related fields and achieved significant results, he added.

Wang Jian, general manager of Tencent Cloud Guangdong province, said Tencent Cloud's AI large model has been implemented in more than 30 industries, including government affairs, retail, finance and industry.

Tencent will continue to lower the technological threshold and focus on scenario implementation, using its "useful, easy-to-use, and reliable" AI capabilities to help Guangdong's AI and robotics industry enter into an era of global, full-time and all-scenario intelligence, he said.

"And we have now launched Tencent Cloud Intelligent Computing Suite by integrating high-performance computing, storage, networking, acceleration suite, cloud native intelligent scheduling and orchestration capabilities, to help customers manage their economic accounts with computing power," Wang said.

Hao Shengwei, marketing director of Huawei Ascend Computing Business, said Huawei Ascend has been focusing on key technologies and continues to innovate by combining computing, storage, networking and other capabilities.

"It has continuously improved its hardware and software capabilities, developed many fusion operators, and opened up many basic software and capabilities to partners for them to create their own applications and operators," he said.

Hao said more than 80 partners have now built their large model application all-in-one machines based on Ascend's computing power base, which have been applied in more than 200 enterprises.

"Many companies have built their own technology and computing power based on Ascend, and we will continue to make AI truly enter various industries," he added.