Beijing Develops First AI computing Center

News Desk

Beijing: In order to meet the city’s rapidly expanding demand for intelligent computing power, Beijing has opened its first artificial intelligence (AI) computing facility, the Beijing Ascend AI Computing Center.

The Mentougou District government, the ZGC Group and Huawei jointly founded the centre. Based on Ascend AI hardware and software, the centre offers corporations and research institutes computational power services. With 47 clients already signed up, it is expected to have more than 248P of computing power available. With a short-term computing power scale goal of 500P and a long-term aim of 1,000P, the centre intends to keep growing.

China has ambitious plans to dominate emerging technologies, including robotics and AI. With a domestic industry valued US$150 billion by 2030, the country wants to lead the globe in artificial intelligence. It might realise its goal sooner than anticipated. Last year, 48 per cent of equity funding for AI start-ups globally came from China, compared with 38 per cent from the US. Its robotics industry became the largest market for industrial robots in 2013.

Although China is responsible for more than half of new AI initiatives, it only possesses 5 per cent of the world’s AI talent; according to a Tsinghua University study, the talent pool in China is just half as large as that in the US. To close the gap, authorities plan to create the biggest AI talent training programme in the world.