Shenzhen has hosted an artificial intelligence (AI) competition to help identify the country’s most promising start-ups, as the technology hub in southern Guangdong province steps up its support for the hot industry sector.
Konvery Data, which provides AI data labelling and automation services for autonomous driving, won first prize from over 100 projects at the AI Startup Competition on Tuesday, which was hosted by Shenzhen’s Internet Information Office, the Baoan District Government of Shenzhen Municipality and Chinese media outlet NetEase Media.
Konvery Data, founded last February, uses AI to increase the efficiency of data labelling, an essential process in building machine learning models. Demand for data and related technology has exploded since the emergence of generative AI services, such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT and its Chinese competitors, late last year.
As the top prizewinner, the Beijing start-up will receive a package of incentives that includes cash and government and industry backing worth around 1 million yuan (US$141,014).
Ant Group gets green light from Beijing to release new AI products to the public
Ant Group gets green light from Beijing to release new AI products to the public
Three companies shared the second prize, including Shenzhen’s i-Nav, which provides an optical fibre navigation positioning system for cars; WeShop, a project team under Hangzhou-based e-commerce firm Mogujie that uses AI to generate product display images; and Ele AI, a Beijing company that allows merchants to design product packages with their AI tools.
Six other AI start-ups shared third prize and the competition also recognised 10 more companies with an innovation award.
The competition targeted early-stage start-ups that are laying the foundations for the new AI era, as well as those developing applications using AI-generated content (AIGC) technology.
Shenzhen has been stepping up its support for the AI industry as the race to build ChatGPT-like technologies intensifies domestically and globally.
LLMs, the technology behind ChatGPT, are deep-learning algorithms that can recognise, summarise, translate, predict and generate text and other content based on knowledge gained from massive data sets.
In 2019, China’s Ministry of Science and Technology established the first batch of national AI pilot zones. These include the cities of Beijing, Shanghai, Hangzhou, Hefei, Shenzhen and Tianjin, as well as Deqing County near Hangzhou, capital of eastern Zhejiang province.