Artificial intelligence in the news
April, May & June 2021
The Q2 2021 artificial intelligence news headlines collected here each link to the individual AI news item, report or download behind them. Headlines featured were reported across April, May and June of 2021 and provide an overview of AI news headlines arising from or concerning the broad Asia-Pacific region, alongside ‘wider world’ artificial intelligence news to provide additional points of reference.
The Q2 2021 artificial intelligence news round-up pulls headlines from across 17 locations across South & SE Asia and Oceania, delivering a quick reference overview of developments and issues in AI. We collect artificial intelligence news for the Q2 AI news round-up with a ‘wide angle’ view, covering implementations and initiatives rather than zeroing in on developments in a single industry.
Click on any of the artificial intelligence news headlines below and you’ll go directly to the free-to-read online article behind them – no middleman service, no interstitial ads, no time wasted.
We also produce quarterly startup news collections as downloads – PDF format via MagCloud – and to order for delivery in full-colour hardcopy, also via MagCloud.
June 2021 | May 2021 | April 2021
You can also get our all-day tech news updates
via mobile app and social media
Artificial intelligence in June 2021
- Artificial Intelligence: The emotion business and how companies are learning to read your mind – an interactive piece from The Financial Times
- South Korea: “The race to develop AI bankers is heating up in Korea, especially after the pandemic brought about the closure of hundreds of offline stores nationwide.”
- ICYMI: Google now using AI to design next generation of AI chips in 6 hours, compared with months for human designers
- Artificial intelligence in healthcare: A brief intro to 16 firms across APAC
- ICYMI: Stripe payments giant launches Stripe Identity, artificial intelligence and ML tech ID tool intended to securely verify identities of users from more than 30 countries
- AI x Gov online event set for July 27th, focusing on the theme of ‘Public Sector Innovation Through Artificial Intelligence’ with 2 streams, government and health
- “First came facial recognition. Now, an early form of lip-reading AI is being deployed in hospitals, power plants, public transportation, and more.”
- Asia Pacific Accelerator unveils 20 med-tech and health-tech startups competing for a place to present in October’s APACMed MedTech Forum 2021 in Singapore
- Download: Artificial Intelligence governance as a new European Union external policy tool
- “What if an AI won the Nobel prize for medicine?” An imagined scenario from The Economist
- Download: ‘Trust In Artificial Intelligence’, a 5-country study from KPMG and Australia’s University of Queensland (pdf)
- Mapping China’s Tech Giants: Mapping overseas expansion of 27 key tech firms, featuring 3800+ entries, spanning up to 15 categories and providing 38000+ data points
- China: Beijing Sinoits Tech raises $3-$5M pre-Series A with vehicle recognition tech, AI-driven traffic analysis and more
- Lofty principles, conflicting incentives: AI ethics and governance in China
- Indonesia: Prixa raises $3M to scale AI-driven platform user base, while supporting B2B customers and improving healthcare access and digital health transformation
- Singapore: Osome raises $16M Series A to digitize accounting and compliance services for SMEs using artificial intelligence
- Sri Lanka: National Development Bank selects Axion to deploy OneConnect artificial intelligence-driven video know-your-customer tech
- ICYMI: Future Today Institute’s 2021 Tech Trends Report, covering AI, healthtech, blockchain, 5G, government, policy and more
- Vietnam: Hanet gains series A funding with artificial intelligence-powered cameras for home security, business timekeeping, traffic surveillance and other users
- India: A look at AdmitKard, providing an AI-backed ‘course-to-career’ solution to simplify overseas university admissions for Indian students
- Japan’s KDDI telco backs Indonesia’s Qlue smart city platform and solutions provider, aiming to expand AI, IoT and other tech solutions to wider SEA
- China: Facetech Holdings gains funding to further develop tech using AI and neural networks to identify faces obscured by protective equipment or other coverings
Artificial intelligence in May 2021
- ICYMI: Microsoft Azure Women in AI Program sessions are available in Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Philippines, Korea, Thailand, Singapore and Sri Lanka
- Facial recognition training systems and your photos – who will have access to them, what will be done with them, and which algorithms will they train?
- Cybersecurity and AI: “The latest generation of neural networks are vulnerable to a new kind of attack that makes them use too much energy.”
- Download: Truth, Lies, and Automation – How Language Models Could Change Disinformation
- China: A brief look at the rise of AI and automation in funds management
- ICYMI: Google unveils tool that uses artificial intelligence to help spot skin, hair and nail conditions, based on images uploaded by patients
- University of Hong Kong launches HKU AI Lawyer, and AI-driven sentencing predictor focused on drug trafficking offenses
- India: A look at ReshaMandi, AI-driven agri-tech startup helping silk farmers improve quality, boosting income up to 30%
- India: L&T Technology Services and Intel developed AI-based guidance system to help drivers locate nearby parking spaces, eyeing a market valued at $5.4BN by 2025
- India: Wadhwani AI partnered by Google’s philanthropic arm for AI-driven, app-based system to identify crop pests, predict disease trajectory, and provide actionable insights
- Japan: Video pitch made by Ginkan, an AI-driven social restaurant discovery platform, at the recent Unicorn Battle South East Asia & Oceania event
- Philippines: Gov’t to establish National Center for AI Research, in support of recently-unveiled AI Roadmap
- Philippines: A brief intro to Exora Source, artificial-intelligence-powered system assessing energy usage using historical and real-time data to bring user costs down
- Singapore: AffableAI marketing-tech firm raises $2M with SaaS platform helping brands and agencies run social media-focused influencer marketing campaigns
- Taiwan approves AI-based detection system for chest X-rays to more quickly detect COVID-19 infections
- “…Spotify elicited sheer panic when it was granted a patent for analyzing users’ voices to decipher their emotional state and then make music recommendations to match.”
- Download: Tech Trends 2021, 166-page overview from Deloitte (pdf)
- India: An intro to Niramai, tech startup helping detect breast cancer using thermal analytics and artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence in April 2021
- ICYMI: IBM Cloud Data Challenge – Outcome Prediction using AutoAI competition now open for entries, via Freelancer
- Download: Artificial Intelligence Index Report 2021, from Stanford University (pdf)
- Vietnam enters partnership with South Korea’s Naver, country’s largest internet company, in national strategy move aiming for global player status in artificial intelligence
- JournalismAI opens Collab Challenge in Asia-Pacific, seeking participants on theme of AI and audience insights as aids towards relevant and interactive news narratives
- ICYMI: European Union officials propose new regulations for high-risk uses of artificial intelligence like facial scanning
- An MIT Technology Review podcast looks at how close artificial intelligence is to decoding human emotions
- China: Huawei deactivates AI and cloud business group in restructuring move, continuing difficulties in transitioning from hardware maker to service provider
- India: A look at VernacularAI’s voice assistant VIVA, capable of understanding 16 languages and over 160 dialects, and currently being implemented in banks across rural India
- 4 Indian startups selected for NetApp Excellerator, working in digital manufacturing, HR technology, AI and cybersecurity
- Malaysia: An interview intro to the country’s digitalisation strategy, looking at use of cloud platforms, artificial intelligence and blockchain
- Taiwan: InfuseAI machine learning operations startup raises $4.3M, with MLOps solutions market projected to reach $4BN value in 2025
- ICYMI: An overview of 8 industries being disrupted by Elon Musk’s companies, including energy, infrastructure and healthcare
- Taiwan: Vision Program Online Demo Day set for April 28th, showcasing 5 startups working in blockchain, green energy, medtech and more
- Singapore’s Habitap smart home management system launches Indonesia presence, introducing AI-driven system at luxury residential development
- Hong Kong: Start-up Express 2021 opens call for applications, seeking tech startups in 8 categories including AI, fintech, retail-tech and more
ASIA’S TECH NEWS Daily
Startup News Asia mobile app – boosting the signal on Asia’s tech news, daily – get the app on Google Play:
ASIA’S startup NEWS today, ON SOCIAL MEDIA
You can alternatively get our all-day tech news on social media:
• Asia’s tech news daily on Twitter
• Asia’s tech news today, on Facebook
• Asia’s startup news via LinkedIn
And connect with our founder on LinkedIn to expand your professional networks:
