A robot communicates with a man. (File photo/China News Service)
(ECNS) -- Haidian District of Beijing rolled out 15 measures on technology innovation on Sunday, pledging to provide funding up to 200 million yuan ($29 million) for key breakthroughs in artificial intelligence.
The district will offer up to 10 million yuan each year for up to three straight years for “revolutionary innovations.” It will also earmark 10 million yuan a year for three consecutive years to support development of open innovation platforms such as those for AI collaboration, public computing and open source technology.
Funding of up to 200 million yuan will also be made available to support advanced cross-disciplinary research among colleges, new R&D initiatives and teams led by top scientists.
AI will be further applied in transportation, medical care, finance, manufacturing and education, with key projects able to apply for 10 million yuan in funding.
Haidian District said it will cooperate with Beijing Academy of Artificial Intelligence to launch a fund of up to 2 billion yuan to support startup efforts by AI scientists, as well as another 1 billion yuan for guiding AI commercialization.
Haidian has a leading role across China in AI chips, computer vision, speech recognition, autonomous driving and intelligent medical devices, laying a solid foundation for the AI industry. It is already home to nearly 20 percent of China's AI enterprises, including 11 Unicorns.
