WAIC 2019 Kicks Off in Shanghai — SenseTime Founder Demystifies What It Takes to Innovate

On August 29, the World Artificial Intelligence Conference 2019 (WAIC 2019) kicks off its 3-day program in Shanghai, China. Riding on the success of the previous edition, distinguished guests from academia, business sectors and international organizations from all over the world gathered in Shanghai today to showcase and witness the state-of-the-art AI capabilities and technological innovations.

This morning, Li Qiang, Secretary of CPC Municipal Committee of Shanghai made an opening remark; Ying Yong, Vice Secretary of CPC Municipal Committee of Shanghai and Mayor of Shanghai, hosted the opening ceremony.

Tom Mitchell, Dean of School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon University, Harry Shum, Executive Vice President of Artificial Intelligence & Research, Microsoft, Pony Ma, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer, Tencent, Prof. Tang Xiao’ou, Founder of SenseTime and Professor at The Chinese University of Hong Kong, gave opening keynotes to the audience; while Jack Ma, Executive Chairman of Alibaba Group, and Elon Musk, Co-founder and CEO of Tesla, conducted a high-level conversation about AI.

In Prof. Tang’s keynote speech, he shared his view about original innovation. "It takes 3 indispensable factors to bring innovation: well-protected intellectual property rights, tremendous effort in talent cultivation as well as the frequent exchange of ideas and insights between academia and industries."

Talking about China’s originality, Prof. Tang took a well-received original Chinese animation movie NeZha as an example to showcase the innovation of the Chinese movie industry and the importance of IP protection.