Guangdong turns AI advances into affordable innovation

As artificial intelligence takes physical form, Guangdong province's manufacturing depth is turning advances in the fast-evolving technology into high-quality, affordable products at scale, allowing consumers around the world to benefit more widely from innovation, said foreign experts and media representatives.

They made the remarks at the ongoing Asia-Pacific Media Forum. Prior to the opening ceremony, which is scheduled for Saturday in Shenzhen, Guangdong, guests from around the world toured companies and facilities across the province showcasing Guangdong's latest advances in technology and manufacturing.

Rebecca Fannin, founder of Silicon Dragon Ventures, a United States-based media and events platform with a focus on venture capitalists and innovators, said that China is emerging as a global center for the commercialization of AI, with investment increasingly flowing into hardware and physical AI applications that can be quickly integrated into the real economy.

"Silicon Valley right now has so many AI startups. It's an incredible bubble, and valuations are going insane. But here in Shenzhen, venture capital is much more along hardware and physical AI," Fannin said.

"Physical AI is the next frontier. This means the embodiment of AI into physical devices, not just as software, but applied to hardware," she said, adding that Guangdong's long-standing strengths in hardware innovation and manufacturing could give it a substantial advantage in this field.

That shift from digital intelligence to physical products plays directly to Guangdong's strengths, said Taylor Ogan, founder and CEO of Snow Bull Capital, a hedge fund investment company.

"Startups in Shenzhen can source every component they need within an hour's drive. That is crazy, and it gives them a formidable advantage," Ogan said.

Such logistic attributes have made the city indispensable to global hardware production.

"There is no supply chain without Shenzhen, and there is no product without some components from Shenzhen," he said, adding that this was why he relocated his company from Boston to the city in Guangdong.

Guangdong boasts one of the world's most extensive and competitive manufacturing systems. It is now active in all 31 major manufacturing categories and has the largest number of industrial enterprises above the designated size in China, with its manufacturing sector representing roughly one-eighth of the national total by scale, official data showed.

Sourabh Gupta, a senior fellow at the Washington-based Institute for China-America Studies, compared this kind of manufacturing capacity to the "clay" needed to turn an idea into a product.

Many places can generate innovative ideas and attract talented people, Gupta said, but Guangdong's complete industrial ecosystem — encompassing materials, engineering expertise, supply chains and production capacity — provides the clay needed to shape those ideas into competitive products.

Guangdong's ability to move ideas swiftly from design to production is translating into tangible benefits for consumers around the world, with locally manufactured intelligent connected vehicles being a prime example.

Donovan Martin, CEO and editor-in-chief of Canada-based The Daily Scrum News, said that although consumers seeking a practical electric vehicle in Canada might consider Tesla, its cars remain beyond the budgets of most Canadians.

"Whenever you introduce competition, you introduce more choices," Martin said. "The quality of Chinese EVs is second to none."

lijiaying@chinadaily.com.cn