On Jan. 29, Chinese tech giant Alibaba’s artificial intelligence (AI) platform “City Brain” has been officially introduced to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to improve traffic regulation, municipal planning, and environmental protection.

It will be the first time for the city to apply AI technology to urban governance.

In the first phase, the AI platform will help 281 crossroads in Kuala Lumpur to ease traffic pressure through smart signal control, accident detection, and priority for emergency vehicles.

It is another major move of Alibaba in Southeast Asia after the company launched its cloud platform in Malaysia three months ago.

The CEO of Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) Dato’ Yasmin Mahmood said that the City Brain will not only do real-time analysis and automatically allocate public resources, but also encourage local application of AI technology.

According to Hu Xiaoming, president of Alibaba Cloud Computing, 2018 marks the fourth year of the company’s global services, and also the second year of the launching of the Electronic World Trade Platform (eWTP) in Malaysia.

With successful industrial application, China’s AI technology will provide services for more cities in the future after Kuala Lumpur, he noted.

In China, the City Brain has been launched in seven cities, increasing traffic efficiency by 15%.