Developers promote innovation at AI and speech-technology expo

HEFEI, Oct. 25 (Xinhua) -- Companies and developers specializing in artificial intelligence (AI) and speech technology gathered in Hefei, capital of east China's Anhui Province, on Monday for the 4th World Voice Expo and Global 1024 Developer Festival.

With the theme of "Symbiosis with AI, a New Journey," the expo features more than 1,000 cutting-edge AI products in fields such as manufacturing, education, medical care and smart city management. The event is mainly organized by iFLYTEK, an AI and speech-technology giant based in Anhui.

More than 2.65 million developers from home and abroad have joined an open AI innovation platform backed by iFLYTEK since its launch in 2010, churning out more than 1.26 million applications.

The platform was approved by China's Ministry of Science and Technology as one of the first batches of national open platforms for new-generation AI innovation in 2017.

"The number of developers on the platform has increased by 90,000 per month on average over the past year. People from all kinds of backgrounds are joining the platform to develop more and more products. We can feel a stronger momentum in the application of AI technology," said Liu Qingfeng, chairman of iFLYTEK.

Speaking at the expo's opening ceremony, Gao Wen, an academician with the Chinese Academy of Engineering, said that China has a large number of young talent, but the number it has at the top level is only about 20 percent of United States' figure. Therefore, China needs to do a better job in cultivating more leading AI talent, said Gao.

The Global 1024 Developer Festival was launched in 2017 and was combined with the World Voice Expo in 2018 to form a unified event. The four-day expo includes product-launch conferences, industry summits, AI developer contests and other events.