SenseTime" is a unicorn company that is attracting worldwide attention for AI technology, especially in the field of face recognition. As Asia's largest provider of AI algorithms, their technology is used in a variety of fields, including education, healthcare, smart cities, automotive, communications, and entertainment.
Sensetime was established in Hong Kong in 2014. Currently, the company has over 4000 staff and has expanded into 9 cities in China, Japan and Singapore. It has also raised significant amounts of capital, currently valued at more than 7 billion USD.
The company's technology and services played an important role in the pandemic of the new coronavirus, especially in China, where the virus spread early. Here's how it works.
Early launch of online AI education for free.
With the spread of the new coronavirus disrupting school classes, SenseTime launched a free online AI education program across China in February to support primary and secondary education as well as university students with AI.
SenseTime has long focused on AI education, and by the first half of 2020, 100,000 students from 500 elementary and junior high schools in 11 cities across China had participated in the AI curriculum.
During the school closure period, educational institutions and schools had free access to the “SenseStudy” AI Experimental Platform through an online system. The platform is an interactive space for students to practice AI theory, practice programming, and for teachers to create classes, assign homework, and advise students.
The platform also offers free training courses for teachers looking to become AI instructors, from AI development to applications and algorithms, all available from municipal cloud platforms. The materials used are organized at levels ranging from primary to secondary education, and users can start at a level that meets their needs and capabilities.
In addition, SenseTime has launched "Titan Open Courses" a platform and tool to help AI scholars and college students share knowledge and communicate. This gives users the opportunity to learn about the latest AI research and development, and to talk to experts in the field.
It also offers free livestreaming lessons for users to discuss in real time, as well as a place to test online. A series of popular science videos that teach the basics of AI, machine learning and robotics are also available for free on a variety of other online services.
Early launch of AI diagnostic support app, it’s also free.
In the field of AI medicine, the company worked with hospitals and medical institutions in Hubei province and other cities to provide free smart AI diagnostic support applications for common lung diseases and new coronaviruses to partner medical institutions in just one week.
Computed tomography according to the latest guidelines from the Chinese Centers for Disease Control and Prevention plays an important role in the diagnosis and classification of new coronaviruses. A single CT scan yields about 300-400 images, but a hospital in Hubei, for example, performs up to 150 CT scans a day, so doctors and radiologists had to read 1000 images a day to identify symptomatic patients.
In response to this situation, SenseTime offers an upgraded version of "Sense Care Lung Solutions". Using image processing technology and AI algorithms, the team efficiently and accurately identified patients with symptoms of the new coronavirus and provided doctors with the results of an assisted diagnosis that could quickly identify suspicious lesions.
It also partners with a medical imaging cloud service platform to remotely support hospitals in Hubei. Hospitals and medical institutions in other provinces such as Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Shandong, Hebei and Fujian have also adopted this system directly.
SenseTime acknowledges that AI has dramatically improved the effectiveness, accuracy, and speed of CT scan analysis, but it also recognizes that this diagnostic approach, which relies solely on CT scans, is not yet complete because of the difficulty and complexity of analyzing the symptoms of the new coronavirus, "Our mission is to develop AI forever, and we will continue research and development in cooperation with doctors.".
90% of research doesn't pay off, however-
These social contributions in AI education and medical care are only a small part of the experience of SenseTime, but the speed and dynamism is remarkable. It was the company's greatest asset, the "talent" that made this possible. The company has a pool of smart and talented people with PhDs at leading universities, but they are not only intelligent, also dedicated, humble and muddy to keep learning.
A senior architect who graduated from Beijing Tsinghua University and has studied in the U.S., Europe and Japan told me:
90% of our research doesn't pay off. The gap between the vision and reality is still wide, and it's not easy to monetize. AI is a supportive technology, and it only works if we understand the reality of society and business. That's why we have passion and mission for this job. "
In the latter half of January, schools in China began to close due to the influence of COVID-19. On January 29, 300 million children started taking online classes at once. There was no reason not to be confused by the sudden increase of the number of children from 28 million to more than 10 times, but the adults who would not stop the children's learning and try to evolve at full speed seemed to be reliable and that was the baton that should lead to the future.
As online interaction becomes more and more mainstream, the world will become more connected and less and less bounded. Children around the world who have received AI education from elementary schools using digital tools will live in the same field.
I think that young people living in such a future are being asked how we can connect batons.
Jun 22nd, 2020
Kaoru Fujii,
Founder & CEO, Diverse Design K. K.
