Chinese AI firm advances against headwinds, doesn't fear US' bullying

Source: Global Times Published: 2020/8/12 23:19:19

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China's top voice recognition firm iFlytek said Wednesday that US' bullying in adding the firm to the Entity List has not slowed its R&D and its products which it supplies to Huawei has surpassed the capability of those from Google.

iFlytek Chairman Liu Qingfeng said during an event in East China's Jiangxi Province on Wednesday that many people are worried about whether iFlytek will continue to maintain its leading position in the world after being included in the US Entity List. In the recent English-language recognition competition, iFlytek was again ranked first in the world.

The US government added eight Chinese companies involved in facial-recognition and artificial intelligence (AI) technology to its Entities list in October last year. The move prevents the Chinese entities from buying US products. The firms added to the list include iFlytek, Hikvision, Megvii Technology and SenseTime. 

According to Liu, the company could not purchase US chips since being put on the list. Many of iFlytek's laboratories in the US have also been forced to close. 

"Nowadays, it is difficult for electronic equipment to go abroad without voice interaction capabilities," Liu said, while citing Huawei's smartphone.

Due to the US government's extreme pressure on Huawei, Google Mobile Services (GMS) was prevented from supplying the Chinese firm with services of voice assistant, which could directly affect the global sales of Huawei smartphones, according to Liu.

"We have not only caught up with Google but fully surpassed it in the three languages in the European markets: English, French and Spanish when Huawei launched its P40 series in Europe in March," Liu said.

Huawei's self-developed replacement of GMS - Huawei Mobile Services (HMS) was one feature on its P40 series smartphones.

Available in more than 170 countries and regions, HMS has over 4 million monthly active users and more than 1.3 million developers and partners globally, Richard Yu, CEO of Huawei Consumer Business Group, said in March. 



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