Chinese tech leader says AI can play a role in Beijing’s goal of eliminating poverty
- Beijing had set 2020 as a target to rid the country of poverty but that goal has been thrown into doubt by the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the economy
- iFlyTek is among a number of companies providing disabled people with AI-powered tools for reading aloud and auto transcribing
China’s ambitions to eliminate poverty can be helped by using artificial intelligence (AI) technology to level uneven distribution of resources and boost employment, according to an outspoken tech leader.
Liu Qingfeng, chairman of Chinese AI champion iFlyTek – and also a delegate to China’s National People's Congress (NPC) parliament – said he expects AI technology to play a vital role in lifting China out of poverty.
Beijing had set 2020 as a target year to rid the country of poverty but that goal has now been thrown into doubt by the economic destruction caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
“We will actively respond to the call [for poverty alleviation] and promote social wellness through the development of AI industries,” he told People’s Daily online earlier this week.
iFlyTek is among a number of companies providing disabled people with AI-powered tools such as reading aloud for the blind and auto transcribing for the hearing-impaired. Liu said his company was offering these services for free more than 50 million times per day.
Separately, the Shenzhen-listed company has set up data labelling factories in Guizhou province, providing local residents with “stable income” from using computers to label data required for the machine learning process.
