ChatGPT went viral. Where is China AI 2.0 heading?
Kai-Fu Lee, Sinovation Ventures' (Chinese: 创新工场) Chairman and CEO, announced in WeChat Moments that he is personally leading a new venture-building initiative called Project Al 2.0, on March 19th. This is the seventh company incubated by Sinovation Ventures and is committed to creating a new platform for Al 2.0, a global company with Al-first productivity applications.
"Project Al 2.0 is not just the Chinese version of ChatGPT," Kai-Fu Lee said, "I think Al 2.0 is more than just a smart chatting platform and AIGC for graphic creation. Even Copilot and the applications we're seeing today are just a drop in the bucket of what AI 2.0 can do."
And he also mentioned that the funds and computing mechanics of Project Al 2.0 have been in place, and now the team formation has officially started. The new team dominates the options of the new company, and top global talents are in urgent need.
According to Sinovation Ventures website, Project AI 2.0 is currently gathering experts worldwide who specialize in large models, NLP, multi-modality, algorithms, distributed architecture/Infrastructure, etc. Kai-Fu Lee will personally oversee the team now while they seek out global talent; after the CEO has been appointed, he will hand over the baton.
Before Project AI 2.0, the six companies incubated by Sinovation Ventures were Langboat (Chinese: 澜舟科技), AInnovation (Chinese: 创新奇智), Syneron Tech (Chinese: 呈元科技), BAIONT (Chinese: 倍漾科技), J-Elephant (Chinese: 捷象灵越), and MOOTION, respectively.
Among them, AInnovation successfully completed its H-share listing on the main board of Hong Kong Stock Exchange of China in January 2022, becoming the first AI manufacturing stock and the first listed company incubated by Sinovation Ventures.
According to the introduction, Sinovation Ventures is to study and discover the world's cutting-edge technology trends, actively search for high-quality science projects, and use professional investment teams in the industry to form the model for deep project incubation using technology investment and comprehensive empowerment.
The company started to tap into the AI track in 2012 and has nurtured 10 AI 1.0 unicorns so far, including MEGVII (Chinese: 旷视), 4Paradigm (Chinese: 第四范式), Horizon Robotics (Chinese: 地平线), ZHUIYI (Chinese: 追一科技), etc.