On 3 December 2020, an SCO Secretariat delegation led by Secretary-General Vladimir Norov visited the head office of Xiao-i, a Chinese artificial intelligence company, during a working trip to Shanghai.
Xiao-i Chairman Max Yuan invited the guests to a special demonstration zone to see how the enterprise works, and its projects in artificial intelligence, cloud personal digital assistants, big data, translation with a high level of speech recognition and other special computer apps.
During the talks, the SCO Secretary-General updated Max Yuan on the legal and regulatory framework established in the field of information technology, and mechanisms of cooperation and interaction available within the SCO.
In particular, Vladimir Norov underscored the relevance of the 2019 Concept for Cooperation between the SCO Member States in the Sphere of Digitalisation and Information and Communication Technologies, which envisages cooperation in projects such as the smart city, the Internet of Things, big data processing, artificial intelligence, blockchain, intelligent control systems, etc.
"In order to implement the provisions of this Concept through expert mechanisms, we have started putting together an appropriate Action Plan. In this regard, we need the experience of enterprises specialising in digitalisation and IT," the Secretary-General said.
Vladimir Norov pointed out the need to develop a Programme of SCO Cooperation in artificial intelligence through attracting the best practices from the member countries, and creating an appropriate cooperation platform for exchanging experience.
Max Yuan spoke about the company's plans for the near future, which include the development of artificial intelligence using 5G technologies; he said he hoped they would be able to use the SCO platform to put Xiao-i products and services on the market in the SCO family states.
The SCO Secretary-General proposed working out a specific cooperation plan between the SCO Secretariat and Xiao-i, taking into account the SCO member states' significant potential for the development of artificial intelligence.
Xiao-i was established in 2001 in Shanghai to develop artificial intelligence projects.
The company provides services to leading Chinese companies such as AliBaba, Haidilao, Huawei, JD.com, Ctrip.com, SF, Xiaomi and 50 major banks. The company's development priorities include expanding the provision of services for small businesses, the production of equipment with embedded AI-enabled software, and promoting products on foreign markets.
Xiao-i is on Gartner's list of the world's largest AI-companies; its investors and shareholders include Alibaba, Geely, Zhongqin, Guangda and others.