National AI champion SenseTime enters pact with China’s central bank amid digital currency trials
- The collaboration aims to help strengthen ‘risk control and operational capabilities’ across financial institutions
- The Digital Currency Research Institute, a unit of the People’s Bank of China, is overseeing development of a new sovereign digital currency
SenseTime, the world’s highest valued artificial intelligence start-up, has signed a pact with the digital currency unit of China’s central bank to speed up adoption of the latest AI technologies in the financial industry.
The ultimate goal is to help strengthen “risk control and operational capabilities” across financial institutions, the statement said, without providing details of the initiative.
It marks the latest high-profile collaboration between the central government and major companies, as testing of China’s sovereign digital currency escalated this month and more reforms are planned for other domestic industries.
China, which aims to lead the world in AI and 5G mobile communications, would become the first major economy to roll out its own digital currency when its tests are completed. There has been no official timetable announced for launching the digital currency.
China gets first glimpse at sovereign digital currency after screenshot leaks online
China’s official digital currency, known as Digital Currency Electronic Payment or DC/EP, came into the public spotlight earlier this month when a screenshot of a test version of an app developed by the Agricultural Bank of China circulated online.
Testing of the sovereign digital currency has been going on for several months at China’s state-owned banks, the South China Morning Post reported earlier this month. Internal tests have been carried out in Shenzhen, Suzhou, Chengdu and Xiong’an, according to a report by The Wall Street Journal.