Leo Wang, CEO of Duotech, delivered a captivating speech during the Chinese New Year festivities, shedding light on the transformative power of artificial intelligence (AI) in the fintech industry. Wang’s address resonated strongly with the young professional audience, who make up nearly 70% of Duotech’s staff strength.

Wang began his speech by highlighting the significant impact AI has had on the fintech industry over the last few years. Citing recent statistics from industry reports, he noted that AI adoption in finance has surged, with an estimated 89% of financial services firms globally using AI in some form.

“The fintech landscape has undergone a profound transformation fuelled by AI technologies,” Wang stated. “From algorithmic trading to fraud detection, AI has revolutionised traditional financial practices, enhancing efficiency, accuracy, and security.”

Wang referenced another study which revealed that AI-powered solutions have contributed to a 20% reduction in costs and a 30% increase in revenue for financial institutions. “These statistics underscore the tangible benefits AI brings to the table, driving innovation and profitability in the fintech sector,” Wang added.

In his speech, Wang encouraged the younger generation to embrace AI technologies, emphasising the immense opportunities for growth and innovation in the evolving fintech landscape. He urged them to stay up to date on industry advancements and leverage AI skills to drive positive change within their organisations.

Furthermore, Wang showcased Duotech’s cutting-edge AI solutions tailored for the finance industry, designed to enhance trading strategies, bolster cybersecurity, and streamline compliance processes.

Wang concluded his speech by reaffirming Duotech’s commitment to driving innovation in the fintech industry through AI-powered solutions. “At Duotech, we’re dedicated to leveraging AI to revolutionise finance and empower the younger generation to shape the future of our industry,” he said.

After 3 years of work, an international partnership has realised a precision weeding tool proving that herbicide free agriculture is at hand.

The partnership formed by research centres, universities, private companies and farmers’ organisations from Spain, Germany, Denmark, France, Poland, Belgium, Italy and the Netherlands, by WeLASER project funded by the EU within its “Horizon 2020” programme, has completed the first stage of the development of the a precision weeding prototype tool that allows progress in eradicating the use of herbicides, improving the productivity and competitiveness of crops, thus eliminating health risks and the adverse environmental effects of chemicals.

The prototype includes an autonomous vehicle that drives through the crop and is equipped with an advanced detection system based on artificial intelligence (AI) through image acquisition and data processing, which allows it to distinguish and localize the centre of growth of the weed to be eradicated. Once targeted through the scanner, it directs the high-powered fibre laser source to that meristem. This fast modulation concept allows precise energy pulses to be directed for highly efficient weed treatment. Data management are managed by a cloud computing architecture and the system includes the IoT technology.

Although this project is currently concluding this first phase of development, further work will be needed, for example, to reduce the time required to work in the field, to make the prototype easier to handle and connect, and to reduce production costs in order to achieve a marketable model on the market.

A project of maximum cooperation between entities from all over Europe

WeLASER is the result of the cooperation of 10 partners from 8 EU member states. On the Spanish side, the Centro de Automática y Robótica (CAR) belonging to the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC) and coordinator of the project and the Coordinadora de Organizaciones de Agricultores y Ganaderos (COAG); on the German side, the Laser Zentrum Hannover e.V. (LZH) and the company Futonics Laser GmbH (FUT); from Denmark, the Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences of the University of Copenhagen (CPH); from France, the company AgreenCulture (AGC); from Italy, the Interdepartmental Centre for Industrial Agri-Food Research of the University of Bologna (UNIBO); from Poland, the Instytut Ekologii Terenów Uprzemysłowionych (Institute of Ecology of Industrial Areas) (IETU) in Katowice; from Belgium, the Department of Agricultural Economics of the Faculty of Biosciences Engineering of the University of Ghent; and from the Netherlands (UGENT), Van Den Borne Projecten BV, the innovation department of the Van Den Borne Aardappelen (VDBP) farm located in Reusel.

For Pablo González de Santos, from the CSIC’s Centro de Automática y Robótica, coordinator of the project, “WeLASER has been a perfect collaboration between leading organisations in each of their fields of work, which has made it possible to have the latest technologies and advances necessary for the development of such a cutting-edge and necessary project”.

Beyond the development of the prototype, this project has resulted in the development of different innovations with multiple applications such as a high-power fibre laser source for the control of adventitious weeds through precise energy pulses, with an innovative pump and cooling concept that minimises the energy demand of the laser for the weeding process; an improved power supply system for autonomous robotic platforms; an intelligent navigation manager for autonomous robots applicable to precision farming that enables navigation throughout the farm, not limited exclusively to the crop field and integrates different Artificial Intelligence (AI) methodologies to identify various types of crops, including wide and narrow crops; and an AI-based laser weed control implement that enables a wide working range for individualised plant treatment in crops of different types, while complying with all safety regulations required for working with laser technology.

Ensuring food production on a safe planet

Faced with an increasingly growing population in an environment of climate change like the one we live in, humanity´s great challenge is how to guarantee food production without harming the environment or the health of the population with increasingly efficient and less polluting production systems.

In Europe alone, around 130 million tonnes of synthetic herbicides are used each year (not counting other chemicals), substances which, when applied, do not discriminate between beneficial plants and insects in the soil that are not their target and which, moreover, can have effects on the health of animals and humans.

In addition, weeds are developing resistance, which means that existing herbicides are becoming less and less effective.

For González de Santos, “The WeLASER consortium is motivated to adopt smarter farming methods and build more sustainable food production systems while preserving the environment and health. WeLASER opens up a reliable and safe option and offers breakthroughs to solve a global problem”.

Huawei Cloud Thailand, in collaboration with Thailand’s Ministry of Digital Economy and Society (MDES), today hosted the Huawei Cloud AI Summit Thailand 2023. The event brought together hundreds of government representatives, industry experts, local customers, partners, and Chinese enterprises to discuss Thailand’s AI development and digital transformation. During the summit, Huawei Cloud and MDES signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on digital development with the aim to provide support towards AI development, industry applications, ecosystem building, and talent cultivation. This partnership will help Thailand establish itself as a regional AI hub through digitalization.

In his keynote address, H.E. Mr. Prasert Jantararuangtong，Minister of Digital Economy and Society of Thailand, explained that MDES aims to drive forward Cloud-First policies as the new growth engine of Thailand and believes that cloud and AI are the future of the country: “As a representative from MDES, I would like to thank Huawei Thailand for taking the leading role within the private sector in setting up this important event and bringing the global experience of Huawei and its partners to Thailand, as well as for helping foster the country’s cloud and AI digital ecosystems. Through cooperation with private sector partners like Huawei, we will continue to promote Thailand as an AI hub of the region. MDES will fully support the country to accelerate digital transformation, cultivate talents, achieve economic sustainability, and enhance the overall quality of life for Thai people.”

Sarana Boonbaichaiyapruck, Clinical Professor and Chairman of National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC), stated that the event witnessed the fast development of cloud and AI technology. As a Thai regulator, NBTC will take could and AI into consideration for policy making to digitalize the Thai society and economy.

In Thailand, for Thailand: Establishing Thailand as a Regional AI Hub

AI stands as a driving force behind the current wave of global technological advancements and industry transformations, creating a profound impact on human society and reshaping industries. By recognizing AI’s transformative potential, Thailand remains committed to enhancing its global competitiveness by strengthening its AI capabilities and becoming a regional AI hub. Huawei Cloud is proud to support this vision through its ‘In Thailand, for Thailand‘ commitment.

David Li, CEO of Huawei Thailand, highlighted Huawei Cloud’s commitment to enabling cloud and AI development in Thailand: “Huawei Cloud is firmly dedicated to its ‘In Thailand, for Thailand‘ commitments and has personally witnessed, contributed to, and benefitted from Thailand’s digitalization over the past two decades. Thailand now finds itself at a critical juncture in its digital transformation journey. Recognizing this, Huawei Cloud remains steadfast in its commitment to invest in the local cloud ecosystem and its capabilities. By building a robust digital foundation in Thailand and constructing AI infrastructure for the government and enterprises, Huawei Cloud is empowering the nation to harness the transformative power of AI. This will in turn lead to the proliferation of AI applications across industries, ultimately benefiting Thai people and driving the country’s digital progress.”

At the summit, Huawei Cloud served as a bridge between Chinese and Thai enterprises with the aim of empowering Thailand with advanced AI technologies, applications, and expertise from China. By leveraging its extensive localization experiences in over 170 countries and regions, Huawei Cloud is ready to provide valuable insights into global and regional industries and now stands as the preferred partner for Thai enterprises seeking global expansion and for Chinese enterprises venturing into the Thai market.

Huawei Cloud: A Better Cloud for Thailand

With its cutting-edge technologies and industry expertise, Huawei Cloud aims to build the cloud foundation for an intelligent future, providing better options for each customer. At the summit, Huawei Cloud showcased a range of cutting-edge AI solutions and models specifically tailored to Thailand’s needs, including models for the Thai language, meteorology, government, and AI solutions for the finance and retail sectors.

Huawei Cloud’s government model brings intelligence to government processes and city affairs, from perception and understanding to handling and decision-making. Citizen’s requests can be assigned automatically and managed round the clock, enabling governments to deliver high-quality services without concerns about human resource shortages.

The Thai language model, trained on Thai corpus and converged with Huawei’s industry knowledge accumulated over three decades, continuously optimizes by learning massive amounts of the Thai language data. This breakthrough removes language barriers to accessing foundation models, allowing Thailand to transition from an AI user to an AI creator.

In meteorology, Huawei Cloud collaborated with the Thai Meteorological Department to develop its Pangu weather model for Thailand in an endeavor to deepen the digitization of Thailand’s agricultural and tourism sectors. The model has already surpassed current state-of-the-art numerical weather prediction (NWP) methods with prediction speeds several orders of magnitude faster. In the past, predicting the trajectory of a typhoon for the next 10 days took 5 hours. Now, the Pangu weather model can do the same calculations in just 10 seconds.

Talent is indispensable for AI transformation, but their acquisition requires concerted efforts from both the public and private sectors. At the summit, Huawei Cloud, MDES, the Digital Economy Promotion Agency (depa), universities such as Chulalongkorn University, AI associations, enterprises, and partners came together to launch the Cloud & AI Community Thailand. This collaborative initiative aims to nurture AI technology development and cooperation, ultimately elevating Thailand’s presence in the global AI landscape.

Equipped with a robust portfolio of innovative AI technologies, extensive industry expertise, and exceptional customer service, Huawei Cloud is poised to support Thailand in its quest to become a prominent AI hub in the region. Through sustained investments in the local ecosystem and industries, Huawei Cloud demonstrates its unwavering commitment to fostering the high-quality growth of Thailand’s digital economy.