Founded in 2014, artificial intelligence company SenseTime is a tremendous success story by any measure. Hailong Shang, Managing Director of SenseTime Hong Kong, spoke to a full house at the Chamber on 3 May about the company’s rapid rise and some of its latest developments.

The company has 800 staff members working in R&D, including 150 with PhDs, Shang said, and its advances in AI are being used in sectors including smart cities, smart retail and driverless cars.

It is also the first unicorn to emerge from the Hong Kong Science Park, and attracted headlines earlier this year with a further US$600 million investment from Alibaba. Shang pointed out that this partnership has benefits far beyond the financial. 

“Money is important, but it is not the first priority for us,” he said. “Through our partnership with Alibaba we get the opportunity to access the biggest e-commerce platform.”

Alibaba is not the only big name SenseTime has partnered with. The long list includes Qualcomm, Suning, Huawei and MIT.  

Shang shared some details of the company’s latest developments. For example, it recently signed a contract with Honda to build smart AI cars with autonomous driving. And in the fintech area, SenseTime has helped China Mobile set up facial recognition for 400 million people.

Shang is confident that Hong Kong can develop into a centre for innovation.

“We have enough senior talent from our eight famous universities,” he said. But he added that investment is needed. “We hope the government will pay more attention and give more resources to start-ups and entrepreneurs.”

Shang also discussed the innovation environment in Singapore, Shenzhen and Israel, which have comparable GDPs to Hong Kong. 

“Hong Kong and Shenzhen’s talent, population and capital are the best – better than Israel, better than Singapore,” he said. “The future is now, and the Greater Bay Area is the greatest opportunity for Hong Kong.”