Xiaomi, which is currently the world’s fourth largest smartphone manufacturer, has time and again said that it’s an internet company and not a hardware company. Now, moving a step forward in that direction, Xiaomi is embracing AI technology and is transforming into an AI-driven company.
In efforts of that, the company has announced that it will set up a technical committee that will comprise 19 members and Cui Baoqiu, the company’s recently promoted vice-president, will be the chairman of that committee.
Further, it has been revealed that the committee will be responsible for technical strategy, collaboration with governments and universities, recruiting and encouraging tech talent and building an engineer culture in the company.
As per the report, in an internal meeting of the company, Lei Jun, founder and CEO of Xiaomi told that “exceptional and innovative” engineers will be rewarded “millions” of yuan in cash. He also said that Xiaomi plans to set up two research and development (R&D) centers in Nanjing and Wuhan with tens of thousands of researchers and engineers.
This will be in addition to the company’s existing Research & Development center in Beijing, where the company also has its headquarters. The formation of this committee comes after the company announced three AI-related departments in February — New AI, Big Data, and Cloud Computing.
Xiaomi had recently said that it would invest at least $1.5 billion on AI and smart devices over the next five years. The company’s R&D spending surged 83 percent to 5.8 billion yuan ($860 million) in 2018.
However, Xiaomi’s spending is still lower than gaming and social media giant Tencent’s $3.4 billion in R&D expenses, and the $15 billion to $20 billion annual spending that telecom equipment giant Huawei has pledged to maintain.
The development comes at a time when Xiaomi is facing a slowing domestic smartphone market. The company saw its sales shrunk by more than 34 percent in its home country over the fourth quarter ended last December. On the other hand, its rival — Huawei, keeps on growing despite being a target of several allegations and criticism over security risks.
(Source)
