Asia’s tech innovators are leading the development of AI in transportation, beauty, education, and more industries.
Autonomous vehicles, intelligent virtual assistants, personalised medicine—these are but a few ways artificial intelligence (AI) is revolutionising the human experience. At the forefront of these changes are the tech innovators of Asia’s Most Influential who are pioneering its application in many industries. Through their tech companies and venture firms, they push the boundaries of AI’s capabilities, shaping its next iterations and driving breakthroughs in machine learning, natural language processing, computer vision, robotics, and more. Just as critical is their role in safeguarding its use: amidst AI’s wide-scale effects on humanity, these founders and CEOs are also considering responsible practices and ethical principles to help the world reap AI’s rewards while mitigating its potential risks.
Ayesha Khanna, co-founder and CEO, Addo AI (Singapore)
Ayesha Khanna’s Addo AI taps into the power of machine learning, data engineering, and data governance to build data platforms that optimise the operations of corporations and governments. The AI firm, for example, created a data analytics platform that allowed a telecom operator to gain real-time insights for decision-making, as well as an AI-powered chatbot that offered personalised travel experiences.
As she pushes the frontiers of AI, Khanna emphasises the important role that humans play in its development. “Technology will never replace humans, as there will always be a need for people to be involved in technology to maximise its potential,” said Khanna in an essay for Tatler. “AI, for one thing, is fundamentally dependent on good-quality data, and will need people who understand data or can create a ‘golden source of truth’ (a single source of truth from which data is constructed), which is critical to good data governance.”
Alice Chang, founder and CEO, Perfect Corp (Taiwan)
“If you don’t innovate, you will just wait… every beauty brand is now aware of the urgency of digitalisation, and when it comes to digitalisation, innovation is a very basic element. I like to create something new,” said Alice Chang to Tatler. After founding Perfect Corp in 2015, the tech entrepreneur transformed the start-up into the world’s leader in AI- and AR-powered skin, make-up, and face technologies.
In May 2024 the company, whose services have been adopted by global brands such as MAC, Clinique, Meta, and Snapchat, unveiled six AI-powered beauty technologies at the Viva Technology conference in Paris. These innovations include BeautyGPT, which facilitates virtual make-up try-ons and interactive make-up tutorials, SkincareGPT, which can detect skin issues using a camera, and AI Makeup Transfer, which can extract a make-up look from an image and then transfer it to the photo of user’s face, matching the look’s colours with real-world cosmetics.
Jau Hsiung Huang, founder and CEO, CyberLink (Taiwan)
At CyberLink, tech innovator Jau Hsiung Huang has channelled artificial intelligence into the development of FaceMe. Powered by deep learning algorithms, the AI facial recognition engine has been adopted in retail, security, surveillance, and smart home uses, as well as in banking, where its anti-spoofing technologies apply liveliness detection to protect against biometric fraud. FaceMe can also be used to verify identities and then recognise a person as either a VIP or a block-listed individual. Apart from facial recognition, CyberLink develops creative editing software that now includes AI technologies.
In June 2024 the company introduced AI Magic Designer and AI CoWriter, new generative AI features in its design software, Promeo. Both are engineered to quickly generate marketing content (social media posts, ads, flyers), including images, text, and templates based on simple text prompts.
Kai Fu Lee, founder, Sinovation Ventures (Taiwan)
In his non-fiction book AI Superpowers, artificial intelligence expert Kai Fu Lee peers into a near future where the duopoly of the US and China leads the charge in AI innovation. The former president of Google China, who has written two books on the subject, also outlines the impact of AI on jobs and how people and governments can navigate the dramatic changes. Apart from being one of AI’s greatest thinkers, Lee is also the founder of Sinovation Ventures, which invests in AI, deep tech, robotics, new energy, and more. In 2023, the CEO launched 01.AI, a dedicated start-up that develops platforms and applications for the next phase of artificial intelligence. With a vision to make artificial general intelligence beneficial for people, the start-up has already achieved unicorn status, reaching over US$1 billion valuation a few months after its launch. 01.AI has released its open-source large language model Yi series.
Read Kai Fu Lee’s full profile on Asia’s Most Influential
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