Chinese search engine Sogou is further developing the smart hardware business with a focus on language-centric artificial intelligence, aiming to gain a key edge in the burgeoning AI market. Sogou CEO Wang Xiaochuan said the company hopes for a future in which everyone will have a voice assistant, seeing the smart hardware as one of the company's new growth drivers. "We expect our AI voice recorder will be the top brand in the market this year," Wang said during Sogou's annual AI ceremony held on Thursday in Beijing. "The boom in AI technologies will help transform and upgrade the traditional hardware industries. Availing our own technological advantages, we will continue to develop language-centric AI projects." The company has recently launched its dictation service for third-party voice recorder companies. It has also founded a voice recorder AI innovation alliance with several brands, including MSC Group. The alliance aims to revitalize and transform the traditional voice recorder … [Read more...] about Sogou continues building language-centric AI platform
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More Chinese Take Advantage of Easier Korean Driving Tests
October 01, 2015 09:26 The number of foreigners who visited Korea to obtain driving licenses surged from just 55 in 2009 to 4,949 last year, and most were Chinese, according to the police. Chinese nationals accounted for 94 percent of those foreigners since most regional governments in China recognize Korean driving licenses after an additional written test at home. Chinese travel agencies are marketing seven-day tour packages to Korea for 7,000 to 10,000 yuan and the trips are selling like hot cakes. It is notoriously difficult to obtain driver’s licenses in China, where applicants must undergo 63 hours of training and tests are easily failed. After a failed test, applicants cannot reapply for 10 days, and six failures mean they have to start from scratch. In Korea the rules are much easier. Applicants need to undergo only 13 hours of training and wait only one to three days to reapply if they fail a test. The written test is also offered in Chinese. A 23-year-old Chinese … [Read more...] about More Chinese Take Advantage of Easier Korean Driving Tests
Shanghai to Stop Tourists Getting Korean Driving Licenses
July 22, 2015 11:53 The city of Shanghai will no longer recognize driver's licenses Chinese visitors obtain on Jeju Island and other parts of Korea, the China Daily reported Tuesday.The move is aimed at preventing Shanghai citizens from flying to Korea to get easier and cheaper licenses. The Shanghai city government said it will no longer recognize driving licenses obtained by Chinese citizens on short-term visas or visa-free trips to Jeju but could still recognize licenses obtained by expats who lived abroad for at least three months.The Beijing News said 90 percent of the 1,093 people who obtained driver’s licenses on Jeju from January to May of this year were Chinese.In Shanghai, it takes at least three months and costs 10,000 yuan to get a license, but in Korea it costs only 7,000 yuan and takes five or six days. Read this article in Korean Korea to Clamp down on Driving-License Tourism Driving Test to Get Tougher More Chinese Take Advantage of Easier Korean … [Read more...] about Shanghai to Stop Tourists Getting Korean Driving Licenses
Timeline: North Korea – key events since the end of the Korean war
27 July 1953 The war ends when a truce is signed by a representative of the US-backed UN forces, and a representative of North Korea and allied Chinese forces. South Korea was not a signatory. There is no formal peace treaty, meaning the two countries remain technically at war. The Korean war cost 2 million lives. January 1968 North Korean commandos launch a failed assassination attempt on the then president of South Korea, Park Chung-hee. 15 August 1974 There is another assassination attempt on Park Chung-hee, by a North Korean agent in Seoul. Park survives, but the first lady is killed. 9 October 1983 North Korean agents target the venue of a visit by South Korean president Chun Doo-hwan to Burma, killing more than 20 people including four South Korean cabinet ministers. The president escapes. 29 November 1987 North Korea blows up a South Korean civilian airliner, killing 115 people. The US decides to include the North on its list of countries that support terrorism. 1991 North and … [Read more...] about Timeline: North Korea – key events since the end of the Korean war
Chinese film pulled from Tokyo film festival over row with Japan
A Hong Kong-Chinese film has been withdrawn from the Tokyo international film festival owing to ongoing political tensions between China and Japan, reports Screen Daily. Festival organisers announced on Tuesday that Yim Ho's Floating City, a Cantonese-language drama chronicling the meteoric rise of an illiterate man (played by Aaron Kwok) from a local fishing family to a powerful figure in Hong Kong's corporate world, would not after all be screening in the Japanese capital next month. "It is with great regret that we have to announce the cancellation of the scheduled screening of Floating City at the 25th Tokyo international film festival owing to certain reasons on the production side," a statement read. "Although we have strongly requested those involved not to call off the plan to take part in the festival, the cancellation has unfortunately been finalised." Violent protests have taken place across China in the past week after Japan took the decision to "nationalise" the chain of … [Read more...] about Chinese film pulled from Tokyo film festival over row with Japan