SenseTime Group, the world's most valuable artificial intelligence start-up, just raised $620 million in two months. They're going places.
What it means: It doesn't sound like big news for a company to raise some money: but in the case of SenseTime, it's a sign for what's to come in terms of China's investment into artificial intelligence.
With the help of SenseTime's tech, the Chinese government is building the world's biggest facial recognition-enabled surveillance network, which they say they'll use to crack down on crime in a more efficient way than ever.
The company also works with smartphone makers, finance firms, retail, cars, you name it. You know those big-eyes-blushed-cheeks effects you get on SnapChat? That's AI, and a lot of it's SenseTime. They're also making AI textbooks for secondary schools, to get Chinese students trained to become the AI workers and producers of the future. If they haven't already, things are about to get really Black Mirror.
