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Visitors walk past the stall of SenseTime at the Security China exhibition in Beijing in October 2018. The Hong Kong-based start-up is collaborating with a unit of the People’s Bank of China to push adoption of artificial intelligence in the country’s financial industry. Photo: Reuters
Tech

National AI champion SenseTime enters pact with China’s central bank amid digital currency trials

  • The collaboration aims to help strengthen ‘risk control and operational capabilities’ across financial institutions
  • The Digital Currency Research Institute, a unit of the People’s Bank of China, is overseeing development of a new sovereign digital currency
SenseTime
Sarah Dai
Sarah Daiin Beijing
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SenseTime, the world’s highest valued artificial intelligence start-up, has signed a pact with the digital currency unit of China’s central bank to speed up adoption of the latest AI technologies in the financial industry.

The Digital Currency Research Institute, a unit of the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) that is overseeing development of a new sovereign digital currency, entered into a cooperation agreement with SenseTime to pool their research and foster innovative new applications under a joint effort to deploy AI advances across the country’s financial sector, the Hong Kong Science Park-based company said in a statement on Monday.

The ultimate goal is to help strengthen “risk control and operational capabilities” across financial institutions, the statement said, without providing details of the initiative.

It marks the latest high-profile collaboration between the central government and major companies, as testing of China’s sovereign digital currency escalated this month and more reforms are planned for other domestic industries.

Pedestrians walk past the People's Bank of China headquarters in Beijing on March 17. the central bank’s Digital Currency Research Institute is overseeing development of China’s sovereign digital currency. Photo: Bloomberg
Last week, the PBOC included large foreign consumer brands for the first time in tests of the sovereign digital currency. American fast-food chains Starbucks, McDonald’s and Subway were added to the central bank’s list of firms authorised to test the digital currency in small transactions with 19 local businesses.
Earlier this month, China formed a national blockchain committee to draw up standards for use of the technology across industries. This so-called National Blockchain and Distributed Accounting Technology Standardisation Technical Committee includes telecommunications equipment maker Huawei Technologies, video games and social media powerhouse Tencent Holdings, Chinese online search market leader Baidu, fintech company Ant Financial Services and e-commerce giant JD.com, according to a statement from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

China, which aims to lead the world in AI and 5G mobile communications, would become the first major economy to roll out its own digital currency when its tests are completed. There has been no official timetable announced for launching the digital currency.

China gets first glimpse at sovereign digital currency after screenshot leaks online

China’s official digital currency, known as Digital Currency Electronic Payment or DC/EP, came into the public spotlight earlier this month when a screenshot of a test version of an app developed by the Agricultural Bank of China circulated online.

Testing of the sovereign digital currency has been going on for several months at China’s state-owned banks, the South China Morning Post reported earlier this month. Internal tests have been carried out in Shenzhen, Suzhou, Chengdu and Xiong’an, according to a report by The Wall Street Journal.

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: Sensetime joins digital currency research
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