Huawei has launched a South Africa-based Cloud and Artificial Intelligence (AI) Innovation Centre to drive innovation, knowledge transfer and economic growth through app development in the AI industry.
The new centre, which will be based at Huawei’s South African headquarters in Woodmead, Johannesburg, will enable developers across Africa access the centre remotely. It will teach AI application best practice, link developers to markets, support AI supply chains, develop talent and support application innovation.
In an announcement made by president of Huawei Cloud Africa Region, Ray Rui, during the Huawei Cloud summit Africa 2020 under the theme “Building an Intelligent Africa, ” he said “AI will be critical to social evolution and industrial growth in future. We also believe that when you grow economic opportunities, everyone benefits. For this reason, we are opening the Huawei Cloud & AI Innovation Centre to application developers across all economic sectors.”
At the summit, several speakers described how AI is transforming industries – a process only being accelerated by the challenges of the global Covid-19 pandemic. Innovations such as smart cities, connected cars, automated mining and precision agriculture are already driven by AI, and oil exploration, finance and retail are also leveraging machine learning to be more effective.
As part of Huawei Cloud’s “Inclusive AI” strategy, the company has an open development ecosystem to enable collaboration and tech support. The new Huawei Cloud & AI Innovation Centre will feed into this by providing training in Huawei’s full-stack, all-scenario solutions, and platforms like Model Arts.
Other summit speakers included more than a dozen Huawei Cloud partners from across Africa, outlining how cloud technology was transforming their industries.