As the world’s largest smartphone and memory chip manufacturer – along with being a key player in many consumer devices including TVs, washing machines, fridges, and more – Samsung has established itself as a tech leader.

The convergence of powerful emerging technologies such as AI, IoT, and the cloud, have the potential to radically shake-up the industry and dethrone established players if they don’t keep pace. Samsung has made clear it has no intention of giving up its castle.

“In a hyperconnected society via 5G, AI and internet of things, a company that innovates user experiences will be a global business leader,” said Koh Dong-jin, head of IT & mobile communications at Samsung, during an AI forum held at the company’s Seoul R&D Center.

“5G, AI will lay the ground for technology innovations for smartphones, wearables, speakers, internet of things, augmented reality and virtual reality, and provide a turning point for our everyday lives.”

Samsung has seven dedicated AI research centres across five nations; the US, UK, Korea, Canada, and Russia.

The company’s first AI mobile processor with a built-in 5G modem is set for release later this year to simplify the development of highly-capable devices with support for both of the important new technologies.

Amid a global slowdown in smartphone sales, Samsung will be hoping its AI and 5G investments help to fortify its position as a global tech leader in a rapidly-changing world.

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“The Kirin 990 has been fully upgraded in terms of performance and power efficiency, AI computing, and ISP, extending mobile phone experiences to a new level,” says Yu.

Huawei’s new SoC is the first to pack a dual-core NPU built on the Da Vinci architecture, which comprises of large NPU cores and “tiny” NPU cores. The idea is that the large cores provide high performance and power efficiency in heavy computing scenarios, while the tiny cores are used for low power consumption applications.

This is how the Kirin 990 compares in terms of performance and efficiency to other leading chips:

“We are providing not only the best, most powerful AI processing performance, but also bringing the best energy efficiency,” says Yu.

A brand-new ISP (Image Signal Processor) also features in the Kirin 990 which pioneers block-matching and 3D filtering for professional-level hardware noise reduction (NR). The new ISP is also the first to enable dual-domain video NR.

If you’re wondering why we’re covering a new ISP, it’s for this very reason:

Yes, that’s a person’s heart rate and respiration being measured by a camera thanks to AI combined with Huawei’s new ISP. The future societal ramifications of such technology are sure to generate debate – for example, it’s easy to imagine people being singled out at security checkpoints if a heart rate spike is detected – but, for now, it shows Huawei’s technological leadership.

Huawei also demonstrated how the Kirin 990 supports real-time multi-instance segmentation. In layman’s terms, it enables the real-time selection and modification of certain parts of a video. This could mean increasing the size of objects or people, creating layers, or completely replacing the background, all without the need for a green screen.

You can see the multi-instance segmentation in the demo below:

Huawei feels like it’s on a mission to show how important it is to the global technology landscape amid finding itself in the crossfire in the US-China trade war and facing claims it poses a national security threat.

Ahead of Yu’s keynote, the music video for ‘Radio’ by German rock legends Rammstein was played. The song is a political statement about fake news, which Huawei feels it’s been repeatedly subjected to. Huawei even has a Twitter account called @HuaweiFacts which aims to counter it.

Huawei keeps black swans, which once gave Europeans a shock when they first arrived, in the middle of a lake at its research campus. To their researchers, it’s intended to be a constant reminder to consider the unexpected and prepare for it.

We’ll leave security matters to the experts, but there’s little denying Huawei’s innovation and impact on the market in all the areas it operates. AI, in particular, is an area where Huawei has really excelled.

Huawei was keen to highlight where it had already achieved two world firsts in mobile AI with the Kirin 970 and 980:

Qualcomm is arguably Huawei’s closest Western counterpart, but it has lagged behind its Chinese rival in areas like AI.

In one slide, Huawei highlighted the performance of the Kirin 990 across ten key areas when compared with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 855+X50:

It’s all good showing impressive numbers and graphs, but Yu says he’s often asked how AI is actually being used. Yu says Huawei’s AI-API has been accessed over 1.6 trillion times across categories including photography, travel, shopping, health, education, creation, and art.

The Kirin 990 will launch alongside the Huawei Mate 30 during an event in Munich on the 19th September 2019. We’ll be putting it to the test as soon as possible.

Disclaimer: Our travel and accommodation expenses for the keynote were covered by Huawei, but our reporting is entirely independent.

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Goke believes technologies such as AI will be so transformative in the next five years, if you fell asleep today – and woke up in 2025 – you’d struggle to recognise electronic devices.

“The Americans among us, you all know the fairytale story of a man in the 18th century who falls asleep under a tree and wakes up 20 years into a completely different world,” says Goke. “Well, I bet you if you would go to sleep right now for just five years, and wake up in time for 2025, you will struggle to recognise many consumer electronic devices.”

Goke says you’ll notice less people talking about the IoT (Internet of Things) as an emerging tech because it’s already becoming adopted at a rapid pace.

“Today, nearly every single home appliance has become a truly digital device ready to take its place in our smart homes,” comments Goke. “People don’t really talk about the IoT anymore because it’s just there, it’s the new normal.”

Just a few years ago, Goke says AI was “not something tangible” and “more of a promise than a real offering”.

As the CEO of Messe Berlin, an organiser and host of IFA Berlin, Goke has seen trends evolve over many years. At this year’s IFA, Goke says you’ll see the impact of AI and 5G coming to life. There are certainly more exhibitors than ever on the show floor talking about how they’re now using AI.

“You will see how connectivity and artificial intelligence are coming totally integrated into our digital world,” comments Goke. “They are about to completely transform our lives. And they will be ubiquitous. We all will use these technologies quite naturally without a second thought.”

Dr Reinhard C. Zinkann, member of ZVEI’s board of directors, also spoke of the adoption of AI in everyday devices. According to Zinkann, 72 percent of robot vacuums now feature “smart” technology.

“Clearly, artificial intelligence has made its way into the home appliances sector,” says Zinkann. “Even if you could sometimes have the feeling that the term is used in a somewhat inflationary way.”

“But it’s true, home appliances offer very promising possibilities for artificial intelligence technologies. By using data analysis, pattern recognition, and clever algorithms, appliances can be individually and dynamically adapted to the needs of users.”

Goke believes one emerging technology that people should temper their expectations about this year is 5G.

“Our industry is talking a lot about the promises of 5G, the next-generation high-speed mobile network,” states Goke. “Yes, 5G is being rolled out, it has the power to transform the way we live and work. But it’s also time for a reality-check.”

“Right now, there are only a few real 5G products around. However, that will be changing rapidly. I believe that 2020 could be the first year at IFA when 5G is ready for launch.”

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In an email to The Hill, an official wrote:

“Within the coming weeks, we could expect to see action designed to preserve American [research and development] leadership in artificial intelligence, 5G, and the first deliverables from the National Quantum Initiative Act.”

The ‘National Quantum Initiative Act’ is a law passed by the previous Congress that was intended to keep pace with China in vital new technologies.

During a State of the Union address on Tuesday, President Donald Trump discussed investing in what he called “industries of the future”.

The Wall Street Journal reported President Trump is expected to issue executive orders to redirect government resources into boosting AI and 5G development.

China AI Race

According to a report published by US national security think tank Center for a New American Security (CNAS), Chinese officials see an AI ‘arms race’ as a threat to global peace.

Their fear is the integration of AI into military resources and communications may breach current international norms and lead to conflict-by-accident.

One such example is the use of drones. Without the risk of human casualties, militaries are more likely to deploy them into contested airspace while opponents are more likely to shoot them down.

Establishing international norms around the use of automated systems needs to be a priority to avoid potential disaster. A simple race to be the best could be dangerous. Firms such as Microsoft have even begun warning investors of potential issues during AI development that ‘may result in reputational harm’.

The US and China will need to set aside their differences and increase cooperation in such matters. Both have a lot to gain; the US has a lead in chip technology, whereas China has masses of data for training AI.

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