Zhejiang Lab, located in Hangzhou's Artificial Intelligence Town, is designed to become a world-class innovation base that helps Zhejiang become a global center for research in emerging fields. [Photo/zjol.com.cn]

Zhejiang Lab, a research institute jointly founded by the Zhejiang provincial government, Zhejiang University and China's tech giant Alibaba Group, launched a global AI (artificial intelligence) competition on July 31.

Targeting innovative and entrepreneurial projects from home and abroad, the ZhejiangLab Cup Global AI Competition 2018 is aimed at attracting global talents, promoting AI research and boosting the AI industry.

Yuan Jixin, deputy director of Zhejiang Lab and director of the competition's executive committee, anticipated that in the next 10 years, the AI sector will skyrocket with relevant industries growing robustly and AI making a significant impact on people's day to day lives.

In order to make the competition a standout event in its field, Yuan said they are have five goals in mind for the competition -  strengthening its global influence, providing professional guidance in order for the competition to run smoothly, giving consideration to projects' creativity and practicality, recruiting renowned experts as judges and offering significant prize money.

The competition has two main categories with different focuses, one for innovative projects and the other for entrepreneurial projects, said Zhao Zhou, the technical expert at the competition's executive committee. The innovative projects should contain the most advanced AI technologies while the entrepreneurial projects should attach more importance to the application and operation.

In addition to financial support, Zhejiang Lab will offer employment to the winners, as well inviting them to conduct research or start businesses in Zhejiang. The lab will also give them policy support, for example streamlining their application procedures for new businesses.

The registration channel opened on Aug 1 and people who'd like to take part in the competition can find more information at the official website of Zhejiang Lab (www.zhejianglab.com), or the official website of the event (aicup2018.zhejianglab.com).