The last month of 2021 is particularly lively.

　　As everyone knows, just as various "eating melons" scenes were staged in a colorful way, a Chinese AI unicorn company named SenseTime faced a huge challenge-"U.S. investment blacklist."

　　Looking back on the past, in fact, as early as 2019, SenseTime was included in the "Entity List" by the US; what I never thought was that today, two years later, at the critical moment of SenseTime's listing, the US once again focused on the time point. , Reached out a black hand.

　　On December 10, the U.S. Treasury Department announced that SenseTime would be included in the "Military-related Enterprises List" (NS-CMIC) to implement investment restrictions. At this time, Shangtang has just arrived on the third day of preparations for the listing of Hong Kong stocks.

　　Then, on December 13, SenseTime immediately interrupted the listing process and refunded all the subscription amount. And here is a detail that cannot be ignored: In the original SenseTime's shareholder list, there are investors from the United States-Silver Lake Capital and Qualcomm.

　　On December 20, seven days after the listing plan was suspended, SenseTime announced that it would restart its global IPO, and it is expected to be listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on December 30. The issuance scale and pricing range remain the same as before, but this time, there is no shadow of U.S. capital in the latest shareholder list.

　　On December 30, SenseTime finally ushered in its own bright moment. It was officially listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, and it also became the first stock in the "AI Four Dragons" with a market value of over 100 billion.

　　7 years is not a long time. During the AI ​​circle there have been several twists and turns, and the AI ​​winter is also round after round. So at this moment, what challenges will Shangtang Technology, which is the first to enter the next stop, face?

　　"Empowering all industries" VS "Stock market test"

　　Shangtang Technology was established in 2014. It is a typical AI software company, mainly focusing on the field of CV computer vision. The corresponding landing scenarios involve various sectors such as smart business, smart city, smart life, and smart cars.

　　As SenseTime wrote in its prospectus: We are an industry-leading artificial intelligence software company focusing on computer vision technology and empowering all industries.

　　Of course, as the leader of the "AI Four Little Dragons", SenseTime also has its own uniqueness. Its most prominent label is "academic".

　　As of the first half of 2021, SenseTime has 40 professors, 5,000 employees of various types, of which about two-thirds are scientists and engineers, and more than 250 doctoral candidates and candidates.

　　Shang Tang Technology founder Tang Xiaoou is a professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and is known as the "pioneer" and "pathfinder" of global face recognition technology. In 2016, the Chinese artificial intelligence team led by Tang Xiaoou was selected as one of the top ten artificial intelligence pioneer laboratories in the world and the only laboratory selected in Asia.

　　Look at the relevant co-founders of SenseTime. Xu Li, Wang Xiaogang, Xu Bing, etc. are all PhDs or teaching assistants at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. With the addition of more than 70 AI competition champions and more than 600 top academic papers, it is not an exaggeration to say that SenseTime is an "academic school".

　　However, again, in the AI ​​track, Shangtang Technology is also inseparable from the word "burning money". Looking back, SenseTime, which has already been listed on the Hong Kong stock market, has experienced 12 rounds of financing in the past 7 years, with a total financing amount of US$5.2 billion, or more than 33 billion yuan.

　　Moreover, it is not difficult to see through the prospectus of SenseTime. Although its revenue scale is already the largest in Asia in the industry, SenseTime has still been unable to escape the loss "curse" in recent years-a loss of 34.33 in 2018. 100 million yuan; a loss of 4.968 billion yuan in 2019; a loss of 12.158 billion yuan in 2020; a loss of 3.713 billion yuan in the first half of 2021.

　　With such a scene in front of you, can the story of SenseTime's "empowering all industries" still make sense?

　　In fact, if you have technical hard power, you can make sense.

　　As far as AI technology is concerned, it is nothing more than in-depth research from the three levels of algorithms, computing power, and data. Therefore, as an AI software company, SenseTime's advantages are mostly concentrated on algorithms, but in a strong "academic environment", SenseTime does more than just algorithms.

　　In July this year, at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference, SenseTime unveiled its artificial intelligence infrastructure-SenseCore SenseTime AI device.

　　The device integrates the functions of computing power, algorithm, and platform at three levels, and realizes interconnection. Simply understood, the SenseCore SenseTime AI device is like a production line, which can efficiently produce corresponding AI models according to specific application scenarios, thereby realizing low-cost, large-scale AI innovation and landing.

　　"There is no AI, only AI + industry"

　　It is true that SenseTime has given a shortcut to AI, and it has also created many "wheels" such as the OpenMMLab open source framework and the SenseParrots training framework, but why do so many people still feel that AI is out of reach?

　　In fact, as early as 2018, Professor Tang Xiaoou, the founder of Shangtang Technology, once said directly: there is no AI, only AI+ industry.

　　It is not difficult to understand that AI is just a technology, and making money from technology can only be achieved by empowering existing industries. In fact, when a technology can really be applied on a large scale, the first thing to face is people's prejudice and incomprehension. But in this respect, AI is clearly at a disadvantage.

　　Deepfake, which is farther away, aside, through the recent illegal collection of consumer pictures in consumer stores, we can feel that in the business logic of AI, some things are difficult to get through. Coupled with the current background of AI, which is dominated by deep learning, the importance of data is self-evident. With such double contradictions and restrictions on law and technology, AI is difficult and deserves its name.

　　A clip of an AI company's promotional video

　　But on the other hand, AI technology is actually not so-called good or bad, the focus is on how people use it. Sinking into specific industries, AI has shown its own advantages in application scenarios such as smart healthcare, smart cities, smart commerce, and smart cars.

　　And it is not difficult to find that under the background of such a hot new energy vehicle track, SenseTime has also steadily stepped into the new track by virtue of "Juying", and this has become a new breakthrough.

　　Of course, SenseTime has not fallen behind on the trend of Metaverse. Its co-founder, chairman and CEO Dr. Xu Li said in his speech at the listing ceremony:

　　SenseTime’s artificial intelligence technology is focused on the boundary between the virtual and real world: on the one hand, it promotes the comprehensive digital transformation of the real world and brings about a leap in productivity; on the other hand, it projects the contents of the digital world into our reality. In perception, to enhance the experience of our life.

　　There is no doubt that from the perspective of empowerment, AI has no boundaries, and its prospects are far beyond the present.

　　But at the same time, I have to admit that the current AI field has technical limitations, and it is difficult to get rid of the "magic curse" of larger models, higher computing power, and more data; there are also many such as AI ethics, AI black boxes, etc. The problem has entered an infinite loop.

　　But so what? The US ban cannot be suppressed, and technology can break through. Now that SenseTime, with the help of the capital market, has taken the lead in kicking off the second half of the AI ​​competition, let's wait and see.