Alibaba Cloud, the cloud computing arm of Alibaba Group, launched its Artificial Intelligence (AI) powered city solution called City Brain initiative for the first time overseas, here in Malaysia. 

The initiative are  in collaboration with the Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC), the country’s digital economy development agency, and Dewan Bandaraya Kuala Lumpur (DBKL), the city council in the capital, at a ceremony in Kuala Lumpur.

Developed on Alibaba Cloud’s robust cloud computing infrastructure, it will support Malaysia’s digital transformation with cloud technology and artificial intelligence.

Malaysia City Brain offers a comprehensive suite of acquisition, integration, and analysis of big and heterogeneous data generated by a diversity of sources in urban spaces through video and image recognition, data mining and machine learning technology all powered by Alibaba Cloud’s large-scale computing engine Apsara. 

The City Brain’s power and functionality enables Malaysian urban planners and city officials to upgrade their city governance and decision-making to turn the city into an intelligent one.

Kuala Lumpur plans to execute the first phase of the program through traffic management by improving mobility in the city. 

Utilizing its massive cloud computing and data processing capabilities, the City Brain can optimise the flow of vehicles and traffic signals by calculating the time to reach intersections as well as generate structured summaries of data, such as traffic volume and speed in particular lanes, which can be used to facilitate other tasks including incident detection.

“Cloud computing, data technology and AI has become fundamental tools for all companies and organizations to operate effectively. 

“Building on this partnership, we are happy to see Malaysia become the first country outside of China to adopt the City Brain. 

“Through the program, we aim to empower all Malaysian stakeholders in both the public and private sectors with the tools to enhance efficiency, advance innovation and succeed in the digital age,” Simon Hu, Senior Vice President of Alibaba Group and President of Alibaba Cloud on the crucial integration of artificial intelligence.

He added that for Alibaba Cloud, this is the true meaning of inclusive technology. 

Although the initiative is endorsed to improve traffic and assist emergency incidents, the City Brain’s functionality however expands to businesses, higher education and research institutions to also have the opportunity to access and leverage its artificial intelligence tools to drive a wide range of innovation in the future.

Datuk Yasmin Mahmood, Chief Executive Officer of MDEC said that the collaboration with Alibaba Group is another leap towards digitizing Malaysia where knowledge-sharing and the crossover of best practices transpire.

“As we set our sights on the future, we are excited about the prospects this partnership will bring to our community, and benefiting Malaysians with the tangible results of digital solutions,” she added. 

In addition to the Malaysia City Brain Launch, Alibaba Cloud also announced the Malaysia Tianchi Big Data Program, a big data crowd intelligence platform that brings together global data experts to collaborate and compete in developing solutions for real world problems. 

Backed by MDEC, the initiative aims to incubate 500 data professionals and 300 startups in Malaysia within two years by facilitating the use of world class data intelligence technology through Alibaba Cloud’s cloud computing infrastructure and artificial intelligence capabilities.  

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