by Andreana d’Aquino – AdnKronos (article published on 21 March 2019)

The Silk Road, once a prosperous network of Eurasian trade routes, is bringing nowadays the most sophisticated Chinese Artificial Intelligence systems to Italy. AI giant Deep Blue Technology has just announced the opening of its Italian office to be based in Rome. During the press conference held at Palazzo Doria Pamphilj, Anderson Chen, founder and CEO of the Shanghai-based giant with a turnover of 3 billion euros a year, pointed out that he is already in contact with top managers of Italian companies and said "many CEOs will suggest artificial intelligence applications suitable for the Italian market."

"We are keen to clinch business deals with as many Italian companies as possible in the manufacturing sector," explained the president of DeepBlue Europe, David Duan, who took part in the press conference together with DeepBlue Technology representative for Italy, Fredrik Meloni. Meloni clarified to reporters that "within the next week" the Chinese giant of Artificial Intelligence systems will announce "the exact location in Rome" of its Italian Headquarters. It will allegedly be established at EUR.

Just a year ago DeepBlue Technology opened its first European office in Brussels, and today it already has relations with Germany, Greece and contacts with France but, Meloni added, “our company regards Italy as home to the best robotics developers, and we are interested in the Italian technological know-how".

The meeting in Piazza del Collegio Romano took place via live connection with the Shanghai Headquarters of the Chinese giant and was used by DeepBlue Technology to present the company and its technological achievements, including digital payment systems with biometric hand recognition, which are "already applied in supermarkets of the Auchan chain thanks to agreements concluded in several European countries" reported the top management of DeepBlue.

During the press conference, DeepBlue Technology also announced that by 2020 it will be ready to "invest in Italy around 60 million euros in research, innovation and also acquisitions of companies". The Chinese artificial intelligence giant is "ready to hire about 100 people for the new Italian office it plans to set up in Rome". "We are currently headhunting for developers and integrators of Artificial Intelligence systems," Meloni explained.

For its Rome office, the Chinese giant has "already identified two strategic Italian partners," Meloni anticipated, speaking to journalists on the sidelines of the press conference. For the time being, the names of the two partners are still classified, nor it is clear whether they are acquisitions, but "we will reveal their identity next week" Meloni anticipated.

As for the ethical aspects of the use of AI systems, it was CEO Chen the one who pointed out that although human society "has entered the era of Artificial Intelligence it is humans who hold the future. Human beings are the strength of the world." Chen also remarked that "in 10-20 years we will arrive at other new discoveries" but assured that the Chinese giant will do "its best to protect ethics in the use of new technologies and raise people's cultural level". " In 10-15 years, Artificial Intelligence will have an answer to all questions, but it will still be humans the ones who pose those questions," argued the president of DeepBlue Europe, David Duan.