Solving future problems: Alibaba announces its first research institute

The Computing Conference 2017 kicked off on October 11 at Hangzhou's Cloud Town in east China's Zhejiang Province.

Hosted by Alibaba, China's e-commerce giant, the annual event focuses on the field of cloud computing and covers the latest trends in frontier technologies such as big data and artificial intelligence (AI).

Jack Ma, founder and chairman of Alibaba, announced the establishment of DAMO, a research institute funded by the company, during his keynote speech.

Ma claimed that Alibaba will make a 100-billion-yuan (15 billion US dollars) investment on DAMO for initial funding, but requires the research institute to be profitable afterwards.

The billionaire mentioned three “musts” for DAMO. First, DAMO must live longer than Alibaba. Second, DAMO must be able to service two billion consumers, provide jobs to 100 million people, and create 10 million profitable enterprises. Finally, DAMO must solve the problems of the future.

Ma expressed his intent to establish a research institute that differs from other tech giants such as Microsoft and IBM.

While many research institutes are researching for profit or fun, Ma wants DAMO to “research for solving problems with profit and fun."

On the 18th anniversary of Alibaba, the CEO said he believes in China’s potential in terms of talent, technologies and resources, which gives the country the power to make its own path.

(CGTN)