LONDON - All eyes were on AI+Medical at the recent World Artificial Intelligence Conference 2021 in Shanghai, while AI+Healthcare also came under the spotlight at last month’s Arab Health and its intertwined Medlab Middle East in Dubai, both of which are still ongoing online. This was wholly expected, as both China and the UAE, of which Dubai is the capital, have thrust the full weight of their policy support behind the explosion of AI in general and its application in healthcare.

Though ostensibly differing in theme, the three events nevertheless have much in common. Both main ones are the largest of their kind in the world, and both cultivate AI intensively in places with fertile official ground for this transformational technology to take root. The purely (presumably) coincidental fact that the two host cities’ names end in the letters ‘AI’ merely serves to ice this cake.

The three also highlight how, like two snakes swallowing each other by the tail, AI and healthcare are merging in an ever-tightening ring.

Over 300 exhibitors showcased the latest AI technologies and innovations sat the four-day event in the eastern Chinese megacity and financial hub, beamed online starting July 7, which has garnered 352 million views, Shanghai Daily reported on July 10. The WAIC 2020 forums were held between July 9 and 10, while the exhibition started on the first date at this hybrid in-person and virtual expo.

Leading global biopharma firm AstraZeneca was one of the big names at the Shanghai WAIC, appearing for the second year running, and bringing Ai+Medical applications through offline booths for the first time, while also hosting a smart medical innovation forum. The firm, which built a medical AI innovation center and its AI iLab medical AI innovation laboratory in Shanghai’s upscale central Jing’an district, officially inaugurated and rec