Earlier this month, Alibaba CEO Jack Ma visited Macau to sign the Framework Agreement for Strategic Cooperation in the Area of Building an Intelligent City. The agreement particularly plans to take advantage of cloud computing and Big Data usage in Macau, to increase efficiency and improve the city’s tourism, transportation and health care sectors.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the world, two other prominent tech gurus, Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook have been having a bit of a Twitter spat about whether or not the development of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is really such a good idea. While Zuckerberg is pretty upbeat about AI and its applications, Musk has stated that if left unregulated it could be the “biggest risk we face as a civilisation.”
Of course technology can always be used for good or evil, but either way, there’s no doubt AI is here already and is only going to become more a part of our daily lives. To discuss this issue and all other things tech, last month, Hong Kong hosted RISE 2017, Asia’s largest tech conference, which welcomed more than 14,000 people from 90 countries. CLOSER headed along to hear what they had to say and find out what innovations the near future has in store for us. Read the full report in this month’s Closer Look cover story.
On the art front, we visit the new art gallery in Coloane, House of the People, and speak to Carlos Malvas about his inaugural street photography exhibition. We also chat with three local artists who are exhibiting their artwork in Barcelona this month as part of the Macao x Barcelona – Art of Illustration project organized by the Yunyi – Arts and Cultural Communication Association.
Recently, MGM Macau previewed some of the new F&B offerings at its soon-to-be-opened MGM Cotai property. We caught up with Michelin starred celebrity chef Graham Elliot to find out more about his new restaurant, Coast.
We also speak with the organisers of the next Macau Poker Stars to be held at City of Dreams this month, offering prize money of HK$10 million.
Finally, in our Q&A section we meet Amanda Chan, a bright young singing talent from Macau who is currently honing her craft at Berklee College of Music.
Happy reading!
