High-tech boost for light show

An annual lantern spectacle in the city gets a fresh twist, thanks to artificial intelligence, Xing Yi reports.

While the annual lantern show at Yu Garden, a historical tourist site in downtown Shanghai, has been held since 1995 to usher in Spring Festival, this will be the first year that the venue is leveraging artificial intelligence for the event.

Named Tmall Genie and developed by Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, AI at the garden has also made the job of technicians easier.

In the past, technicians had to manually switch on the extensive lighting installations across the garden, but thanks to Tmall Genie, only one person is required to do the job this year.