DeeCamp, one of China's largest AI training camps, made a big announcement Monday as part of accelerated efforts from Sinovation Ventures, a leading venture capital firm, to nurture more artificial intelligence talent in the country.

"The camp aims to leverage AI to solve problems in the real world, not only for research use," said Wang Yonggang, executive director of the AI Institute at Sinovation Ventures.

He added two renowned AI experts joined as mentors this year. They are Zhou Zhihua, an AI expert from Nanjing University and Zhang Tong, a machine learning and big data professor from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.

Other mentors include John Hopcroft, an A.M. Turing Award winner and professor at Cornell University, as well as Kaifu-Lee, chairman and CEO of Sinovation Ventures.

China surpassed the US in the number of emerging AI projects last year and accounted for over half of total projects. However, in terms of global AI talent, China made up only 5 percent of the total, according to a Goldman Sachs report.

"Smart people and smart machines are something Refinitiv has been pursuing," said Wu Zhencao, head of the research and development center for global financial data provider Refinitiv China.

Wu said Refinitiv is need of such talent to create value and better serve their consumers.