China's SenseTime becomes most highly valued AI startup

SenseTime, a Beijing-based developer of facial recognition technologies, has raised $600 million in new funding at a valuation reported to be north of $4.5 billion.

Why it matters: Because that's the highest valuation ever for a privately-held AI company, but it also comes with more than a few privacy concerns.

Existing backer Alibaba led the round, which may soon get a bit larger, and was joined by Qualcomm, Temasek and Suning

Go deeper at CNN:

"SenseTime said as far as it knows, Chinese police have only used the company's tech to catch criminals. But critics have slammed the deployment of AI to track Chinese citizens, saying it violates privacy and targets political dissidents."