China's big tech companies aren't content with using their core businesses of search, ecommerce and gaming and social messaging to dominate the world's largest Internet market. Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent (which are collectively known as BAT) are positioning themselves to become the artificial platforms of the future, disrupting a whole host of traditional industries, including automotive, retail, financial services and predictive healthcare. In November 2017 the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology announced that the nation's first wave of open AI platforms will rely on Baidu for autonomous vehicles, Alibaba Cloud for smart cities and Tencent for medical imaging and diagnostics. In each of these areas BAT is starting with a local focus on China and going global through international deals and partnerships, notes a CB Insights report. In April 2017 Baidu announced an open platform called Apollo for autonomous driving solutions, attracting partners from across the globe.