China aims to make the artificial intelligence (AI) industry a “new, important” driver of economic expansion by 2020, according to a development plan issued by the Chinese State Council.
Policymakers want to be global leaders, with the AI industry generating more than 400 billion yuan (US$59.1 billion) of output per year by 2025, according to an announcement from the cabinet on Thursday evening.
Key development areas include AI software and hardware, intelligent robotics and vehicles, virtual reality and augmented reality, it said.
“Artificial intelligence has become the new focus of international competition,” the report said.
“We must take the initiative to firmly grasp the next stage of AI development to create a new competitive advantage, open the development of new industries and improve the protection of national security,” it said.
The plan highlights China’s ambition to become a world power backed by its technology business giants, research centers and military, which are investing heavily in AI. Globally, the technology could contribute as much as US$15.7 trillion to output by 2030, according to a PwC report last month.
That is more than the current combined output of China and India.
“The positive economic ripples could be pretty substantial,” said Kevin Lau (劉建恆), a senior economist at Standard Chartered Bank in Hong Kong. “The simple fact that China is embracing AI and having explicit targets for its development over the next decade is certainly positive for the continued upgrading of the manufacturing sector and overall economic transformation.”
Chinese AI-related stocks advanced yesterday. CSG Smart Science & Technology Co (科大智能科技) climbed as much as 9.3 percent in Shenzhen before closing 3.1 percent higher, while intelligent management software developer Mesnac Co (軟控) surged 9.8 percent after hitting the 10 percent daily limit in earlier trading.
AI will have a significant influence on society and the international community, according to an opinion piece by East China University of Political Science and Law professor Gao Qiqi (高奇琦) published on Wednesday in the People’s Daily, the flagship newspaper of the Communist Party.
PwC found that the world’s second-biggest economy stands to gain more than any other from AI because of the high proportion of output derived from manufacturing.
Another report from Accenture PLC and Frontier Economics last month estimated that AI could increase China’s annual growth rate by 1.6 percentage point to 7.9 percent by 2035 in terms of gross value added, a close proxy for GDP, adding more than US$7 trillion.
The State Council directive also called for China’s businesses, universities and armed forces to work more closely in developing the technology.
“We will further implement the strategy of integrating military and civilian developments,” it said. “Scientific research institutes, universities, enterprises and military units should communicate and coordinate.”
More AI professionals and scientists should be trained, the State Council said. It also called for promoting interdisciplinary research to connect AI with other subjects such as cognitive sciences, psychology, mathematics and economics.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last