AI opportunities for integration, development: A key topic at the 5th World Internet Conference

Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, has stressed the importance of boosting the healthy development of the country’s new generation of artificial intelligence (AI).

Presiding over a group study session of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee on Oct 31, Xi spoke of the need to strengthen leadership, make good plans, clearly define tasks and consolidate the foundation to promote deep integration of AI with economic and social developments.

And “AI: New Opportunity for Integration and Development” is a key topic at the ongoing World Internet Conference in Wuzhen, East China’s Zhejiang province.

China’s AI technology has had a huge impact on people’s daily lives and work over the past decade, and millions of consumers are benefiting from the country’s transformation from a technology follower to an innovation pioneer.

With more than 800 million netizens – more than the entire population of Europe – China is making concerted efforts to push the internet’s popularity to a new level by bettering communications infrastructure, exploring state-of-the-art technologies and strengthening research and development capabilities.

As President Xi has said, as part of the task to build a modernized economy, China will use innovation to develop various sectors, and incorporate the internet, big data and artificial intelligence (AI) into the real economy. The comments came after China was listed as the only middle-income country among the world’s top 25 most innovative economies – it is ranked 22, according to the 2017 report of the World Intellectual Property Organization.

China now has more researchers than the United States, outspends the European Union in research and development, and “is on track to beat all other nations in its yearly production of scientific papers”, the science magazine Nature reported.

Accordingly, Miao Wei, minister of industry and information technology, said: “China is accelerating its pace in transforming from a country with an extensive cyber presence ... to a cyber powerhouse.