On Wednesday, Xi Jinping, Chinese President, said that China needs to advance, govern and utilize Artificial Intelligence (AI) to protect the country’s future in the coming industrial and technological revolution.
The statements emphasized Beijing’s nonstop desire for technological power regardless of Washington’s accusations of theft and unfair moves related to intellectual property.
According to the official Xinhua news agency, Xi made the statements afterward the meeting of 25-member policymaking body of the Communist Party, at a Politburo “group study” AI meeting. This meeting was to choose the latest game plan to tackle the presumed decline in the economy because of the trade war with the US.
Brussels and Washington have frequently criticized China’s state-funded strategies like “Made in China 2015”, where AI is playing a crucial role.
Although much Chinese commerce, from Tencent to Alibaba, is already greatly spending on AI, this is for the first time that Chinese head wanted the country to tightly hold AI and has met the Politburo for this purpose.
Alibaba is the owner of the South China Morning Post.
Xi believes that China must advance its personal AI tech, claiming that it is crucial for economic growth, social development, and international geopolitics.
“AI is a vital driving force for a new round of technological revolution and industrial transformation, and accelerating AI development is a strategic issue to decide whether we can grasp opportunities,” Xi was quoted by Xinhua as saying.
Xi claimed that China must make sure that it “occupies the high ground of AI core technology” and could confidently make it its own by leveraging “China’s massive data and huge market potential”. He claimed that China should utilize AI to advance manufacturing, and further said that it could also pave the way for a greener and leaner economic advancement. Xi also stimulated govt. agencies to embrace AI.
“We need to enhance the combination of AI and social governance and develop AI systems for government services and decision-making,” Xi said, mentioning that public security is the one area where AI could be utilized “in depth”.
Zhang Lifan, a commentator in Beijing, said that Xi’s statements about AI have shown that Chinese President believes in “self-reliance”.
“Xi is still quite into the idea of ‘self-reliance’ and it seems he is pretty determined,” Zhang said.
Last year in July, China’s State Council, supplied the state’s strategy about AI, highlighting three important aims.
Under the strategy, China wishes to compete with global AI leaders by 2020; rule over the world in certain tech departments by 2025; and becomes global AI leading power by 2030, with commerce valued over 1 trillion yuan (US$143 billion) a year.
The ambitions have spread fears of Chinese AI power internationally, stimulating Beijing to soothe its tactics at the “World Artificial Intelligence Conference” last month in Shanghai and plea for global collaboration in this department.
