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China will continue to give strong support to artificial intelligence (AI) as a strategic emerging industry, officials with the Ministry of Science and Technology told a press conference on Friday, pledging to further unleash the benefits in AI as a new engine of growth while avoiding its negatives,  with officials citing ChatGPT, OpenAI's highly-regarded chatbot, which is making a splash worldwide.

The continuous upgrade of the science and technology research and application has always been a top strategic focus as part of the government's agenda in pursuing high-quality development. AI, as a mainstay of the strategic development has been core to this agenda.

Speaking at a press briefing organized by the State Council Information Office on Friday, China's Minister of Science and Technology Wang Zhigang said that ChatGPT is very hot these days, noting that the system has indeed made progress in natural language understanding and processing. 

However, the question is "how to deal with it ethically, and how to promote development while taking into account the duality of scientific and technological achievements," Wang said.

Not without controversy, ChatGPT has attracted doubt as some use it as a tool for plagiarism, sparking a wide call to ban it in academic setting in multiple countries.

Wang pointed out the importance of strengthening ethical norms in this regard.

In order to seek advantages while avoiding the negatives in the development of science and technology, and to make better use of the benefits, the minister said that China has adopted some corresponding measures in terms of ethics for any new technology, including AI technology.

As a strategic emerging technology, AI has increasingly become an important driving force for technological innovation, industrial upgrading and productivity improvement, Chen Jiachang, director of the high-tech department of the Ministry of Science and Technology, said at Friday's press conference, noting that human-computer dialogue based on natural language understanding is an important direction for the development of AI.

Moving forward, the Chinese government will continue to offer strong support to AI as a strategic emerging industry and a new growth engine, according to the ministry, with concrete supportive measures being highlighted.

Specifically, the ministry will promote the construction of an open and collaborative AI innovation system, and accelerate basic theoretical research and major technological breakthroughs, Chen said.

The deep integration of AI and the broader economy and society will also be promoted in a bid to better temper technology in major application scenarios, and cultivate balanced market development, Chen said.

Meanwhile, to avoid negatives of this technology, the government will promote the establishment of a safe and controllable governance system for AI, according to the ministry.

China has always placed the science and technology at a core of its sustainable development. With consistent efforts, the country's strength of science and technology has jumped, and the influence on the global innovation map has been significantly enhanced, experts said.

The R&D expenditure of Chinese society increased from 1 trillion yuan ($140 billion) in 2012 to 3.09 trillion yuan in 2022, with investment intensity rising from 1.91 percent to 2.55 percent, according to the ministry.

Moreover, during this period, the total number of personnel involved in related R&D has grown from 3.25 million to more than 6 million, maintaining the number one position in the world for many years.

China has placed significant emphasis on the development of AI. In 2017, the State Council, China's cabinet, formulated Next Generation AI Development Plan, which serves as guidelines for the establishment of corresponding offices and committee at the national level to further push the development. Within the past two years, the New Generation AI Governance Principles and Ethical Code were also formulated.

Some 18 national innovation and development pilot zones have been established, encouraging localities to develop application scenarios with local characteristics.

While overseeing a number of policy goals and programs, Chen said that the ministry is also promoting open cooperation in the field in an all-round way.

Global Times