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Students in primary and secondary schools of East China's Zhejiang Province will study artificial intelligence (AI) as one of their compulsory courses, equivalent to math and English.

The AI content will also be integrated into traditional subjects of science and math, according to the announcement made at Zhejiang Digital Education Conference on Thursday.

The introduction of an AI course into schools is believed to lay a good foundation for them since information technology has already become one of the subjects tested during gaokao, the national college entrance exam, in Zhejiang Province.

"Adopting AI into compulsory courses is a matter of course following the fast development of the new technology. Not only students need to nurture the AI literacy, the entire school, including teachers, should embrace the digital reform," Xiong Bingqi, director of the 21st Century Education Research Institute, told the Global Times on Friday. Through the digital reform innovation of education, future talents will be largely boosted, Xiong noted.

Introducing an AI course into all schools across China will be an event to foresee in near future, Xiong believed.

Last year, Zhejiang Province started "AI+education" pilot project in schools, aiming to integrate Ai into education.

Wenzhou is one of the cities that have implemented the project. Data showed the city plans to have 700 experimental schools for AI education and 60 demonstration schools for AI education by 2023.

By 2025, the number of experimental schools for AI education in Wenzhou is expected to increase to 1,000 and demonstration schools to 100, according to an implementation scheme to promote AI in schools released by the Wenzhou city government.