AI Photo:VCG

Beijing aims to build a core artificial intelligence (AI) industry with a scale reaching 300 billion yuan ($42.37 billion) by 2025, with continued growth of more than 10 percent year-on-year, according to a plan issued by the Beijing municipal government on Tuesday. 

The new guideline, which adds to AI plans various Chinese provinces and government departments issued in recent months, signals the country's ongoing push to make breakthroughs in AI-related fields amid an intense global competition over AI chatbots.

According to the plan, titled "Beijing speeding up in building a globally influential source of AI innovation," the capital aims to make the scale of AI-radiated industry surpass 1 trillion yuan by 2025. It also will give birth to more start-ups, with about five to 10 unicorns being created by 2025.

The plan places a focus in substituting imports with homegrown products and making new technological breakthroughs. 

By 2025, it is expected that the market share of self-developed basic hardware and software products such as AI chips and deep-learning frameworks will see a significant improvement, and computational chips should achieve self-sufficiency.

The government will actively guide enterprises specializing in developing large-scale AI models to use homegrown AI chips.

Also, there shall be breakthroughs in AI basic theories by 2025, with theoretical framework systems basically formed and artificial general intelligence taking shape. 

There will be a complete technology stack on natural language, universal vision and multimodal interaction large models, and key algorithm technology should reach domestically leading and globally advanced levels, according to the plan. 

The plan also listed supporting measures, such as promoting mechanism innovation, strengthening policy innovation and the scope of financial support as well as more coordinated efforts. 

"Developing technology involving AI-generated content, as represented by ChatGPT, is of critical importance to China's development, not only in terms of global technological competition but also in contributing to new business models and the digital economy," Wang Peng, a research fellow at the Beijing Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Tuesday. 

In recent days, Chinese AI iFlytek unveiled its generative language model SparkDesk, joining other Chinese tech companies such as Alibaba, Tencent and Baidu, in developing ChatGPT-like chatbox. 

Observers said that there are two urgent fields in which Chinese companies need to scale up investment. First is AI chips, as heavy reliance on foreign products could pose risks of being strangled. 

"In terms of AI large-scale models, Chinese companies are also one to two years behind, compared with ChatGPT. More training will help optimize the model," Wang noted. 

China will build a batch of regional highlands and technological platforms for AI, in a bid to deepen enterprise-led integration of industry, research and application, and promote AI-enabled economic and social development, Minister of Science and Technology Wang Zhigang said at a major AI event in May.

Under its blueprint of AI development, China has established 18 national pilot zones, including Beijing and Tianjin, for the development of next-generation AI innovation and 32 open innovation platforms, according to official statistics.

Global Times