AI Photo: VCG

Three China's first-tier cities of Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen in South China's Guangdong Province issued multiple development plans within a 24-hour-period from Tuesday to Wednesday focusing on the development of local artificial intelligence (AI) and integration with various sectors.

The guidelines revealed by the Shanghai Development and Reform Commission on Tuesday stated that the Shanghai government will support the development of investment in the private sector and encourage private enterprises to participate in infrastructure construction for data processing and computing power related to AI, as well as fully guiding the role of AI technology in industry innovation.

Following Shanghai's announcement, a plan titled "Beijing speeding up in building a globally influential source of AI innovation" was issued by Beijing on Tuesday, which focused on 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 will achieve self-sufficiency, said the plan issued by Beijing.

In addition, Beijing also vowed to conduct a series of measures to accelerate the construction of AI-related public computing power center and digital economy computing power center in the municipality, enhance cooperation with private companies and optimize administration mechanism.

On Wednesday, Shenzhen in South China's Guangdong Province issued a roadmap for accelerating the high-quality development and application of AI technology from 2023 to 2024. Shenzhen will organize efforts from government, enterprises, research institutes and universities to co-build a computing power management platform in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.

Liu Dingding, a veteran internet industry observer, told the Global Times on Wednesday that AI has already been applied in multiple industries, and largely lifted efficiency in various kinds of works, noting that the powerful productivity of AI technology now has become a vital drive force for economic development.

According to Beijing's plan, the municipality aims to build a core 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. Shenzhen's plan also stated to foster highly-intelligentized production robots that can be applied in sectors of finance, manufacturing and transport.

The US is currently in the leading position in AI technology, such as the application of ChatGPT, but China has the advantage of numerous application scenarios and number of users for new AI products, Liu said.

"Chinese people are familiar with most kinds of intelligent applications in their daily lives, which would generate opportunities for AI products testing and application, and also benefit the development of China's own AI technology," he noted.

Global Times