The first SmartChina Expo will be held in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality in August, an important event to “accelerate the development of China’s artificial intelligence (AI) industry,” said Zhou Changkui from Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) at the press conference held by the State Council Information Office (SCIO) on Tuesday.
The expo, set for August 23 - 25, is jointly organized by MOST, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE), China Association for Science and Technology (CAST) and Chongqing Municipal People's Government.
“AI is the frontier and hotspot in the new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation,” said Zhou. The expo is expected to be built into an integrated platform to release AI achievements, to cluster industries and to help investment cooperation, promoting resource sharing and efficient applications in the industry.
The expo will “accelerate in-depth integration of Internet, big data, AI and the real economy and play a significant role in promoting a high-quality development of the economy,” said Wang Xinzhe, chief economist of MIIT.
Various events can be anticipated in this expo, according to Tang Liangzhi, mayor of Chongqing Municipality.
Under a theme of energizing economy and brightening life, the expo will center on four parts, namely exhibitions, competitions forums and thematic activities. Exhibitions on enterprises, innovation, and special subjects will be seen in the 150,000-square-meter exhibition area. Five competitions involving autonomous driving, futuristic technologies, multiple forums concerning semiconductor, AI, and digital economy as well as mayor roundtable activity can be expected.
Representatives from leading enterprises, international organizations in related industries and renowned experts have been invited, Tang added.
China’s progress in AI industry
China issued the Next Generation AI Development Plan last July, and it has made significant achievements after years’ efforts.
“China now ranks the world’s second in the amount of published international scientific papers and invention patents authorization,” said Zhou. “Great breakthroughs have also been realized in key technologies in some areas, with the technologies of voice recognition and visual identification leading the world.”
Chinese information processing, smart monitoring, identification of biological features, industrial and service robot, driverless driving, to name a few, have entered the phase of pragmatic application.
Factors like the rapidly-developed technical capabilities, massive data resources, huge demand and open market environment have contributed to the unique advantages of China’s AI development, Zhou added.
Next, China will make efforts to make breakthroughs in core technologies, enhance the integrative development between the AI and other industries, strengthen the coordination between ministries and provinces and improve the policy system to build a sound environment for the industry, according to Wang.
