Summary:

This July, China’s State Council issued the country’s “Next Generation Artificial Intelligence Development Plan” (the Plan), setting a goal of becoming a global innovation centre in this field by 2030. According to the Plan, China will promote AI-related education in primary and secondary schools, establish relevant courses in universities, and integrate multiple disciplines. Also students programming education is encouraged to start at a young age, while private companies are encouraged to develop educational materials and software to teach children how to program and to cultivate their interest in the field.

At the higher education level and beyond, governments at different levels will support AI skills training and development in several ways:

  • Develop AI as a discipline in HE institutions, with the aim of training professionals in research as well as the operation and maintenance of artificial intelligence
  • Establish specific institutes for artificial intelligence in pilot HEIs, along with increasing the recruitment of students at the Masters and PhD levels in AI related disciplines
  • Encourage HEIs to broaden the teaching content of current AI related courses and to create multidisciplinary programmes with partner subjects such as mathematics, economics, computer science, cognitive science, physics, biology, psychology, sociology and law.
  • Establish preferential policies and measures to encourage cooperation between domestic researchers, research teams and enterprises with leading overseas universities, research institutions and project teams
  • Attract top overseas AI professionals to China, especially in the fields of neural cognition, machine learning, autonomous driving and intelligent robots, and create more flexible channels for Chinese institutions to cooperate with overseas experts
  • Encourage foreign artificial intelligence enterprises and scientific research institutions to build up more R&D centres in China
  • Invest government funds in suitable AI-related projects and establish a development fund for AI, as well as encouraging private capital investment in the field

In addition, the Plan calls for the improvement of AI-related educational resources for lifelong study.

Analysis by Kevin Prest and Xiaoxiao Liu

The development plan specifically calls for Chinese universities and research institutes to enhance their cooperation with overseas institutions in AI-related fields. This means that there will be opportunities for partnerships such as joint research projects and transnational education programmes, both in AI directly and in combined programmes incorporating AI. Government investment is likely to increase the strength of Chinese universities in this field, making them more attractive partners.

The definition of AI in the Plan is rather broad and includes areas such as augmented reality and smart manufacturing as well as big data and core AI fields like machine learning and neural networks. This is probably particularly true in primary and secondary schools and there is likely to be little opportunity for the UK at this level, although there may be some potential for developers of educational technology such as educational apps to integrate AI-related concepts into their products.

Sources:

1. “Next Generation Artificial Intelligence Development Plan” full text in Chinese: http://www.gov.cn/zhengce/content/2017-07/20/content_5211996.htm

2. http://english.gov.cn/policies/latest_releases/2017/07/20/content_281475742458322.htm

3. http://en.people.cn/n3/2017/0828/c90000-9261282.html

4. https://news.cgtn.com/news/7a45444f31557a6333566d54/share_p.html