Summary:

China’s Ministry of Education has issued an action plan setting out goals for Chinese universities to improve their work in the field of artificial intelligence (AI). The action plan covers all areas of AI, including basic theory / fundamental research, applied technological research, and innovation breakthroughs, and calls for more integration between these areas. It sets out targets for 2020, 2025 and 2030, aiming to make Chinese universities the “world’s major AI innovation centres” by 2030 and providing the country with both technology and trained professionals.

Detailed goals include encouraging Chinese HEIs to explore interdisciplinary links between AI and other subject areas, including not only computer science, mathematics and statistics, but also sciences such as physics and biology and broader fields such as psychology, sociology and law. The action plan also calls for the establishment of more AI centres and a high-level think tank.

International cooperation is included within the plan, with support for Chinese HEIs developing AI research bases and laboratories under the 111 Programme – a project which provides funding for discipline development and the recruitment of international experts. The plan also encourages Chinese HEIs to organise high-level international artificial intelligence academic conferences in order to enhance their international influence.

China encourages and supports domestic students to study and research artificial intelligence in overseas countries with strengths in this field, and the plan calls for the MoE to increase support for overseas studies in artificial intelligence as well as to increase the volume of scholarships for overseas students from “Belt and Road” countries studying artificial intelligence in China.

Objectives and targets set out under the action plan include:

  • By 2020, Chinese universities should have optimised systems that achieve the objectives of both strengthening academic disciplines and promoting scientific innovation with new-generation AI.
  • By 2025, China hopes to see its universities conduct theoretical research and have a number of “original innovations with international significance”. Other than innovation capabilities, universities should also aim to improve China’s AI-related human capital, in order to “effectively supporting China's industry upgrade, economic restructuring and smart society building”.
  • By 2030, universities in China will be the world's major AI innovation centres, capable of providing China with technical support and skilled professionals in the field of AI.

According to Science and Technology Daily, 19 universities added undergraduate disciplines in AI in 2017. In another announcement related to the new plan, the Ministry of Education announced plans for China’s top universities to train more than 5,000 students and 500 academics over the next five years in order to boost China’s innovation and research prospects in this sector.

Analysis by Kevin Prest, Senior Analyst, International Education Services

As covered in previous news updates, China is paying a great deal of attention to artificial intelligence and sees this as an essential core part of the country’s science policy – and indeed its future more broadly.  A February 2018 article in the New York Times described China’s AI strategy, announced last year, as an “aggressive plan to treat A.I. like the country’s own version of the Apollo 11 lunar mission”.

This focus on AI will provide opportunities for international cooperation with Chinese universities and research institutes in the field, while the proposed think tank may become a potential partner in other issues surrounding AI such as safety and ethical research.

Sources:

1. Action Plan in Chinese: http://www.moe.edu.cn/srcsite/A16/s7062/201804/t20180410_332722.html

2. Official government announcement in English: http://english.gov.cn/state_council/ministries/2018/04/04/content_281476100881686.htm

3. China Daily: http://usa.chinadaily.com.cn/a/201804/13/WS5acf8485a3105cdcf6517f2d.html

4. New York Times (February 2018): https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/12/technology/china-trump-artificial-intelligence.html