Key development blueprint offers glimpse into China's sci-tech future

Frontier technologies

The draft outline listed several sci-tech frontier areas that China will boost, including new-generation AI, quantum information, integrated circuits (IC), brain science, genetic research and clinical medicine.

"Like water and electricity, AI will enter almost every aspect of life in the next five to 10 years," said Liu Qingfeng, a deputy to the 13th National People's Congress (NPC) and board chairman of iFlytek, a leading Chinese AI firm.

Liu depicted AI teachers, AI assistants, AI doctors and a rise in "smarter" elderly care services empowered by AI technologies.

Yao Dezhong, another NPC deputy and a professor at the University of Electronic Science and Technology, said he was greatly encouraged to find that brain science, which he is engaged in, is among the frontier areas included in the blueprint.

"It will facilitate the diagnosis and treatment of brain diseases, inspire the research of brain-like intelligence technology and promote the development of a new-generation AI industry," Yao said.

The draft outline also emphasized deep-space, deep-sea projects and polar exploration.

China's Mars probe Tianwen-1 is expected to land on the red planet in May or June this year, and the country is expected to complete the construction of its space station by around 2022. China will also conduct other interstellar explorations during the next five years.