'AI Plus' guideline helps transform vision into action in key sectors

Artificial intelligence has demonstrated its ability to solve complex problems in some real-world scenarios. Its role in reducing costs, increasing efficiency, and boosting total factor productivity is becoming increasingly evident.

It was against this backdrop that China issued a guideline on Tuesday to implement the "AI Plus" initiative, promoting the extensive and in-depth integration of AI across various fields to accelerate the cultivation of new quality productive forces.

According to the guideline released by the State Council, China's Cabinet, the country will bolster the application of AI in science and technology, industrial development, consumption upgrades, people's well-being, governance and global cooperation.

By 2027, China aims to achieve significant progress in the deep integration of AI in these six key areas, with the penetration rate of new-generation intelligent terminals and AI agents expected to surpass 70 percent.

By 2030, AI is expected to empower China's high-quality development across all fronts, with the penetration rate of next-generation smart terminals and AI agents exceeding 90 percent.

By 2035, China intends to enter a new stage of intelligent economy and intelligent society comprehensively, providing strong support for realizing socialist modernization.

Ever since AI proved its potential to boost socioeconomic development in recent years, particularly with the rise of DeepSeek early this year, the Chinese government has actively sought to expand AI's application in industries, public services and governance.

The guideline issued on Tuesday can be seen as a concrete step by the government toward transforming its AI vision into action.

The rapid evolution of AI technology and the vigorous promotion of its large-scale commercial application can fully leverage China's advantages — a comprehensive industrial system, a large market scale, and a rich array of application scenarios — to promote the rapid popularization and deep integration of AI across all sectors of economic and social development, creating a virtuous cycle in which innovation drives application and application fosters innovation.

Strengthening the extensive and deep integration of AI across various sectors will aid the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries, open up new avenues for the development of strategic emerging and future industries, empower high-quality development, and ensure that the benefits of AI development are shared by the whole society.

For instance, when it comes to doctors, AI's strength lies not only in assisting them with rapid diagnosis but also in its potential for large-scale replication. The adoption of AI can help grassroots clinics expand healthcare access and help bridge the expertise gap, particularly in regions with a shortage of professionals.

To implement the AI guideline, more efforts should be made to improve the basic capabilities of AI models, strengthen the innovation of data supply, enhance intelligent computing power, promote the development of the open-source ecosystem and reinforce the construction of talent teams.

In particular, government departments and State-owned enterprises should strengthen their support for the implementation of technologies through open scenarios and other means. They should focus on optimizing the AI innovation ecosystem, strengthening the supply of computing power, algorithms, and data, increasing policy support, strengthening talent development, and building an open ecosystem to provide strong support for the growth and development of the "AI Plus" industries.

Yet it must be seen that, with the widespread application of technologies such as large AI models and generative AI across various fields, risks such as data and privacy breaches are also increasing.

Therefore, the supervisory departments need to enhance their capabilities to ensure AI-related security and accelerate the formation of a dynamic, agile, and diversified collaborative AI governance structure that benefits humanity, fostering an open ecosystem for AI capacity building based on equality, mutual trust, diversity, and win-win outcomes. That also explains why the guideline emphasizes efforts to promote AI as an international public good, and that countries should work together to form an effective global governance system for AI.

- Li Yang, China Daily