Beijing’s AI industry to reach advanced level by 2020

Beijing’s new generation technologies and applications of artificial intelligence are expected to reach the world advanced level by 2020, according to a guideline issued by the local government.

The guideline on accelerating technological innovations and cultivating the AI industry sets the goal for the city to become an AI innovation hub with global influence by 2020.

It also expects AI to support the economic and social development of Beijing to a greater extent.

The document also sets up four major tasks to promote AI industry: setting up an AI innovation system,forging AI industrial clusters, accelerating the converged application of AI, and consolidating the foundations for the AI industry to develop.

Beijing currently has more than half of the key AI research institutes in China and more than 10 national key laboratories, Xu Qiang, director of Beijing Municipal Science & Technology Commission, said at a news conference on Tuesday in Beijing, China News Service reported.

Up until September this year, Beijing had nearly 400 AI enterprises, ranking first in China, he said.

Beijing also saw investments in 51 AI projects totaling 10.24 billion yuan ($1.56 billion) over the first nine months, taking up more than 50 percent of the country’s total investment in the sector during the period.

Hu Xinyi contributed to the story.