Online giants zero in on AI industry

Companies eye dawning of golden age for rapidly growing sector

SHENZHEN - Executives at Chinese internet giants, including Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent, are making a game-changing shift in strategy to focus on the development of artificial intelligence and believe the next decades will be a golden age for the rapidly-developing industry.

"We used to see artificial intelligence only as a way to improve our computing and processing abilities. But, actually, AI can use data to develop a self-learning ability and generate its own rules," said Ma Huateng, chairman and CEO of Tencent, at the China IT Summit in Shenzhen on Sunday.