This article is taken from World Energy (WE) number 43, "The Challenge". Read the magazine.
The concept of artificial intelligence (AI) was coined by the Americans in 1956. The IT colossus IBM proposed the notion of “Smart Earth” in 2008, which led to the rapid growth of AI technologies and the development of other concepts—big data, cloud computing, the Internet of Things (IoT)—largely bridging the traditional gap between theoretical sciences and practical applications. Despite having emerged later than the American one, Chinese AI policy has also developed rapidly, shifting its focus from national objectives to a more strategic level. In 2015, Beijing launched the first ten-year action plan aimed at transforming China into a hi-tech power, the so-called “Made in China 2025” plan, which accelerated a deep integration between information technology and the new generation manufacturing system, while promoting Smart Manufacturing. On March 19, 2019, the Chinese government published a document entitled “Directives for the promotion of a profound integration between AI and the real economy,” aimed at outlining the development of new generation technologies in various industries. Starting in 2017, the attention of Chinese AI policy shifted to the issue of integration between technology and industry; at the same time, the spread of strategically important industrial initiatives began in many cities in the context of the Internet Plus project for the development of four areas: mobile Internet, cloud, big data, and Internet of Things in the production, finance, medicine, administration and farming sectors. While in 2015 the market value of the Chinese AI industry was 11.241 billion renminbi (around USD 1.6 billion), by 2016 it had grown to 14.19 billion (around USD 2 billion), an increase of 26.2% on the previous year. In 2017, it exceeded 20 billion, reaching 21.69 billion renminbi (over USD 3 billion, equal to an annual growth of 52.9%), while by the end of 2018 it had reached almost 40 billion (almost USD 6 billion). In the same year, in the reference market for AI+ (artificial intelligence integrated in the various sectors of health, finance, education, security) it was in first place with 40% of the total, followed by the intelligent robotics industry, which accounted for 27%. This shows that Chinese companies are more interested in concrete AI applications.