China home to over 4,500 AI companies: vice minister

TIANJIN, June 20 (Xinhua) -- China now hosts more than 4,500 artificial intelligence (AI) companies, reflecting the country's efforts to embrace the AI boom, according to official figures released at an industry event on Thursday.

The data was made public by Shan Zhongde, vice minister of industry and information technology, at the 2024 World Intelligence Expo in north China's Tianjin Municipality.

Shan said that China has built 421 national-level demonstration factories featuring intelligent manufacturing and over 10,000 provincial-level digital workshops and smart factories.

From humanoid robots to autonomous vehicles, officials and experts at the expo highlighted that AI technology is rapidly reshaping human life.

Technologies such as brain-computer interfaces and humanoid robots will have practical impacts on industries like manufacturing, transportation, education and healthcare, said Wu Zhaohui, vice president of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

"AI technology can also inject transformative power into regional economic growth and reshape the landscape of global competition," Wu added.

China's core AI industry reached a scale of more than 578 billion yuan (about 81 billion U.S. dollars) in 2023, up 13.9 percent year on year, official data shows.

This year's government work report unveiled an AI Plus initiative, a strategic move designed to propel the digital economy's expansion and spearhead the transformation and modernization of manufacturing sectors.

The 2024 World Intelligence Expo, running until June 23, was co-hosted by Tianjin Municipality and southwest China's Chongqing Municipality, merging the former World Intelligence Congress in Tianjin and the Smart China Expo in Chongqing.

With an exhibition area of 100,000 square meters, the event features various themed exhibition areas covering AI, intelligent connected vehicles, intelligent manufacturing and robotics.

The two municipalities will alternate hosting the World Intelligence Expo in the future.