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China has decided to take a big leap in Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology by planning to build a massive technology park that will be solely dedicated for AI research, according to the Chinese state-owned news agency Xinhua. The Chinese government will spend whopping 13.8 billion Yuan ($2.1 billion) to construct this technology park.
This sprawling technology park will be spread across 54.87 hectares of land and will be located in the Mentougou district, which falls in the western part of the Capital Beijing. The Chinese government expects nearly 400 businesses to operate from this park and is hoping for annual revenue of approximately 50 billion Yuan.
Apart from AI, this state-of-the-art park will focus on all the new age technologies including deep learning, big data, machine learning and biometrics. The park will also be using the next generation 5G internet services, according to report in Xinhua.
The plan to build an extensive AI park seems to be part of the national AI policy, which was unveiled by the Chinese government last year. The policy harbors ambitious aim to transform China into a global AI player over the next two decades and making this upcoming industry into worth 1 trillion Yuan. Experts claim that policymakers in Beijing are convinced that AI can greatly help in spearheading the country’s economic growth. The Asian giant, therefore, does not want to lag behind its western counterparts mainly including the U.S in AI research.
Sources within the Chinese government claim that Beijing will look to tap into AI’s potential to build smart cities across the country and also to enhance its military & naval capabilities. Already, several big Chinese companies including Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent have invested millions of dollars in AI research. Many reports in media claimed that Chinese government has encouraged these and several big Chinese companies to put AI research on their main agenda.
However, many experts claim that all these colossal efforts by the Chinese still won’t be sufficient to beat the U.S in the AI game, arguing that the talent and skills in the silicon valley are simply too good.
