China approves Five-Year Plan outlining AI deployment targets

China has approved its 15th Five-Year Plan, which outlines the country's economic, educational, social, and industrial priorities through to 2030. The document contains numerous references to artificial intelligence, which is discussed in various contexts. AI is grouped alongside quantum computing, biotechnology, and energy as paths to be pursued as part of the country's strategic science policy.

The plan calls for significant work in developing high-performance AI chips and the software to support them. It also emphasizes the need for academic and industry research on new model architectures and the core algorithms that underpin them. Development in communication technologies, such as satellite systems, 5G+, and 6G networks, is intended to support AI workloads as part of a broader push to improve the country’s infrastructure for data transmission and processing.

In the section of the Five-Year Plan dedicated to digital infrastructure, the use of AI is divided into three components: computing power, AI models, and the organization of data across China. The government calls for national computing hubs, described as “intelligent computing clusters,” and proposes market mechanisms such as leasing computing resources to provide access to as broad a segment of the population as possible.

The plan also suggests new ways government bodies will procure the computing services they need. The proposed computing hubs aim to reduce the barriers smaller firms face in accessing the latest technologies. The government wants theoretical work behind model training and inference to continue in both research and manufacturing, specifically referring to multi-modal, agent-based, and “embodied” AI.

The technology is seen as playing an increasingly important role in sectors of the economy such as manufacturing, energy, agriculture, and services. The document cites areas where the use of AI should be increased, including industrial design, production processes, and energy system management. In the service sector, it highlights finance, logistics, and software services.

For the general Chinese consumer, the government aims to increase the number and variety of AI-enabled devices, including phones, computers, and robots, linking AI use to education, healthcare, and social services. In these settings, it envisions adaptive learning systems in education, diagnostic support in healthcare, and management of welfare systems.

At both national and local government levels, the Five-Year Plan seeks to expand the scope and capabilities of digital services provided by all elements of the public sector, based on integrated data systems built around standard models. It calls for the use of AI models in general administration and the assessment of risks to public safety.

The government takes a cautious approach to cooperation with other nations, suggesting that it may be possible for the country to participate in international standards around data flows and infrastructure. The issue of governance and regulation of data forms a substantial part of the discussion in the document, calling for specific legal and regulatory frameworks for AI, including rules on the registration of new algorithms, security, and overall transparency.

Given the size of the country’s population, it’s perhaps not surprising that there is little mention of specific steps the country will take to ensure its role in the evolution of AI. Over the next five years, details are likely to emerge as events unfold in China. However, as the pages of this site can attest, the country’s chosen path for AI rests more on smaller, open, freely available, efficient models than the approach more common in the West, which relies on large, proprietary models controlled by two or three major players.