How artificial intelligence could help China cope with a graying population

Co-founder of world’s most valuable AI startup says machines can fill a gap in shrinking workforce

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How artificial intelligence could help China cope with a graying population

Published: 8:45pm, 20 Apr 2018Updated: 8:23am, 20 Sep 2019

This article originally appeared on ABACUS

A lot has been said about how artificial intelligence is going to shape our future. For Bing Xu, it might provide a solution for a problem that China sowed decades ago.

The co-founder of Hong Kong-based SenseTime -- which recently became the world’s most valuable AI startup -- said he believes the technology is key to dealing with the legacy of China’s one-child policy.

SenseTime co-founder Bing Xu speaking at a Wall Street Journal event in Hong Kong. (Picture: Manuel Wong Ho/The Wall Street Journal)

In force for more than 30 years before it was scrapped three years ago, the policy left the country with an uneven population structure: The number of elderly people is increasing rapidly, while there are fewer and fewer young people.

By 2050, it is forecast that one in every four people in China will be older than 65 -- up from one in 10 in 2015. That means a diminishing workforce will have to support a swelling elderly population.

“I’m actually the result of the single-child policy -- I don’t have any brothers or sisters,” said Xu at a Wall Street Journal conference in Hong Kong. “In future, we won’t have enough labor. In about 10 years, you’ll see that the problem is going to get even worse.”

The answer may lie in AI, according to Xu.