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‘Giving machines a heart’: China urged to dig deeper in AI development
Top Chinese scientist Zhu Songchun calls on Beijing to go beyond ‘surface-level’ achievements to advance theory and philosophy of AI
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Vanessa Caiin Shanghai
China should address the risks of “chaotic investment” in artificial intelligence and seek breakthroughs at the theoretical and philosophical level, rather than following Western paths to developing the technology, according to a leading Chinese AI scientist.
Zhu Songchun, director of the Beijing Institute for General Artificial Intelligence, said on Saturday there was still a “severely inadequate understanding” of the technology among government agencies, the public and the media, making it difficult to guide innovation and strategic planning.
He made the remarks at the Zhongguancun Forum, a state-backed tech event held each year in Beijing.
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Zhu, who is also dean of Peking University’s Institute for Artificial Intelligence, noted that while many AI institutes had been established in China in recent years, many of them were led by people with no background in artificial intelligence.
In recent years, China has doubled down on its AI efforts to foster a high-quality tech talent pool and drive economic recovery. In January, Chinese AI start-up DeepSeek launched a chatbot on par with US rivals such as ChatGPT, stunning the tech world.
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According to Zhu, China’s AI innovations should dig deeper into the theory and philosophy behind the technology.
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