How far is China from turning its AI ambitions into reality?

China: Picture a society in which anybody at their workstation can produce a brief play.

That may happen thanks to a platform called SkyReels, an artificial intelligence project being tested by Chinese online game producer Kunlun Tech.

With only a few instructions, the AI tool can build characters, storylines, conversation, and a little film.

The average cost to manually shoot a short drama is between $71,000 and $284,000. The cost might be reduced to a few hundred dollars by using our SkyReels AI short drama platform, according to Fang Han, chairman and CEO of Kunlun Tech.

“More people can now become video creators, which makes this very meaningful.”

APPLYING genetic CONTENT AI

China unveiled a government strategy in 2017 with the goal of becoming the world leader in AI by 2030.

For many years, the gaming industry has been using AI-generated material to create better games.

Chen Liang, general manager of Tencent Cloud’s internet industry department, said, “This includes character development, rendering backdrops, and using the AI generative content model to quickly create better content as well as characters.”

“There are more open-world games now, with new storylines and characters at every stage.”

For example, AI and machine learning are used in China’s recent successful video game Black Myth: Wukong to improve the behavior of non-playable characters.

MAKING AI-BASED GOODS

China has been making strides in a number of AI-related areas, including content.

The nation now leads the world in both face recognition technology and driverless cars.

China has the prerequisites to advance and succeed in additional AI applications, industry experts told CNA.

According to Steve Shen, managing partner of IT recruitment agency Empower, “China has the largest single market of internet users in the world.”

“We have the space and circumstances necessary for the emergence of fresh, cutting-edge AI products. Furthermore, China has the greatest industrial base in the world. Robots may be powered by AI to increase productivity.

According to Fang of Kunlun Tech, China excels in transforming technologies into finished goods. Therefore, the Chinese will advance more in this area.

ACCESSING THE TALENT POT FOR AI

The greatest pool of AI engineers worldwide, he said, is found in China.

According to Fang, China graduates around 3.7 million people in STEM fields (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) each year. In contrast, the United States produces 800,000.

He said, “Every year, China publishes more academic papers on AI than the United States.” But when it comes to highly referenced publications, the United States leads, followed by China.

However, China is falling behind the US in the elite ranks of the AI talent pool.

According to a poll conducted in 2022, among the top 2% of AI talent globally, just 12% are employed in China and 57% are in the US.

Even so, it is still better than 2019, when China was not included among the top nations.

China is making significant progress in using AI in practical situations, although it is still lagging behind the US in advanced AI research.

According to Patrick Liu, a researcher at Roland Berger Strategy Consultants, China offers a number of benefits, including a large consumer market and abundant data resources that “can be fed into the algorithm, which makes it more precise and accurate.”

He said to CNA’s East Asia Tonight, “The more data you have, the more precise and accurate your product would be, which means it would achieve better market performance.”

“Thereafter, you would draw in more users of your product, which produces more data for your algorithm to process, creating a positive feedback loop.”

GETTING ROUGH FOR A AI FUTURE

Artificial intelligence, according to Liu, may lower labor expenses so that labor can be “used to a more creative and valuable approach, rather than having employees do repetitive work.”

However, other experts warned that the job market may be disrupted and unemployment could rise if AI use were to increase.

According to Fang, “those jobs that can be done on the computer would be the most affected.”

AI would have less of an effect on offline jobs like manufacturing and delivery services. Still, new occupations will continue to develop even as some old ones go.

He advised job searchers to begin studying how to utilize big language models, which are AI algorithms that employ deep learning techniques and massive data sets to comprehend and produce new content, in order to be ready for an AI-powered future.

Prompt engineering is the name for this ability, which he described as “being like what typing skills used to be.”

“Your advantage in the AI era will increase with the earlier you learn prompt engineering.”