Laura Bicker
Chinese correspondent
BBC / XIQING WANG
China adopts artificial intelligence, from educational tools to humanoid robots in factories
Head in his hands, Timmy, eight years old, mounted for himself as he tried to beat a robot powered by artificial intelligence during a chess game.
But it was not an exhibition hall or an AI laboratory – this robot lived on a coffee table in a Beijing apartment, with Timmy.
The first night, he came home, Timmy tightened his robot boyfriend before going to bed. He has no name yet – however.
“He is like a little teacher or a boyfriend,” said the boy, when he showed his mother the next movement he was considering on the advice of chess.
A few moments later, the robot sounded: “Congratulations! You win.” Round eyes flashing on the screen, he began to reorganize the pieces to start a new game as he continued in Mandarin: “I saw your abilities, I will do better next time.”
China adopts AI in its attempt to become a technological superpower by 2030.
Deepseek, the revolutionary Chinese chatbot that drew the attention of the world in January, was only the first suspicion of this ambition.
The money flows into AI companies in search of more capital, fueling domestic competition. There are more than 4,500 companies that develop and sell an AI, schools in the Beijing capital introduce AI lessons for primary and secondary students later this year, and universities have increased the number of places available for students who study AI.
“This is an inevitable trend. We will coexist with AI,” said Timmy’s mother Yan Xue. “Children should learn it as soon as possible. We must not reject it.”
She hopes that her son will learn both the failures and the game of the strategy board of directors – the robot will make both, which persuaded her that her price of $ 800 was a good investment. Its creators are already planning to add a linguistic tutoring program.
BBC / Joyce Liu
Learn to live with AI is “inevitable”, says Yan Xue
This is perhaps what the Chinese Communist Party hoped when he said in 2017 that AI would be “the main engine” of the country’s progress. President Xi Jinping is now betting much, while Chinese economy slows down the prices of its greatest trading partner, the United States.
Beijing plans to invest 10tn Chinese yuan (1.4 tn; £ 1 tn) over the next 15 years by competing with Washington to gain the advantage in advanced technology. AI funding obtained another boost during the government’s annual political rally, which is currently underway. This occurs in the heels of an investment fund of 60 billion Yuan-Ai created in January, only a few days after the United States has tightened export orders for advanced fleas and placed more Chinese companies on a black commercial list.
But Deepseek has shown that Chinese companies can overcome these barriers. And that’s what amazed Silicon Valley and Industry experts – they didn’t expect China so early.
A race among the dragons
This is a reaction to which Tommy Tang got used to after six months of marketing the game’s chess robot during various competitions.
The Timmy’s machine comes from the same company, Senserobot, which offers a wide range of capacities – the Chinese state media praised an advanced version in 2022 which beat Chess Grand Masters to the game.
“Parents will ask questions about the price, then they will ask where I come from. They expect me to come from the United States or Europe. They seem surprised that I am from China,” said Tang, smiling. “There will always be one or two seconds of silence when I say that I come from China.”
His business has sold more than 100,000 robots and now has a contract with a large chain of American supermarkets, Costco.
BBC / XIQING WANG
Customers abroad are often surprised to hear that robots are of Chinese manufacture, says Tommy Tang
One of the secrets of the success of China engineering is its young people. In 2020, more than 3.5 million students in the country obtained a diploma in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, better known as STEM.
It is more than any other country in the world – and Beijing wishes to take it out. “Strengthening strength in education, science and talent is shared responsibility,” XI told party leaders last week.
Since China opened its economy in the world in the late 1970s, it “followed a process of accumulation of talents and technologies”, explains Abbott Lyu, vice-president of Whalesbot, based in Shanghai, a company that manufactures AI toys. “At that time of AI, we have many engineers, and they are workers.”
Behind him, a dinosaur made of variously colorful bricks roared from life. It is controlled via the code assembled on a smartphone by a seven -year -old child.
The company is developing toys to help children as young as three learn the code. Each brick package comes with a code booklet. Children can then choose what they want to build and learn to do it. The cheapest toy sells for about $ 40.
“Other countries also have AI education robots, but with regard to competitiveness and smart equipment, China is better,” insists Mr. Lyu.
Deepseek’s success has transformed its CEO Liang Wenfeng into a national hero and “is worth 10 billion Yuan advertising for the AI (China) industry,” he added.
“It made it known to the public that AI is not only a concept, that it can indeed change the lives of people. It has inspired the curiosity of the public.”
Six local IA companies, including Deepseek, have now been nicknamed six small Chinese dragons by Internet – the others are unique robotics, Deep Robotics, Brainco, Game Science and Manycore Tech.
BBC / Joyce Liu
Robots play football in an AI fair in Shanghai
Some of them were in a recent AI fair in Shanghai, where the largest Chinese companies in the company showed their advances, research and rescue robots to a dog backwards, which wandered in theaters among visitors.
In a lively exhibition hall, two teams of humanoid robots fought in a football game, full in red and blue jerseys. The machines fell when they clashed – and one of them was even removed from the field in a stretcher by their human manager who wanted to maintain the joke.
It was difficult to miss the air of excitement among the developers following Deepseek. “Deepseek means that the world knows that we are here,” said Yu Jingji, a 26 -year -old engineer.
‘Cathing mode’
But as the world learns AI’s potential in China, there are also concerns about what AI allows the Chinese government to find out its users.
AI is hungry for data – the more it gets, the more it is intelligent and, with around a billion mobile phones, against just over 400 million in the United States, Beijing has a real advantage.
The West, its allies and many experts from these countries believe that the data collected by Chinese applications such as Deepseek, Rednote or Tiktok are accessible by the Chinese Communist Party. Some indicate the country’s national intelligence law as proof of this.
But Chinese companies, including Bytedance, which has Tiktok, says that the law allows the protection of private companies and personal data. However, suspecting that American user data on Tiktok could be in the hands of the Chinese government have led Washington’s decision to prohibit extremely popular application.
This same fear – when confidentiality problems are under the challenges of national security – strikes Deepseek. South Korea has prohibited new Deepseek downloads, while Taiwan and Australia have prohibited the application from the government.
Chinese companies are aware of these sensitivities and Mr. Tang was quick to tell the BBC that “confidentiality was a red line” for his business. Beijing also realizes that it will be a challenge in his attempt to be an AI world leader.
“The rapid rise of Deepseek has sparked hostile reactions of some in the West,” said a state -managed Beijing comment, adding that “the development environment of Chinese AI models remains very uncertain”.
But the companies of the AI of China are not dissuaded. On the contrary, they believe that the economical innovation will gain an undeniable advantage – because it is the assertion of Deepseek according to which it could compete with Chatgpt for a fraction of the cost that shocked the AI industry.
BBC / Joyce Liu
A child plays with a toy AI from Whalesbot he built using the code
The engineering challenge is therefore how to do more, for less. “It was our impossible mission,” said Tang. His business found that the robotic arm used to move chess parts was extremely expensive to produce and increase the price to around $ 40,000.
They therefore tried to use AI to help do the work of engineers and improve the manufacturing process. Mr. Tang says the cost has reduced the cost to $ 1,000.
“It’s innovation,” he said. “Artificial engineering is now integrated into the manufacturing process.”
This could have enormous implications because China applies AI on a large scale. State media already show factories full of humanoid robots. In January, the government said that it would promote the development of humanoid robots powered by AI to help take care of its aging population.
XI has repeatedly declared “technological autonomy” a key objective, which means that China wants to create its own advanced chips, to compensate for the American export restrictions which could hinder its plans.
The Chinese leader knows that he is in a long race – Beijing’s daily life recently warned that the Deepseek moment was not the moment of “Triummphalism of AI” because China was still in “catch -up mode”.
President XI invests massively in artificial intelligence, robots and advanced technologies in preparation for a marathon which he hopes that China will eventually win.
