Thinking Ahead

Liu Zihong demonstrates a wireless foldable keyboard developed by his company, Royole Corp. in Shenzhen, south China's Guangdong Province, on August 18, 2017
An illustrator displays a smart agriculture product at the World Internet of Things Expo in Wuxi, east China's Jiangsu Province, on September 10
A visitor checks out a surgical robot capable of conducting minimally invasive surgery at Shanghai Jiao Tong University on December 21, 2017
A man takes photos in front of a smart mirror which checks people’s health based on pictures of their facial features and tongue coats before providing a customized traditional Chinese medicine treatment plan, at an exhibition in Ningbo, east China's Zhejiang Province, on May 16, 2017
A doctor consults an expert in Beijing via an AI-powered remote diagnosis system from a hospital in Yinchuan, capital of northwest China’s Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, on May 5, 2017

China's artificial intelligence (AI) industry is flourishing. It seems that almost everyone, from leading tech companies to plucky startups, is striving to discover innovative ways to get the most out of the incredible potential promised by AI.

Concepts which once belonged safely in the clutches of science fiction's most imaginative worlds—driverless cars, robot employees and digital medicine—are becoming an everyday part of our reality as we stand on the brink of a new technological age. Accompanying this wave of innovation is a sense of social responsibility and humanitarianism which has seen much of the most cutting-edge technology focused on bettering people's lives.

The AI revolution is underway, and if current results are anything to go by, it is set to be an epoch of profound good for mankind.

(Photos by Xinhua News Agency)

Copyedited by Laurence Coulton

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