China issues draft guidelines for standardising AI industry

CHINA’S industry ministry on Wednesday (Jan 17) issued draft guidelines for standardising the artificial intelligence (AI) industry, it said in a statement posted on the ministry’s website.

The draft proposes to form more than 50 national and industry-wide standards for AI by 2026. It also said China aimed to participate in forming more than 20 international standards for AI by that time.

This comes at a time when China is trying to catch up with the US in AI development after US company OpenAI shocked the world with its seminal chatbot ChatGPT at the end of 2022. Last year, Beijing was active in devising regulations for AI including a licensing regime for ChatGPT-like products in the country.

The draft guidelines aim at “seizing the early opportunities from the development of the AI industry”, the ministry said.

The ministry also said that 60 per cent of these prospective standards should be aimed towards serving “general key technologies and application development projects”.

Furthermore, it targets to have more than 1,000 companies to adopt and advocate for these new standards. REUTERS