China’s leaders see artificial intelligence as key to upgrading military strength, solving problems created by a shrinking workforce, and a source of national pride
On a misty Saturday afternoon in Shenzhen’s Central Park, a gaggle of teenage girls are sheltering from the drizzle under a concrete canopy. With their bags of crisps piled high in front of them, they crowd around a couple of smartphones to sing along to Mandopop ballads. The sound of their laughter rings out across the surrounding lawn – until it is pierced by a mechanical buzzing sound. Someone has ordered dinner.
A few metres away from the impromptu karaoke session is an “airdrop cabinet”, one of more than 40 in Shenzhen that is operated by Meituan, China’s biggest food delivery platform. Hungry park-goers can order anything from rice noodles to Subway sandwiches to bubble tea.
A drone, loaded up with goods from a shopping mall less than three kilometres away, flies into view, and earshot, hovering over the delivery station for a moment, before steadily lowering and depositing the goods into a sealed box that can only be unlocked by entering the customer’s phone number. Dinner is served with not a human in sight. Meituan aims to beat human delivery times by about 10%, although perhaps because of its journey whizzing through the clouds in a thin polystyrene box, the food, char siu pork and a waffle, is slightly cold.
The drones are a small part of the broader robotics and artificial intelligence industry that China is intent on expanding on this year.
With a trade war raging, demographic challenges dragging on the economy and the prospect of a productive relationship with the world’s largest economy looking ever more remote, Beijing is doubling down on the industries where it sees the potential – and the need – to develop ahead of the US. China’s leaders see artificial intelligence as being the key to upgrading its military strength, solving the problems created by a shrinking workforce, and a source of national pride – especially when Chinese firms manage to circumvent US-led sanctions on core technology. And technology firms, for many years shunned by China’s leader, Xi Jinping, as he sought to crack down on excessive wealth and influence outside the Chinese Communist party’s control, are being welcomed back into the fold as Xi seeks to restore confidence in the private sector and encourage domestic innovation.
In March, Premier Li Qiang promised to “unleash the creativity of the digital economy”, with a particular focus on “embodied AI”. Guangdong, which includes the tech hub of Shenzhen, is at the forefront of this movement. The provincial government recently announced 60m yuan (£6.4m) in new funding for innovation centres. Shenzhen in particular is known as China’s drone capital, because of the authorities’ progressive approach to drone regulations, allowing the “low altitude economy” to develop faster than in other parts of the country. China’s Civil Aviation Administration predicts that the value of the sector will increase five-fold to 3.5tn yuan in the next decade.
It is not just drones that are promising – or threatening – to upend the tempo of urban life in China. Humanoid robots are particularly buzzy. The highlight of this year’s Spring festival gala, which was viewed nearly 17bn times, was a dance performed by a troupe of humanoid robots made by a company called Unitree. On Saturday, the world’s first humanoid v human race – a half marathon – took place on the outskirts of Beijing.
“Applying artificial intelligence to robots basically really kicked into high gear last year,” says Rui Ma, a China technology analyst and investor based in San Francisco. The shift could allow the industry to grow at a much faster rate in 2025 than in previous years.
