Guangdong issued “22 Implementation Opinions” on development of the General Artificial Intelligence Industry
Pengcheng Cloud Brain in Pengcheng Laboratory located in Shenzhen
On 13 November 2023, the People's Government of Guangdong Province issued the “Implementation Opinions on Accelerating the Construction of a Leading Hub for Innovation in the General Artificial Intelligence Industry” (“Implementation Opinions”). With 22 policy measures such as establishing a national hub for intelligent computing power, the Implementation Opinions state that Guangdong will strive to achieve national leadership and global excellence in intelligent computing power by 2025.
Further solidifying the foundation of autonomous computing power base
Artificial intelligence (AI) is an important driving force for a new round of technological revolution and industrial transformation. Since the launch of ChatGPT, General AI technology represented by large models and generative AI has set off a global wave. Different countries have deployed resources to foster innovation including policies, funds, and talents to accelerate their efforts to seize the high ground in the field of General AI.
The "Implementation Opinions" propose that by 2025, Guangdong will achieve national leadership and global excellence in intelligent computing power, construct a relatively complete General AI technology innovation system and expand the high-level application scenarios of AI technology. According to the plan, the value of the core AI industry will surpass RMB300 billion with the number of AI enterprises exceeding 2,000. Guangdong will establish a national hub for intelligent computing power, a special data zone in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, and a national demonstration centre for AI scenario application. These initiatives will help construct a favourable development environment characterized by “interconnected computing power, open-source algorithms, data integrated, and emerging applications of AI technology”.
Autonomous intelligent computing power is the foundation for the development of AI. At present, Guangdong has major computing facilities platforms including Pengcheng Laboratory, Shaoguan Data Centre Cluster, Hengqin Advanced Intelligent Computing Platform, and National Supercomputing Centres in Guangzhou and Shenzhen.
On this basis, Guangdong will further consolidate the foundation of autonomous computing power, enhance the autonomy and controllability of computing power in the country, and strengthen the core functions of national intelligent computing centres, supercomputing centres, and data centres in areas such as interconnection, coordination and efficient computation to support major national tasks including construction of “Eastern Data, Western Computation” and "China Computing Power Network".
In the next step, by autonomous development of computing power chips and toolchains, establishing a comprehensive, autonomous and controllable AI software and hardware ecosystem, and accelerating the construction of a national computing power coordination centre, Guangdong will build a General AI computing power hub centre, promote the development of autonomous intelligence, and enhance the scale of autonomous computing power. At the same time, Guangdong will push forward the development of the General AI industry through original technological breakthroughs and industry application of large-scale language models, cutting-edge key generic technologies and security and credibility technologies.
Taking the lead in the construction of “Special Data Zones”
In 2022, the value of Guangdong's core AI industry reached RMB150 billion. With around 170,000 registered AI-related companies and 900 core companies, the province is ranked first in the country.
The "Implementation Opinions" specify the goals and positioning of industrial scale and number of enterprises and propose to make full use of the major opportunities of building a national new generation AI innovation and development pilot zone and a national AI innovation and application pilot zone to promote the construction of a number of key industrial parks and industries. The base will give full play to the demonstration and leading role of leading AI companies such as Huawei and Tencent and the new generation of AI innovation platforms, continuously enrich application scenarios, promote the application of results, and form good support for industry leadership.
In order to further highlight the coordinated development characteristics of Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao, the "Implementation Opinions" leverage on institutional and resource advantages of Hong Kong and Macao to explore the construction of a “Special Data Zone” in the Greater Bay Area, strive to establish rules for data transfer in the Greater Bay Area and enhance the operation mechanism to improve the data scale and quality of Guangdong General AI.
Guangdong has also proposed to build a General AI industry cluster. Through measures such as optimizing regional layout, industrial base construction, and enterprise incubation, the province will further strengthen the General AI industry cluster and form a good environment for regional coordination, step-by-step incubation of enterprises, emergence of end products, and diverse application scenarios. The province will also construct a General AI innovation ecosystem, strengthen the supporting role of FinTech, enhance international exchanges and cooperation, and build a computing power algorithm trading platform to create a sound ecosystem for the development of General AI.
This article was published by the 南方日报 (South CN) and has been translated into English. If there is any inconsistency or ambiguity between the English version and the Chinese version, the latter shall prevail. The full text of the article, in Chinese, can be found at https://www.gd.gov.cn/zwgk/zcjd/mtjd/content/post_4283645.html