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NPC deputy advocates development plan to hasten China's progress in AGI
Liu Qingfeng, a deputy to the 14th National People's Congress and chairman of iFLYTEK. [Photo provided to China.org.cn]
As Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) becomes a key battleground in the global tech race, it's also a hot topic at China's 2024 "two sessions", which started on March 4. Liu Qingfeng, a deputy to the 14th National People's Congress (NPC), has proposed a national development plan to expediate China's AGI development, aiming to place the country at the forefront of this cutting-edge field.
"China must acknowledge the existing gaps and focus on developing autonomous and controllable large-scale models. By concentrating resources at the national level, we can catch up more quickly while systematically building a general AI ecosystem and applications to create a comprehensive advantage," Liu stated, who is also the chairman of iFLYTEK, China's leading AI and speech technology company.
Liu addressed the current state of China's homegrown AI-powered large models, citing iFlytek's Spark Desk as an example, which is expected to reach functionality that would rival GPT-4 within six months. However, with the release of GPT-5, this gap could widen, he said. However, Liu remained optimistic that with focused efforts in computing power, data, and model training, China could bridge this gap in one to two years, noting China has advantages in areas like voice and medical large models.
Liu emphasized the solid foundation China has built in cognitive intelligence since the release of the New Generation Artificial Intelligence Development Plan in 2017.
Based on this 2017 development plan, he recommended that the new national plan should address key areas for improvement in China's general AI development, such as building an independent computing power ecosystem, sharing high-quality data, establishing scientific evaluation standards, conducting foundational technology research, nurturing talent, and developing legal and ethical frameworks.
By implementing a systematic national strategy for general AI development, China will narrow the gap with international AI industries in foundational platforms and create comparative advantages in industry applications, Liu said.