As AI Blossoms in China

The head in his hands, the eight -year -old Timm muttered himself when he tried to defeat the robot that works on artificial intelligence in chess.

But it was not an exhibition hall ah and a laboratory – this robot lived in a magazine in Beijing apartment as well as Timi.

On the first night, when he came home, he hugged his little friend -most before going to sleep. He has no name – yet.

“It’s like a little teacher or a little friend,” the boy said when he showed his mom the next step he viewed on the chessboard.

A moment later the robot sounded, “Congratulations! You win.” Round eyes blinking on the screen began to rearrange the works to start a new game when it continued in the tangerine: “I saw your ability, I will be better next time.”

China takes II in its application for technological superpower by 2030.

Deepseek, Breakthrough Chinese Chatbat It caught the attention of the world in January, was only the first hint of these ambitions.

Money is poured into AI companies looking for more capital by fueled internal competition. There are more than 4,500 firms that develop and sell II, schools in the Beijing capital presenting AI courses for primary and secondary students at the end of this year, and universities have increased the number of places available for students studying II.

“This is an inevitable trend. We coexist with the II,” said Mom Timi John Sue. “Children should get acquainted with this as soon as possible. We should not reject it.”

She strives for her son to learn both chess and board game “Strategy” – the robot makes both of which she convinced her that $ 800 was a good investment. Its creators are already planning to add a language training program.

Perhaps this was what the Communist Party of China hoped for when in 2017 it stated that AI would become a “main driving force” of the country’s progress. President Xi Jinping is now making a big bet on this, as the slowdown Chinese economy is fighting tariffs with the largest trading partner, the US.

Beijing plans to invest 10tn Chinese Yuan ($ 1.4tn; £ 1tn) in the next 15 years because it competes with Washington to gain preference in advanced technology. The AI ​​financing has received another incentive at the annual political gathering of the government now undergoing. This is due to the 60 billion Yuan-Ai investment fund, created in January, just a few days after the United States further strengthened control over exports for advanced chips and placed more Chinese firms in blacklisted.

But Deepseek has shown that Chinese companies could overcome these barriers. And this is what stunned Silicon Valley and Experts in the industry – they did not expect China to catch up so quickly.

This Tommy Tommy’s reaction was used to after six months of marketing chess robot to its firm at various competitions.

The Timi machine comes from the same company, Senserobot, which offers a wide range of abilities – the Chinese state -owned media greeted the advanced version in 2022, which won chess great masters in the game.

“Parents ask about the price, then they will ask where I am.” There will always be one -two seconds of silence when I say I was from China. “

Its firm has sold more than 100,000 robots and now has a contract with a major US supermarket network, Costco.

One of the secrets of success in China’s engineering is his young people. In 2020, more than 3.5 million students have completed a degree in science, technology, technology and mathematics, better known as STEM.

This is more than any other country in the world – and Beijing seeks to use it. “Building forces in education, science and talents is a common responsibility,” the party leaders said last week.

Ever since China has opened its economy in the late 1970s, it has “gone through the process of accumulating talents and technologies,” says Abbot Lou, Vice President of the Shanghai Company, a firm that creates toys II. “In this AI era we have a lot -many engineers, and they are hardworking.”

Behind him is a dinosaur made of a different colored brick, growls to life. It is controlled through the code collected on the seven -year smartphone.

The company is developing toys to help children under the age of three. Each brick package comes with the code booklet. The children can then choose what they want to build and learn how to do it. The cheapest toy is sold about $ 40.

“In other countries, there are also AI Education robots, but when it comes to competitiveness and smart equipment, China is getting better,” Mr. Lee insists.

Deepseek’s success turned its CEO Lang Wenfeng into a national hero and “costs 10 billion yuan advertising for (Chinese) industry,” he added.

“This has informed the society that II is not just a concept that it can really change people’s lives. It inspired the public of curiosity.”

Six home firms II, including Deepseek, nicknamed China, six dragons – the rest – robotics unitree, Deep Robotics, Brainco, Game Science and Manycore Tech.

Some of them were at the recent Fair in Shanghai, where the largest Chinese business firms demonstrated their success: from search and rescue robots to a dog similar to a dog that wandered through the halls.

In one busy exhibition hall, two teams of humanoid robots fought with football, completed in the red -races. The cars fell when they encountered – and one of them was even removed from the field in a stretcher with their human handler who sought to continue the joke.

It was difficult to miss the air of excitement among the developers after the depth of the network. “Deepseek means that the world knows we are here,” said J. Gindy, a 26-year-old engineer.

But since the world learns about the potential of AI China, there is also concern that AI allows Chinese government to learn about its users.

AI longs for data – the more they become, the smarter it makes, and about a billion mobile phone users compared to just over 400 million in the US, Beijing has a real advantage.

The West, its allies and many experts in these countries believe that the data collected by Chinese applications such as Deepseek, Rednote or Tiktok may access the Chinese Communist Party. Some point to the country’s national law as evidence of this.

But Chinese firms, including byte owned by Tiktok, says the law allows for the protection of private companies and personal data. However, the suspicion that US users’ data on Tiktok may be in the hands of Chinese government Washington’s decision to ban an extremely popular app.

The same fear – where the problems of national security solve the problems of privacy – falls into depth. South Korea is prohibited New DEEPSEEK downloadsWhile Taiwan and Australia have banned app from devices issued by the government.

Chinese companies are aware of these sensitivity, and Mr. Tang quickly told the BBC that “privacy was a red line” for his company. Beijing also realizes that this will be a problem in the application to become a world leader in the II.

“The rapid rise in Deepseek has caused hostile reactions from some in the West,” said the state-owned Beijing comment, adding that “the development environment for AI China’s models remains very uncertain.”

But Chinese AI firms are not scared. Rather, they believe that savings innovations will benefit them the undeniable advantage – because it was Deepseek’s statement that it could compete with chatt for a share of the AI ​​industry.

Thus, the engineering task is how to do more. “It was our mission impossible,” said Mr. Tan. His company found that the robotic hand, which was used to move chess works, was very expensive to produce and would lead to a price of about $ 40,000.

So they tried to use the II to help do the engineers work and improve the production process. Mr. Tan claims to reduce the price of up to $ 1,000.

“This is an innovation,” he says. “Artificial mechanical engineering is now integrated into the production process.”

This can have huge consequences when China applies AI on a wide scale. State media already show factories full of humanoid robots. In January, the government stated that it would promote the development of humanoid robots working on the II to help care for rapid aging of the population.

XI has repeatedly announced “technological independence” a key goal, which means that China wants to create its own advanced chips to replenish US export restrictions that may interfere with its plans.

The Chinese leader knows that he is going on a long race-in Beijing recently warned that the moment Deepseek was not sometimes for “triumphism” because China was still “catching up”.

President Si invest great funds in artificial intelligence, robots and advanced technologies in preparation for the marathon, which he hopes eventually wins.