China sees shortfall of 5m AI experts

China has a shortfall of 5 million artificial intelligence experts and the country must strengthen training and education in order to boost innovation, said industry officials on Tuesday.

China’s AI talent gap of 5 million includes 500,000 core engineers who master programming and related technologies, said dajie.com, an online recruitment firm. 

Shenzhen-listed iFlytek Co, one of the biggest public AI firms in the country, which offers voice recognition and real-time translation services, has opened an “online AI college” whose online courses have drawn 40,000 participants. The college is expected to train 500,000 professionals by the end of 2018 through partners like dajie.com and the University of Science and Technology of China.

AI has been used in security, education, medical, smart manufacturing, aerospace and various industries. 

China has defined AI as a national “strategic” technology and planned to develop a core AI market worth over 150 billion yuan (US$22.66 billion) by 2020, according to the State Council or Cabinet.

Robotic AI, which refers to more intelligent and advanced AI, will turn into reality soon, said Wang Yonggang, vice chairman of the AI institute under Sinovation Ventures.