China has announced a formal plan to integrate artificial intelligence across all levels of schooling, aligning its education system with President Xi Jinping’s campaign to dominate advanced technologies.
The State Council released a five-year blueprint on June 29 including a plan to make AI a core capability for every student, echoing Xi’s earlier call to cultivate high-tech talent as the world’s second-largest economy searches for new growth drivers.
The plan urges efforts to "promote artificial intelligence education throughout all educational stages, improve students’ AI literacy and enhance their ability to identify and solve problems.” China’s de facto cabinet called on regional authorities to put the policy into practice.
The AI push is part of a broader bid by the government to gain an edge in frontier technologies. Beijing is especially keen to foster homegrown winners that can counter tightening Western export controls on advanced hardware.
Policymakers are trying to balance productivity gains from AI adoption with employment stability amid a fragile labour market and elevated youth joblessness. The Ministry of Education previously urged universities to provide AI training for students to help them find jobs.
In several recent cases, Chinese courts have ruled that companies cannot terminate employees just to replace them with AI systems, highlighting Beijing’s desire to protect jobs even as it seeks to compete with the US. – Bloomberg
