The News
Beijing is urging Chinese schools to integrate artificial intelligence into curriculums for kids as young as six in a bid to build-up domestic talent in the country’s intensifying tech rivalry with the US.
In a new directive, the Ministry of Education said the move would “meet China’s future demand for innovative talent” by making AI classes the norm by 2030.
Experts believe China is lagging behind the US in generative AI by at least a year, and is in danger of falling further behind, despite Beijing launching a push to boost AI in universities and schools in 2018. A year later, the country rolled out courses in the tech for public high schools, a move education commentators said would cost a few million yuan per school in a highly-developed urban center like Shenzhen to enact, while rural schools often lack basic infrastructure like internet access and adequate classrooms.