5G, AI combine to empower wide array of socio-economic fields in China

In recent years, China has witnessed nonstop expansion in the integration of its 5G industry with other high-tech technologies, such as the Internet of Things and big data, which have been applied in various socio-economic fields that range from public service delivery and the construction of an Industrial Internet to the roll out of smart cities and intelligent communities.

A 5G-enabled intelligent service robot unveiled at this year's China Mobile Worldwide Partner Conference. (Photo/ haiwainet.cn)

In 2020, 5G directly created 810.9 billion yuan (US$ 125 billion) in gross economic output, with some 189.7 billion yuan in economic value added (EVA), while indirectly generating about 2.1 trillion yuan in gross output, according to a white paper released by the China Academy of Information and Communication Technology.

"As an important underpinning for the intelligent Internet, 5G has been deeply integrated with various industries, providing a solid foundation for the intelligent upgrading of various socio-economic fields," said Xiang Ligang, director-general of the Beijing-based Information Consumption Alliance.

Xiang added that 5G helps to promote high-quality economic and social development by lowering the cost of industrial production and increasing its efficiency.

Apart from 5G, artificial intelligence (AI) is also empowering developments in a wide variety of fields. For instance, by adopting AI, an intermediate people's court in Lyuliang city, north China's Shanxi Province, has rolled out a new system for handling criminal cases so as to reduce the likelihood of a wrongful conviction.

Over the past decade, China has filed a total of 389,571 patents in the area of AI, accounting for 74.7 percent of the global total and ranking first in the world. Statistics indicate that AI has emerged as a vital driving force for the fast growth of science and technology in the country as well as the promotion of industrial optimization and upgrading.

"China has made breakthroughs constantly in the field of AI," said Liu Qingfeng, chairman of Iflytek, a supplier for voice recognition software, adding that AI has increasingly become a "companion" for the Chinese people.