Made in China 2025: Xi Jinping's plan to turn China into the AI world leader

Eleven trillion renminbi: it's a number that's hard to comprehend.

In Australian dollars that's about $2.41 trillion — far bigger than Australia's entire economy — and it's the target China has set for the value of its artificial intelligence and AI-related industries by 2030.

China is said to have accounted for more than half of all global AI investment over the last five years and in just the next three years alone Beijing expects a tenfold increase in the size of the industry.

And if you're still not convinced China is serious about artificial intelligence, remember Xi Jinping made mention of AI in his opening address to the Communist Party Congress last year.

The huge AI investment is all part of what Beijing calls "Made in China 2025" — a master plan to reposition China as an industrial superpower of the future.

The tag "Made in China" usually conjures up thoughts of cheap goods and poor quality electronics, but the Asian power is on a mission to change that by turning from a mass producer of low-end products to a world leader in cutting-edge technology.

Made in China 2025 highlights 10 key industries — from robotics and IT to green cars and aerospace equipment — and underpinning so many of its goals is AI.

"China's pursuit of AI has, arguably, been 'the story' of the past year," Mr Ding says in a report titled Deciphering China's AI Dream.

Artificial intelligence is a term that has grown in prominence in recent years and refers to the development of computer systems that can perform tasks normally requiring human intelligence.

Dive a bit deeper and you'll come across words like "machine learning", which basically refers to the ability of computer systems to use data to teach themselves.

Read the full article and more at ABC Australia.