The second World Artificial Intelligence Conference will be held from August 29 to 31 in Shanghai, home to more than 1,000 core AI companies and two AI zones.

Giants like Microsoft, Amazon, Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent have all set up facilities in the city, where AI applications in education, healthcare, urban management, finance and business are on display.

A security guard at the Zhangjiang AI zone in Pudong, Shanghai, is a robot that looks similar to WALL-E, the robot in the sci-fi Disney film. The robot uses facial recognition technology and sends out warnings of abnormal conditions when on patrol. Han Lu, chief economist of Zhangjiang Group, said AI technology helps to better manage Zhangjiang Science City and is a great trial for the application of AI.

AI is also used in irrigation, for instance, an automatic grass water system is based on the moisture level in the soil. AI is also used to collect river samples and analyze the water quality. The technology is even used in trash bins to automatically sort rubbish. These systems and sensors collect all the data to help supervisors better understand conditions in the whole area without stepping out of the office.

In the meantime, Shanghai Shixi High School has established an AI laboratory to go along with new courses for students. The school is now taking advantage of an online teaching platform based on the technology. The new system can create a personalized study plan for students by analyzing their habits.

Lin Qin, the vice principal, said students may be divided into classes based on their real-time performance. "By using AI technology we can understand a student's current learning ability. Then we can place them in classes best suited to their needs," Lin said.