CPPCC member: AI could help China's online literature go global

New cultural forms in China, represented by online literature, are going global at an unprecedented speed, providing overseas readers with a new perspective on China and Chinese culture, Wu Yiqin, a member of the 14th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), told Xinhua News Agency recently.

The scale of China's online literature overseas market exceeded 4 billion yuan (about $563.7 million) in 2023, according to a report released by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) in late February. The works have been read by 230 million overseas users, covering more than 200 countries and regions around the world.

Wu, who is also vice chairman of the Chinese Writers Association, said in his proposal that language is the primary obstacle for online literature to go overseas, adding that technological innovation, such as AI translation, provides a new way to solve this problem.

"AI translation can allow online literature to be exported overseas on a large scale. For example, English AI translation only costs 10 percent of that using manual translation," said Wu.

However, Wu noted that AI translation still faces many challenges, such as inconsistent translation standards, unstable translation quality, and insufficient data in lesser-known languages.

Wu hopes that the relevant authorities could promote close cooperation in AI translation among industries, universities and research institutes by providing policy and financial support, unifying translation standards and building multilingual language databases of online literature.

He said the widespread use of AI may also make it more challenging to protect overseas copyrights of works. "It is difficult to define the boundaries of infringement of AI translation or AI 'recreation' content, and the cost of rights protection is high," said Wu.

He called for establishing a coordinated copyright protection mechanism between China and other countries.