For the past several weeks, a DRAWING GAME has dominated China's WeChat mini-games. So, what's the big draw? Our reporter Tao Yuan finds out.  

A simple drawing game sweeping across China's smartphone screens.

DUO YUJIE "I can play it anywhere, anytime. You can even play it when you are in a bathroom. So I think it's very convenient and flexible." 

TAO YUAN SHANGHAI "It's an artificial intelligence powered game developed by Google. Basically, you are asked to draw an object, and google's neutral network tries to figure out what is it that you drew."

Caihuaxiaoge, or Guess My Sketch. And as if China's do-everything messaging app WeChat doesn't rule your life enough - Guess My Sketch works as a mini-program on the ubiquitous mobile platform. It's seen as Google's latest push to gain a foothold in a country where its search engine is banned. An English version of the game called Quick Draw has been around since 2016 - part of Google's experiment in machine learning.

"Train the computer to know the features of a cat." The result - a huge database of cat doodles. And the more you play, the better the machine gets.

Professor Lu Cewu is an AI researcher with Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

PROF. LU CEWU DEPT. OF COMPUTER SCIENCE & ENGINEERING, SHANGHAI JIAOTONG UNIV. "I think this is the first time humans can interact with a computer so they feel wow this is amazing a machine can know what I draw, what I think, but as researchers this is a very standard technique."

The users however don't care if the technology is simple.

DUO YUJIE "You're teaming up with a machine, that's a new adventure. I can draw a square and it knows it's a sandwich, this is incredible."

An artistic robot, who will eventually learn that this is a dragon. Tao Yuan, CGTN, Shanghai.