China has unveiled a national AI development plan which aims to build a world-class domestic industry in just over a decade. The government is calling for the development of skills, research and educational resources to achieve major breakthroughs by 2025, and become a world leader by 2030.  

Already, mega Chinese companies such as Alibaba, Baidu and Tencent are spending top dollar to develop AI systems in areas of e-commerce, autonomous vehicles, medicare and other applications.  It is estimated that the value of the country's core AI industries will exceed 22 billion US dollars by 2020 and 59 billion dollars by 2025. The government says this will help put China at the forefront of innovation and seal its place as an economic power.