China announces measures to promote AI integration with consumption

China's commerce ministry has introduced 17 measures to promote the application of artificial intelligence in the consumption sector, enhancing integration nationwide and addressing labour costs.

China's ​commerce ministry has announced ​measures to ‌promote the ​application of artificial intelligence in the consumption sector, for ‌both products and services, state broadcaster CCTV said on Thursday. The ministry said the 17 measures ‌will look at enhancing the integration of ‌AI into households and businesses nationwide.

For goods consumption, they are looking at turning consumer electronics from ⁠functional ​to intelligent ⁠and growing a new market for humanoid robots, CCTV ⁠said. Under services, the measures aim to address ​AI's rapid penetration from consumer retail into ⁠public services and lifestyle services.

"The introduction of AI is ⁠expected ​to break through the bottleneck in service consumption constrained by high labour costs ⁠and low standardization," said Lin Jian, the deputy director ⁠of ⁠the international trade cooperation institute under the ministry.