AI pilot zones can lead tech revolution

Artificial intelligence has triggered what many say is a revolution in technology and industry, prompting countries worldwide to capitalize on the market momentum by establishing AI pilot zones in order to make breakthrough innovations. With the increase in generative AI adoption, the AI market has been flourishing through inclusive growth and disruptive models. In such circumstances, global collaboration is essential to unlock the AI era's dividends.

The United States is fostering research-industry synergy and China is pioneering large-scale commercialization, while the United Kingdom is pursuing strategic integration, and Japan is advancing its Society 5.0 program. These efforts have already made significant achievements, showcasing the vitality and competitiveness of AI innovation worldwide.

The US is trying to harness a seamless synergy of innovation and application by establishing AI pilot zones in global hubs such as Silicon Valley and Boston. More than 20 AI research centers, led by institutions such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Stanford University, are fostering collaboration among government, industry and the academia. Focusing on autonomous driving, smart healthcare and AI chips, they are trying to achieve cross-disciplinary breakthroughs, accelerating technology transfer from labs to market and boosting AI-driven industrial development.

China has designated major cities, including Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Hangzhou and Chengdu, as front-runners in AI commercialization since launching its National AI Innovation Pilot Zone initiative in 2019. These hubs are applying research results to smart manufacturing, healthcare and autonomous vehicles. Supported by targeted policies, funding and industrial clustering, the rise of DeepSeek highlights China's cost-efficient, high-performance AI model and offers a unique blueprint for global AI development.

Japan's Society 5.0 program promotes AI integration with traditional industries, fostering breakthroughs in manufacturing, healthcare and smart cities. The Japanese government has introduced the AI Business Guidebook to guide enterprises in AI adoption, and implemented funding initiatives, policy incentives, international partnerships to accelerate AI commercialization. By focusing on AI-powered solutions for the aging population, smart transportation and advanced manufacturing, Japan is enhancing AI's social relevance and accelerating its penetration across entire industry chains.

The UK has adopted a structured approach to AI development, ensuring industry integration. The UK government has established the AI Council and AI Office, and introduced key policies such as the AI Roadmap, National AI Strategy and AI Regulation White Paper, alongside the AI Opportunity Initiative. AI applications in finance, manufacturing, healthcare, and energy have become crucial drivers of the UK's digital economy, reinforcing its long-term leadership in AI innovation.

But despite their progress, AI innovation pilot zones face challenges that constrain scalability and sustainability. So breakthroughs in fundamental research are urgently needed amid fierce global competition, underdeveloped infrastructure, limited commercialization and talent gaps.

Although large AI models, artificial general intelligence (AGI) and cross-modal integration remain in early stages, countries are racing to the edge. The US leads in chip development, computational ecosystems and algorithm innovation, while China makes advances in large-model training. But to sustain long-term competitiveness, all major AI economies must accelerate efficient training frameworks, energy-optimized computing and human-AI collaborative intelligence.

The US dominates with NVIDIA's H100 chips and robust cloud services, high costs limit adoption. And China's DeepSeek has reduced the country's reliance on massive compute power through optimization, and yet the country's needs to expand its intelligent computing centers and autonomous supply chains.

While AI has demonstrated its transformative potential, many apps remain in the early stages of commercialization, while AI adoption is still largely concentrated in high-value sectors such as advertising, finance and autonomous driving, and other emerging apps lack mature business models. As such, bridging the gap between AI innovation and market demand to create scalable, replicable commercialization models is a key challenge for global AI pilot zones.

The rapid growth of the AI industry has intensified global competition for AI talents, particularly for professionals with both technical expertise and business acumen. The US continues to attract top AI researchers, while China is likely to face an estimated AI talent shortfall of 4 million by 2030. Similarly, the EU and Japan are struggling to address AI workforce shortage.

To unlock the full potential of AI innovation pilot zones, governments and industries must work together to overcome existing challenges, and boost high-quality AI development. This requires advancing foundational research, strengthening AI infrastructure, expanding real-world applications and cultivating a skilled workforce.

The related authorities should also increase investments in AI foundational research, establish dedicated funds for open-ended research and breakthrough innovations, and encourage multiple AI research pathways. In this regard, it is essential to advance original AI algorithms, large-model architectures and AGI, and establish a research ecosystem that supports trial-and-error experimentation to foster continuous technological advancement.

Robust AI infrastructure is critical for widespread adoption. Establishing an AI open-source ecosystem will drive algorithm reusability and innovation while lowering development costs, and improving data governance frameworks will ensure security and regulatory compliance, and facilitate efficient data utilization.

Since AI's true value lies in its real-world applications, countries should fast-track AI integration into critical sectors such as smart manufacturing, healthcare, financial services and urban planning, and establish AI innovation hubs and industry incubation centers to accelerate the transition from research to commercialization, and create AI intellectual property exchange platforms to streamline technology transfer and enhance industry-wide collaboration.

As sustained AI growth depends on a well-developed talent pipeline, Chinese enterprises can implement strategic AI talent recruitment policies, attract high-caliber professionals and expand AI training programs that integrate the academia and industry, while the development of interdisciplinary AI education frameworks incorporating AI engineering, ethics and business applications will help build a competitive AI workforce.

In the era of AI innovation, pilot zones can be engines of transformative progress. As for challenges like lack of breakthroughs in fundamental research, compute resource shortages, commercialization hurdles and talent gaps, they can be overcome through coordinated international efforts. And by combining their strengths, China can unleash AI's potential to reshape industries and promote global technology breakthroughs.

The author is a distinguished professor at Sichuan University, and a CPPCC National Committee member. The views don't necessarily represent those of China Daily.

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