AI must narrow rather than widen development gaps

China's burgeoning artificial intelligence sector is urged to not to drive another round of regional development imbalance. While on the path toward a moderately prosperous society, experts warn the AI industry should not create gaps among the affluent and poverty-stricken areas, thus affecting livelihoods in the latter. AI industrial clusters have taken shape in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei and Pearl River Delta regions, but other areas are lagging behind according to a research report from the Next Generation AI Research Institute at Nankai University, released this year. A new round of regional development imbalance is likely in the pipeline, it said. Statistics indicate the sector is expected to see its industrial value hit 70 billion yuan ($10.3 billion), more than doubling itself from 33.9 billion yuan according to China IRN, a domestic industrial think tank.