AI passes Go: where next for China's artificial intelligence ambitions?

In July 2017, China published its Next Generation AI Development Plan. As analysts such as Jeff Ding of Oxford University point out, it was not a green-field programme. It rather sought to gather and focus a diverse set of existing initiatives in response to what local academics called a'Sputnik moment': the 2016 defeat of the world's best Go player, Lee Sedol, by a Google-owned AI. For context, China's AI industry was estimated to be worth around RMB15bn (£1.7bn) when the plan was released. The plan often provokes sceptical responses outside China but the country has made significant advances toward the 2020 goal (indeed large parts of it have arguably already been achieved).