China's AI push: Can popular adoption boost its economy?

Mass usage of AI sounds promising but it needs to prove useful

- CATHERINE THORBECKE

When it comes to the sheer number of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) users in China, the question shouldn't be how many there are, but how they're using it.

A new report from the China Internet Network Information Center indicates the nation had some 515 million users as of June, up by 266 million since December. At first glance, the figure suggests Beijing's push to spread the technology throughout industries to boost productivity-the so-called AI Plus initiative-is bearing fruit.

In the US-China tech competition, usage is an increasingly important metric to watch. An outsize amount of attention is paid to leading-model benchmarks, but the best way to measure the impact of AI in the long run is how quickly it spreads across the economy. Beijing may see the data as an early win, but it still fails to answer the more important question: Is it spurring an economic revolution or a chatbot craze?