Guangxi emerges as regional hub for AI surge

Strategic advantages drawn on to propel China-ASEAN collaboration.

- Liu Jianqiao and Shi Ruipeng report

It started as a novel technology contest, but the AI Super League has quickly developed into a leading platform for greater China-ASEAN collaboration on artificial intelligence, industry chiefs and officials say.

The concept has also provided Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, South China, with the opportunity to shore up its geographical advantage as a bridge to the member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

The AI Super League, organized by the Guangxi regional government, started in July.

It has drawn an impressive lineup of more than 3,300 teams from across China's 31 provincial-level regions and the ASEAN member states. A total of 329 teams from ASEAN are competing in nine categories, ranging from cross-border e-commerce and cultural tourism to automotive innovation and modern agriculture.

Lu Xinning, a member of the Standing Committee of the Communist Party of China Guangxi Committee and vice-governor of the autonomous region, said the league has evolved beyond a mere technology contest.

With no entry barriers, the competition has built an innovation community reaching from Guangxi to the rest of China and extending across the region.

“This marks a shift in China-ASEAN cooperation from traditional domains to the digital sphere, paving the way for more inclusive development of artificial intelligence,” Lu said.