Shanghai will be working towards becoming known as home to a science and technology hub as it shifts its focus to make developments in artificial intelligence and smart manufacturing. 

Zhangjiang Science City, in Pudong has seen several tech companies moving their market there. Alibaba, IBM and Microsoft are just a few big firms amongst other businesses who established shops in Shanghai’s ‘AIsland’, which became a technological hub. 

Xia Yuzhong at the Science and Economy Commission said, ‘AI’s application requires co-ordinated adaptation to real-life scenarios,’ adding, ‘We hope these top-tier AI companies can lead the industrial application and innovation aggregation of AI and generate more transferable and duplicable experiences to other parts of the country.’   

The government created Shanghai’s ‘AIsland’ as part of the Shanghai National Pilot Area for the Innovative Development of New-Generation AI, which was agreed on in May.  

Deputy general economist of Shanghai Zhangjiang Group Co Ltd, Han Lu, who is also responsible of the AI area said that pilot programs will be carried out, and that, ‘The pilot zone should be a prototype mimicking what future cosmopolitan life should look like.’ 

The main reason for the construction of the area and the development in AI is to help boost the economy.