Xi Jinping urges Chinese armed forces to ‘strengthen military application’ of AI

Chinese President Xi Jinping has called on the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) to enhance its use of AI as part of a drive to develop an intelligent military.

He told a Politburo group study session on Thursday that the PLA should “strengthen the military application of unmanned intelligent technologies, deepen the development and application of network information systems, and gradually build an intelligent military system”, according to state news agency Xinhua.

Xi’s comments are a probable reflection of the leadership’s current thinking about how the PLA is progressing towards its centenary targets.

While Beijing has never explicitly defined the specific capabilities required to achieve this goal, the PLA has said the target involved the accelerated development of an intelligent force, as well as modernising its weapons and equipment.

These efforts are widely believed to require the integration of emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) into the military.