US-China tech war: Shanghai aims to be global medical AI hub by 2027

China’s financial centre Shanghai aims to expand into a medical artificial intelligence (AI) hub in the next two years, as the nation’s healthcare sector adopts the rapidly advancing technology to improve diagnoses and treatment.

The city aims to establish itself as a “globally influential” centre for medical AI before 2027, the municipal government said earlier this week. Strategies laid out in the two-year work plan include deepening frontier research and building computing power clusters and biodata platforms.

Shanghai hopes to tackle technological challenges in areas such as large models and computing power, according to the plan. It will also boost the adoption of AI in areas including clinical healthcare and traditional Chinese medicine, the local government said.

Companies and research institutions in China have been exploring the use of AI in healthcare amid the rapid progress of technologies such as large language models (LLMs), which underpin generative AI services such as ChatGPT from US start-up OpenAI.

Large AI models, for example, can suggest diagnosis and treatment plans based on clinical data and the medical records of patients, according to Shanghai’s plan. The technology can also empower consultation platforms focused on traditional herbal medicine, policymakers said.