BEIJING, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- Launched from the waters off east China's Shandong Province on Wednesday, a rocket successfully placed two AI-powered satellites into orbits. Delivering intelligent remote sensing services to Uzbekistan and Indonesia, this mission represents new progress in China's efforts to empower the Global South through AI.
One satellite will collaborate with Uzbekistan to conduct full-cycle monitoring of the landlocked country's cotton industry, while the other will safeguard Indonesia's agricultural production by precisely tracking crop growth and assessing disaster risks, according to the satellites' developer Star.ai Spatio-temporal Intelligence Technology Co., Ltd.
"We engage in deep cooperation with these two countries, spanning agriculture, meteorology and mineral exploration," said Song Bingchen, Star.ai's co-founder.
Powered by AI algorithms, these satellites can implement computing tasks directly in space. "In disaster early warning, our smart satellites can provide specific decision-making guidance within minutes, a massive efficiency leap compared to traditional satellites that take hours to assess a situation," said Song.
In recent years, China has seen its intelligent technology increasingly being deployed across the region, in sectors like disaster mitigation and agriculture, helping to bridge the digital and intelligence divide.
Last month, a research team from Fudan University saw its China-Africa AI disaster early warning and mitigation programme officially selected for the United Nations' International Decade of Sciences for Sustainable Development.
"China is among the world leaders in comprehensive aerospace and AI technologies, whereas Africa is highly vulnerable to frequent natural disasters, but lacks robust disaster prevention and mitigation capabilities," said Zhang Yuning, a member of Fudan's project team.
"Leveraging China's aerospace and AI technologies to provide Africa with early disaster warnings and post-disaster information support can effectively assist African nations and the African Union in their disaster prevention and mitigation efforts," added Zhang.
This inclusive AI cooperation achieved an institutional milestone just ahead of the 2026 World AI Conference (WAIC) held in mid-July. Twenty-nine countries signed an agreement to establish the World Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Organization (WAICO), an independent intergovernmental body headquartered in Shanghai, constituting a major move by China to answer the call of the Global South and unite the international community together to build a just and equitable system for global AI governance.
Also at WAIC, the National Development and Reform Commission unveiled a collection of case studies showing how China's AI technology is benefiting the world.
Included in the studies is the case of China's MAZU meteorological model, which has been empowering Djibouti's local dockworkers to navigate unpredictable extreme weather in the coastal country of northeast Africa, without having to simply rely on luck.
"This is the kind of technological support we've long been hoping for," said a technician at Djibouti's National Meteorological Agency. "It has given us forecasting references we never had before, especially in tracking extreme weather incidents such as heat waves and heavy rain."
MAZU, which literally means "Sea Goddess" in the Minnan culture of China, is the world's first national-level action plan in response to the United Nations' Early Warnings for All initiative. Since 2024, meteorological agencies in more than 40 countries have accessed MAZU through the cloud.
The casebook shows a Chinese smart robotics firm is driving a smart manufacturing revolution in Malaysia's labor-intensive natural rubber industry by providing customized AI and robotic solutions. Enabled by small-model AI algorithms and high-precision servo drive control system, an upgraded production line went into operation in January 2025, achieving a 20 to 30 percent reduction in labor costs.
"Overall factory management efficiency has improved dramatically. The production capacity and product quality of the entire line have taken a qualitative leap," Er Hock Lai, chairman of Seng Fong Holdings Berhad, was cited as saying.
By leveraging an AI-driven platform co-developed by China and Brazil, local farmers can now manage a complete farming cycle and monitor real-time environmental conditions with just a few clicks. This digital transformation has driven a notable 6-to-10 percent increase in crop yields.
In another case, China's cooperation with Global South countries also extends to the frontier sciences.
A Chinese team developed an AI-powered screening platform, which can rapidly analyze massive genomic datasets to identify novel antimicrobial peptides and lead compounds. Sherien Magdy, a researcher from Egypt's National Research Centre used the AI platform to rapidly screen more than 30 promising antibiotic lead compound candidates and food antimicrobial agents lead compound candidates.
"Work on the screening and validation of drug lead compounds that used to take two years can now be completed in a few months," she said.
In 2025, the Chinese and Egyptian research teams jointly conducted an expedition along the Red Sea coast, collecting sediment samples from mangrove ecosystems. Using the intelligent marine drug screening and prediction platform, they subsequently completed genome sequencing and metabolic potential analysis of more than 50 microbial strains.
"What we are sharing is not just technology, but also innovative concepts and new cooperation models," said Wang Hong, head of the marine drug team at Zhejiang University of Technology. ■
