JINAN, Nov. 10 (Xinhua) -- At a factory in Qingdao, east China's Shandong Province, artificial intelligence (AI) has been given a practical assignment: writing the instructions for machines that make precision molds.
The factory produces various parts, including washing machine front panels, where even slight deviations from design specifications can result in substandard parts and costly waste. To address this, Qingdao Ruilijie Metal Co., Ltd. has embedded an AI-powered programming system, which is helping improve precision and efficiency.
Factory director Guo Weiwei said the system had shortened development cycles for new orders by about a week, reduced defects and saved the company more than 3 million yuan (about 447,000 U.S. dollars) a year.
A painstaking effort to prepare the data needed for the AI transition underpinned these savings. An 80-person team spent a year collecting, cleaning and standardizing technical drawings to build a dataset the system could use.
Moldmaking is a largely customized business. Engineers have different design habits, and their drawings do not always follow the same conventions. Getting AI to make sense of those differences was no simple task.
When the system was first deployed in July, it produced a component 0.2 millimeters too large because it had relied on a three-dimensional drawing without cross-checking it against the corresponding two-dimensional plan. Engineers subsequently added an automatic verification function, and the system has since been put to use at other moldmakers.
The Qingdao project illustrates a potential advantage for China in AI: no shortage of practical work for the technology to do.
As the world's largest manufacturing country, China has an extensive network of factories and suppliers, backed by substantial engineering expertise. This industrial base offers opportunities to develop and refine AI tools for specific tasks.
Official figures released in October showed that AI adoption in key application scenarios among larger manufacturing enterprises had exceeded one-third. Since the government launched its "AI Plus" initiative in 2024, provinces and businesses have stepped up efforts to develop industry-specific AI tools for mining, ports and logistics, among other sectors.
Elsewhere, AI is taking on work in places difficult for people to reach. Around Mount Tai in Shandong, steep slopes make inspections of electricity transmission lines laborious and risky. The State Grid Tai'an power supply company now uses AI to examine drone images for 12 types of defects.
Yu Tao, an employee of the company's digitalization department, said the system had helped detect and address 31 potential hazards in the Mount Tai scenic area this year, making inspections six times more efficient.
In healthcare, AI is finding work beyond the factory floor. At West China Hospital of Sichuan University in southwest China, an AI-powered system now manages patient follow-ups across 43 clinical departments.
In the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou, the First Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University and its partners have developed an AI model that can analyze digital pathology images and predict the likelihood of mutations in 12 lung cancer-related genes in as little as a minute. The model is designed to help doctors identify patients who may benefit from targeted therapies, with genetic testing used to confirm its predictions.
A study published in September by the International Labour Organization found that some Chinese manufacturers reported production efficiency gains of 20 to 30 percent after adopting AI.
Miao Yanliang, chief economist at China International Capital Corporation, said China's vast domestic market, comprehensive industrial base and engineering capabilities could give it an edge as AI is directed to wider applications.
The Qingdao model is already in use at four moldmakers. Its developers hope to reach 100 small and medium-sized firms by the end of the year, bringing AI tools once beyond the means of smaller workshops within their reach. ■
