China pioneers world's first breakthrough in data transmission amid ChatGPT boom

China has made major breakthroughs in a computing power technology that can reduce data transmission costs by 50 percent, which was the first of its kind worldwide, amid the scarcest AI computing boom to support ChatGPT-like applications, a top expert said on Thursday.

The technology, dubbed optoelectronic integrated wide-area deterministic network technology, is a key tech used in the country's east-data-west-computing project, said Liu Yunjie, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, at a future network conference on Thursday. 

The east-data-west-computing project sends data gathered from the more prosperous eastern regions of the country to less-developed but resource-rich western regions for storage, calculation and feedback.

Liu said that this technology plays a critical role in efficiently transmitting large amounts of data between eastern and western regions, reducing costs by 50 percent while ensuring high network stability and performance.

"This breakthrough is globally unique and stands at the forefront of international innovation," Liu said.

As frontier technology combines optical and electronic technologies to enable high-efficiency, stable, and low-latency data transmission across large distances, it is also crucial for applications requiring precise timing and reliability, such as industrial automation, autonomous driving, and remote healthcare, industry experts said.

On Thursday, the conference also announced the country's completion of a National Future Network Test Facility, the industry's first time-sensitive network control system for vehicles, and millisecond-level real-time intelligent technology for 6G wireless networks.