AlphaGo ignites AI passion among local enthusiasts

Xu Li, CEO of SenseTime, a Chinese AI company.

"Chinese engineers are very good at solving practical problems and completing the task in hand, but they need to think more globally and dream bigger dreams like Google," Hudecek said.

More creative and product-oriented, the new generation of Chinese researchers are already dreaming big AI dreams.

Guo Rui of Roobo, a Chinese company working on family robots, has just such a dream. His team is perfecting robots to take care of the elderly and to befriend children. "We have no shortage of ideas. What we need are the resources to realize them," said Guo.

Andrew Ng, also known by his Chinese name Wu Enda, founder of Google Brain, is now head of Baidu's AI labs.

It is in the computer vision sector where Chinese scientists have taken the lead and seen the most progress in commercial use.

In December, SenseTime became the first Chinese company to win the ImageNet contest, billed as the Olympics of the Computer Vision Industry. Computer vision technology is used in surveillance, shopping malls, social media, and mobile phones.

In the 13th Five-Year Plan, reviewed by China's National People's Congress, intelligent manufacturing and robot production feature prominently. Though detailed policies are yet to be released, the hopes of the domestic AI industry are high.

Lei Yu, Roobo vice-president, expects breakthroughs in the sectors of smart drones, smart home systems and intelligent medical services.

To reach that goal, policy must be directed toward full, open-minded exchanges among AI researchers and support for new ideas, he said.