(Yicai Global) July 30 -- The Shanghai government approved the construction today of an almost 16 square-kilometer artificial intelligence innovation pilot area.

The city hopes the zone in its southern Minhang district will form the nucleus for an authoritative, internationally competitive AI cluster.

The park will strive to realize AI technology and its internal production deeply integrated with lifestyle and ecology, according to a statement city authorities released yesterday. The scale of AI output will also hit a value of hundreds of billions of yuan (dozens of billions of dollars), per the statement.

The AI pilot zone will be divided into an innovation and development district and a comprehensive application and practice area. The first, which will focus on smart delivery systems, intelligent robots, intelligent sensing systems and intelligent new hardware systems that will serve the development of the real economy and the transformation and upgrading of manufacturing, is planned to occupy about 11 square kilometers.

The comprehensive application and practice area, for which around 5 sq km is being set aside, will center on serving the needs of urban management, societal governance and human services, and build artificial intelligence application experience scenarios and promote the transformation and display of artificial intelligence technology.

The compound will seek to surpass the CNY20 billion (USD2.9 billion) output mark between 2019 and 2021 and CNY50 billion from 2022 to 2025.

Editor: Ben Armour