Beijing, China's capital, is making education in AI mandatory for students including elementary students. From this autumn, schools within the city need to offer at least eight hours of AI courses per school year, the Beijing Municipal Education Commission announced in a statement schools have the flexibility to teach AI as a separate subject or include it in current courses such as science and information technology.
Under the new proposal, elementary students, ages usually six to twelve, would enroll in hands-on classes to introduce them to AI. Middle school students would learn to use AI in school assignments and everyday life, while high school students would concentrate on enhancing AI applications and innovation, the agency added.
In China, six years of elementary school, three years of middle school, and three years of high school are mandatory.
Beijing isn't the sole voice urging education about AI within schools. Californian lawmakers legalized last year, with the stipulation that their state education board had to ensure school curriculums address AI literacy. Italy will be launching pilot applications of AI software within 15 classrooms as part of an extension effort to incorporate AI-based tool utilization within schooling. China races on with the AI competition
Beijing's move to make education in AI compulsory follows China racing ahead in the AI competition, with its domestic startups attracting global interest. Recently, AI firm DeepSeek dominated the headlines following the launch of a low-budget reasoning model that revolutionized the AI sector and the US stock market. The firm claimed that its model compares with industry leaders, such as ChatGPT's o1, but at a much lower price.
Alibaba's shares jumped 8 percent in two days last week after the company introduced its newest open-sourced AI model, which it claimed consumed less data than its competitor DeepSeek. Other Chinese AI shares, such as Tencent, have also gained on anticipation of newly released technology, while leading US-based AI shares, such as Nvidia, have lost ground.
The commission stated that the effort is intended to develop a "teacher-student-machine" learning model and incorporate AI ethics.
