Nearly 500 academicians and experts specializing in artificial intelligence from across China converged here on Wednesday for a three-day conference on the development of artificial intelligence and extension engineering.

The event, titled the 2003 National Academic Conference of the Chinese Association for Artificial Intelligence (CAAI), is also meant to mark the 20th anniversary of the creation of extenics, a cross-section discipline created by a Chinese professor 20 years ago.

Zhong Yixin, president of the CAAI, made a key-note speech at the opening ceremony of the conference, calling on the participants to make unswerving efforts to expedite the development process of artificial intelligence and its application.

He said that it has long been a dream of the Chinese people to create various machines able to perform almost all functions of humans, and this kind of imagination can be found in both ancient and modern Chinese literature, especially novels.

"Under the circumstances of a speedy development of information network, artificial intelligence is of great significance for economic development and social progress," Zhong said.

Wu Wenjun, one of China's top mathematicians and an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, gave a presentation titled Mechanization of Brain Labor in the Computer Era. With a review of the development history of mathematics, Wu said that the computer is an extension of the human brain, and it can at least replace part of the strenuous brain work, thereby greatly enhancing productivity and boosting economic development.

"China has been backward in science and technology for several hundred years since the 13th century," Wu said. "It is our historical responsibility to catch up with the world in the fields of science and technology, and make our contribution to world civilization."

Several renowned academics and professors gave presentations at the conference, which is slated to last through Friday. The secretariat of the conference said it had received 303 theses in 16 fields.

Founded in 1981 with the aim of exploring the secrets of human wisdom and transplanting them to machines, the CAAI has grown from less than 100 members to more than 2,500 members.

On Thursday, the participants will be grouped into the 16 sub-fields for detailed discussion.

(Xinhua News Agency November 19, 2003)