Taiyuan -- capital city of North China's Shanxi province -- has been promoting the development of artificial intelligence (AI) in recent years by furthering AI applications in the industry, energy, logistics, transportation, education and social service sectors. 

Wang Lei, deputy director of Taiyuan bureau of industry and information technology, said the municipal government has established an industry investment fund of 10 billion yuan ($1.52 billion) and also established a municipal-level sub-fund, to help finance the guidance and development of the basic AI data sector.

Wang said the city has also enacted and introduced many policies targeting the AI industry and projects, involving subsidized power prices and support for recruitment and training of top talent.

For example, it has implemented a user terminal electricity price of 0.30 yuan ($0.05)/kWh for strategic emerging industries, including AI. 

For managers or core technical teams -- who start up big data, internet of things and AI projects in Taiyuan -- venture capital support of no less than 500,000 yuan will be given, according to the scale of the enterprise's development and its level of innovation.