Conference Highlights Growing Role of AI in Reshaping Media Industry

The 2025 China Press Media Industry Artificial Intelligence (AI) Application Conference concluded recently in Jing'an, underscoring the growing role of AI in reshaping the media industry.

In her opening remarks, Ma Xiaohong, deputy head of the publicity department of the Shanghai Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China, outlined three priorities for the sector's use of AI.

She said AI should be applied as a tool to support innovation in mainstream media, guided toward ethical and responsible use, and leveraged to drive broader systemic reform across the industry.

Zhai Lei, the district's director, said Jing'an would support Shanghai's ambition to position itself as a global leader in AI governance with its own experience and capacity to those efforts.

One of the conference's key announcements was the launch of the "Audiovisual Jing'an π Space OPC Innovation Partnership Plan." Based in the Daning functional area of Jing'an, it aims to build an innovation community for OPCs, or one-person companies.

The program will offer start-ups a range of services, including business incubation, professional mentoring, intellectual property protection and access to financing. Backed by nine district-level policy measures, the plan is intended to develop "π Space" into a national hub for OPC innovation by encouraging collaboration among government bodies, media organizations, technology companies, investors, universities, research institutions and content creators.

The conference also released the "2025 China Press Media Industry AI Integrated Media Application Blue Book." The report found that AI technologies are now being applied across four areas of the media sector: content production, distribution, consumption and the development of new services.

Panel discussions and presentations at the event examined how AI technologies and large language models are changing media workflows, from content creation and distribution to presentation formats, while also opening up new revenue opportunities through AI-powered integrated media.