Shanghai Launches AI Concierge for Foreign Visitors

Foreigners in Shanghai now have a tailored AI agent at their service to offer reliable information as China's media industry accelerates transformation in an era led by artificial intelligence.

AI Shanghai, produced by the Shanghai Information Office and unveiled on Saturday during the World Artificial Intelligence Conference, has been put online and ready to address questions concerning Shanghai for foreigners in the city or planning to come to the city.

Compared with other agents, this large model is faster, smarter and basically, more accurate for an inquiry.

"We hope it to become the most favored source of information for foreigners," said Yang Jing, an official with the Shanghai Information Office. "The agent can offer tailored answers for people from different countries, of different identities and in different scenarios."

Currently, the agent offers English services, while the French, German, Korean, Spanish versions will be available in the future, Yang said.

Meanwhile, Jiefang Daily, a mainstream media outlet under the Shanghai United Media Group that also parents Shanghai Daily, announced to launch Trust Hub, a project aiming to become a professional news agent assisted by AI.

Liu Yonggang, deputy editor-in-chief at Jiefang Daily, said Trust Hub has dedicated corpora and is still guided by editors to prevent conspicuous drawbacks of general large models: sourcing from a mixed bag of channels that makes it hard to distinguish authentic from AI-generated content.

Shanghai United Media Group, which started exploration of AI applications as early as 2022, has been a pioneer in China's media reforms and consistently taken AI empowerment as a key driving force for future development. So far, it has completed filings for 14 AI algorithms and large models, ranking the first among provincial-level media groups nationwide.

"We all perceive the compound effect brought by the sweeping wave of AI on media," said Ding Bo, deputy director of the Shanghai Publicity Department. "This compels us to reflect deeply on two key questions: how can we fully leverage the strengths of AI to accelerate media reform and development? And how can we amplify human strengths to safeguard the core competitiveness of media?"

At the forum themed "Media in the AI Era: Opportunities, Challenges, and Risks" – the only forum concerning media development among the 140 plus held during the WAIC, Jiefang Daily, Fudan University's School of Journalism and Tencent jointly initiated the Pujiang Declaration, putting forward propositions centering on technology for good, trustworthy information, copyright protection, value guidance and collaborative governance.