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China urges ditching English AI terms for Chinese equivalents
The push, echoed by state media, argues that foreign jargon can create “cognitive dependency” and weaken China’s ability to set technology definitions in global governance.
China’s state media has urged the public and industry to move away from English terminology for artificial intelligence, calling for standardized Chinese equivalents as the country seeks greater “discourse power” in global technology governance.
According to a commentary cited by the Communist Party mouthpiece People’s Daily, the rapid spread of AI in China has brought English terms into common use, including “agent” and “LLM” for large language model, even though the commentary said such terms are often not self explanatory to ordinary people.
The commentary warned that relying on foreign jargon could foster “cognitive dependency,” deprive China of authority to define key concepts, and slow the growth of original domestic theories, while also hindering development of a Chinese framework for discussing technology.
It also contrasted current AI naming with earlier examples where technology terms were localized for Chinese audiences, such as “dian nao,” meaning electric brain, for computer.