A mother (left) explains to her young son the functions of an intelligent robot at a technology exhibition in Handan, Hebei province, on Aug 18, 2017. Hao Qunying / For China Daily

Toby Walsh, a professor of artificial intelligence at Australia's University of New South Wales, spoke to media recently at his fully purposed robot lab on campus and said that with the current shift toward a consumption-driven economy, the stage is set for China to benefit immensely from the AI revolution.

"China is making a very sensible bet here on AI. It is very well placed to take advantage of the coming AI revolution. It has a lot of data, it has lots of big tech companies which are well positioned to develop," Walsh said.

"It is making very strong bets in this area, so I imagine that China is going to do very well out of this revolution."

The State Council, China's Cabinet, has announced the Next Generation Artificial Intelligence Plan that will see the country take steps to become a global innovation center in this field.

AI has already begun to manifest itself in ways which most people do not realize, and Walsh said that it has been happening as a gradual process and will continue to do so, albeit at a somewhat faster pace as the technology improves and develops.

"AI is becoming more and more widespread in our lives, people don't realize it's there. Every time you speak to your smartphone, every time you get a product recommendation, every time you use the satellite navigation system in your car, you are using a bit of AI," Walsh said.

"Eventually, it will become like electricity, it will be everywhere. In every room, in every car, in every device, we will be using AI - it will be the operating system (or OS) of the future."

China's role in the AI sphere is also comforting to Walsh, who said that he feels worried that the benefits of the rapid advancements in technology that will be made, will potentially be too isolated as they are often "winner take all markets" driven by the network effects of the technology.