BEIJING -- China has established a technical committee for Artificial Intelligence (AI) standardization, which is among its efforts to advance the development of the AI industry and empower new industrialization, according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology on Monday.

The new committee, which is overseen by the ministry, is responsible for formulating and revising industrial standards for AI-related sectors, the ministry said in an online statement.

This is the first such technical committee that the ministry has established, marking a new phase in the standardization of the AI sector.

The move aligns with decisions made at China's Central Economic Work Conference in early December, which emphasized the need to launch an "AI-plus" initiative and nurture industries of the future.

China's core AI industry achieved a remarkable scale of 578.7 billion yuan ($80.5 billion) in 2023, supported by a thriving ecosystem of 4,482 enterprises, data from the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology shows.