Difficulty: Summiteer (Level 3)
Rural residents – those who live in the countryside – make up a third of China’s 1.4 billion population. That is almost 500 million people.
Because of China’s wide internet coverage and many mobile phones, rural residents can use artificial intelligence (AI) services to help them with farming and life.
One company that provides this service is DeepSeek. Other Chinese companies that have developed chatbots include Alibaba Group Holding, Tencent Holding and ByteDance.
Alibaba also owns the South China Morning Post. ByteDance owns social media app TikTok.
China’s top AI chatbots are easy to use and have quickly attracted many new users in the huge countryside.
For example, in Jiaohe – a town in the northeastern Jilin province – villagers use chatbots to identify plants and animals, review documents and ask for farming advice. They have even used the chatbots to make advertisements for local businesses.
Answer: almost 500 million people
