China places such stock in AI that books on the subject were placed behind President Xi during his televised new year message

Inspired by the ability of artificial intelligence to excel at complex board games, China is working towards harnessing the technology to plot foreign policy.

The country’s foreign ministry is understood to be trialling several prototype AI systems to assess risks to overseas investment projects, such as coups or terrorism.

One system, created by the Chinese Academy of Sciences, is said to search for patterns in a vast amount of data, ranging from diplomatic cocktail-party chatter to satellite images, to offer insight into potential strategies.

The system was first reported by the South China Morning Post. “Cutting-edge technology, including big data and artificial intelligence, is causing profound changes to the way people work and live,” the foreign ministry told the newspaper. “The applications in many