The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the State Administration for Market Regulation and the Ministry of Commerce, jointly released a new national standard for grading the intelligence level of AI terminals on Friday, a move to standardize the booming artificial intelligence hardware market.
The Grading of Intelligence Levels for Artificial Intelligence Terminals establishes a unified benchmarking system for products ranging from smart glasses and televisions to wireless earbuds and automotive cockpits. It is aimed to standardize the evaluation of terminal intelligence, drive product iteration and upgrades, and safeguard users' rights across a rapidly evolving tech landscape.
The standard, which articulates the concept of intelligence, grading criteria and testing methodologies, utilizes a "2+N" framework, that is, two cornerstone standards and multiple specific product category standards.
The grading system ranges from L1 responsive level, L2 tool level, L3 auxiliary level to L4 collaborative level, with intelligence levels going up sequentially.
The L4 collaborative level will be further clarified and improved in subsequent revisions following industry development. The first batch of standards includes seven categories, and the development of standards for other categories will be promoted subsequently.
"The release of a series of national standards for the intelligent grading of AI terminals provides the entire industry with a set of scientific and unified evaluation system. This will plays a positive role in regulating market order and guiding users to have reasonable expectations regarding the level of product intelligence, laying a better foundation for building a safer, more orderly, and efficient ecosystem for AI terminals," said Li Hongwei, chief engineer of the China Center for Information Industry Development.
China unveils intelligence level grading standards for AI terminals
For more than 1,000 years, Jingdezhen, the "porcelain capital" in east China's Jiangxi Province, has shaped how the world understands porcelain, with even discarded shards preserving a living tradition.
Weng Yanjun, president of the Jingdezhen Imperial Kiln Institute, reflected on the scale and challenge behind Jingdezhen's historic creations.
"When I look at this gigantic dragon jar, I couldn't help going back to 600 years ago, when the emperor had this order to create something bigger than ever before. The failure rate of the dragon jar is so high. It could be nine out of 10. Even making failure products like this takes courage, takes techniques and takes commitment," said Weng.
Those failed attempts, once discarded, now preserve the evidence of how Jingdezhen pursued perfection.
For more than 1,000 years, Jingdezhen's porcelain industry has endured through the Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties (960-1911). What has survived is not only its porcelain, but also a living heritage of raw materials, workshops, kilns and specialized craftsmanship.
Those firings produced masterpieces as well as failures, with the discarded pieces forming another kind of archive.
At the Jingdezhen Imperial Kiln Institute, Weng told archaeology students that fragmented specimens sometimes provide more information than complete artifacts.
Weng leads the development of the world's first Ancient Ceramics Gene Bank, which extracts and catalogs the defining characteristics of each ceramic shard.
"For our institute alone, we have excavated more than 20 million pieces of shards for the past over 1,200 years. Among those shards, we do sorting, we do restoration, and we do scientific tests. And then we find, wow, a small shard can tell us much more information than even a whole piece," said Weng.
Using a standardized sample library and unified data framework, the project records each piece's shape, decoration, body material, glaze, color, firing marks and inscriptions, creating a valuable resource for authentication and research around the world.
"The whole city is a wonderful lab and space range makes Jingdezhen uniquely a wonderful example of how the handicraft ancient industry with porcelain as the focus survived even to today," Weng added.
Jingdezhen once helped establish benchmarks for how porcelain was made. Now, the gene bank is turning fragments into a language that can be read beyond the city. For French artist and researcher Yann Colleu, learning to read that language has also changed the way he creates.
"Since my childhood, my parents had these teapots, tea sets, plates and cups. I was very curious about the pattern, like the meaning, what was behind it? Actually when I discovered in Jingdezhen that it was a bat, because of 'fu' and 'fu' is fortune, but also you have the 'wufu,' like the five blessings. I was like a child with stars in the eyes, discovering the world for the first time," said Colleu, PhD candidate at Jingdezhen Ceramic University.
What once seemed abstract became part of Yann's own visual language. In his work, traditional Jingdezhen motifs and production scenes are reimagined through a contemporary, cross-cultural lens.
"Jingdezhen is a timeless city. The past, the present and even the future are tied together. This is one of illustration of 72 traditional steps developing during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). The difference is, instead of using Chinese characters, I use foreigners. I want to use the past to talk about the present and even the future with Jingdezhen," said Colleu.
The Jingdezhen Handicraft Porcelain Industry Sites were inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List on Saturday. The inscription recognizes not just a single kiln or masterpiece, but an entire production system, from its archaeological remains and traditional craftsmanship to its industrial knowledge and global influence.
Porcelain shards preserve Jingdezhen’s timeless legacy
