India, March 9 -- Schools located in China's Beijing will teach artificial intelligence (AI) courses to primary and secondary school students from next academic year onwards.

The Beijing Municipal Education Commission said in a statement on its website that the courses will be taught from the coming fall semester, which starts from September 1.

It said that students will be taught at least eight hours of AI courses in each academic year. Schools are free to either integrate the courses into the existing curriculum or teach them separately to students.

The move is aimed at strengthening the country's goal in becoming a leader in the AI sector. China has held ambitions for a long time to become an AI innovator.

A major step in this dire...