China’s AI Lingjing model targets digital culture and tourism

AI Lingjing is another example of how China’s AI ecosystem is fragmenting into sector‑specific large models tightly integrated with government priorities—in this case, culture and tourism. Rather than chasing GPT‑class benchmarks, the platform is pitched as infrastructure for digitising heritage, building immersive experiences and exporting Chinese cultural IP through “digital tourism” products.

For the AGI race, this kind of vertical model doesn’t move the capability frontier on its own, but it does deepen the economic and political embedding of AI in everyday sectors. That matters because it creates demand for stable, tool‑using foundation models underneath, whether domestic or imported, and it gives local firms experience building agents and workflows around them. It also shows how Chinese institutions are experimenting with AI as a driver of “new quality productive forces” in traditional industries—a frame that could influence how future AGI‑like systems are justified and governed domestically.