China’s Mianyang opens first generative AI learning base for school students

Mianyang’s new generative AI learning base might look like a local education story, but it illustrates how quickly AI literacy is being woven into the fabric of everyday life in China. Giving middle-schoolers structured exposure to STEM demos and hands-on generative AI tools normalizes AI not as magic but as infrastructure – something you can interrogate, combine, and build with. Over time, these kinds of programs materially change the talent pipeline: more teenagers will be comfortable thinking in terms of prompts, agents, and data rather than just apps.([m.sohu.com](https://m.sohu.com/a/983690703_121478296?scm=10001.325_13-325_13.0.0-0-0-0-0.5_1334&utm_source=openai))

In the race to AGI, countries that invest early in broad-based AI fluency – not just elite lab capacity – will be better positioned to absorb and deploy increasingly capable systems. Places like Mianyang are effectively stress-testing how to teach concepts like model limitations, hallucinations, and bias at scale. That experience will be invaluable when governments need to roll out safety practices and usage norms for more general systems.

It also signals that Chinese local governments are willing to partner with private AI firms and industrial parks to create quasi-public infrastructure for AI education. That tight coupling between local industry, schools, and municipal officials can accelerate adoption of domestic models and tools, deepening the home-field advantage for China’s AI ecosystem.