AI terminals are to be classified by intelligence levels, according to the Chinese authorities on May 8.
China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and several other agencies launched the new national standards, which will adopt a "2+N" framework: two fundamental standards specify the general rules for defining, classifying and testing intelligence levels, while "N" refers to product-specific specifications covering smartphones, computers, TVs, smart glasses, vehicle cabins, speakers and headphones.
The system defines four intelligence levels from low to high: L1 (responsive), L2 (tool), L3 (assistant) and L4 (collaborative).
The authorities said subsequent work will focus on the implementation of the national standards, including establishing standard testing platforms and listing demonstration models.
According to the State Council's 2025 action document on strengthening AI Plus, China aims to deeply integrate AI into six key fields and raise the application penetration rate of new-generation AI terminals and agents - the number of actual users against expected target users - to 70 percent by 2027 and to exceed 90 percent by 2030.
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