SHANGHAI, July 22 (Xinhua Silk Road) -- As artificial intelligence (AI), large language models and AI agents become increasingly embedded in production, services and everyday life, global attention is shifting from what the technology can do to how it can deliver broad and lasting benefits to society.
In a recent interview with Xinhua Finance, Shrikanth (Shri) Narayanan, vice president of the University of Southern California and a member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering, said the success of a "smart economy" should be measured not only by the scale of technology adoption, but more importantly, by its ability to improve people's lives and create opportunities across society.
Narayanan stressed that AI development must remain human-centered and be supported by interdisciplinary collaboration and international cooperation so that technological advances can deliver meaningful benefits in areas ranging from agriculture and transportation to healthcare and personal well-being.
-- Measuring a "smart economy" by its social impact
As AI rapidly moves from laboratories to solving problems in factories, hospitals and supply chains, Chinese policymakers have set their sights high, anticipating the rise of a "smart economy." Earlier this year, China's government work report, for the first time, called for the creation of "new forms of a smart economy."
The topic also featured prominently at the 2026 World AI Conference (WAIC) and High-Level Meeting on Global AI Governance held in Shanghai recently, where policymakers, academics and industry leaders explored new paradigms for AI-driven economic development and governance.
"It's not abrupt," Narayanan told Xinhua Finance after attending the conference. "It's been happening because of a lot of these technological advances and convergence."
Over the past several decades, he said, advances in the internet, computing, and communication networks have fundamentally reshaped how we connect, work, and learn. AI is now accelerating the transformation into a new economic paradigm.
In Narayanan's view, a "smart economy" uses AI to connect previously isolated pools of information and knowledge, helping bridge critical gaps in human understanding while enabling better decisions and more efficient allocation of resources.
Agriculture offers a clear example. Farmers routinely make high-stakes decisions based on soil conditions, weather, production costs and fluctuating market demand. AI can integrate these diverse data sources to provide timely, highly accurate decision support that would be difficult for humans to generate on their own.
When asked what defines a truly "smart economy", Narayanan highlighted two key measures: the breadth of technology adoption and, more importantly, the extent to which it transforms people's daily lives.
He compared today's AI revolution to the early days of e-commerce. At the beginning of this century, large-scale online commerce was still more of an aspiration than reality. As internet technologies matured, however, they transformed how people created, accessed and shared information, unlocking entirely new business models and industries.
AI, he argued, should trigger a similar expansion of possibilities -- not simply making existing activities more efficient, but enabling people to accomplish things that were previously unimaginable.
"We are truly in a smart economy if it allows us to imagine things that we had never imagined before, lifts everyone up and creates new opportunities for every part of society," he said.
Whether AI expands access to education, healthcare, employment and economic participation across different regions and social groups will ultimately be one of the most important measures of the quality of a "smart economy", he added.
-- The imperative for human-centered AI
With over three decades of research spanning artificial intelligence, human-machine interaction and computational behavior, Narayanan has witnessed the evolution of AI firsthand.
He noted that AI has always drawn inspiration from how humans perceive the world, process information, make decisions, and act. One of its greatest strengths is its ability to complement human capabilities and compensate for human limitations.
However, Narayanan stressed that this does not mean machines should replace people, as humans remain irreplaceable when it comes to contextual understanding, creativity, ethical judgment and empathy. The ultimate value lies in the synergy of human and machine capabilities.
"Using AI" often implies treating it as a tool to speed up existing tasks. "Working with AI," however, demands a deeper level of collaboration -- one where machines handle analysis and propose solutions, while humans define the problems, set the goals, anchor the value judgments, and retain final accountability.
For Narayanan, "human-centered AI" is not simply about keeping people involved in technological processes. It means ensuring that human needs, values and well-being remain the ultimate purpose of innovation.
He was particularly optimistic about AI's potential to transform healthcare from a reactive system into a preventive one. Rather than waiting until illness occurs, intelligent systems could continuously monitor people's physical and mental health, detect risks much earlier and support more personalized preventive care.
Yet, achieving this will require collaboration across medicine, engineering, ethics, economics and public policy, as well as reliable mechanisms for data governance and responsible AI use.
-- Global cooperation remains essential
Narayanan emphasized that AI and computing advancements are a collective human achievement, not the product of any single nation or institution.
Open-source software, shared datasets, academic conferences and international research networks have enabled researchers from China, the U.S., India, Europe and other regions to exchange knowledge and jointly advance technology.
"We cannot underestimate this cooperation," he noted, adding that global challenges, including public health, climate change, food security and population aging, cannot be addressed by one country alone. Even as technological competition intensifies, scientific exchange and international cooperation will remain important foundations for addressing shared problems.
Ultimately, Narayanan believed that the "smart economy" represents far more than a new wave of technological or industrial transformation. It marks a fundamental shift in how humans and machines, different disciplines and different nations work together.
Its success will not be measured solely by faster algorithms or greater efficiency, but by whether technology helps create a more inclusive and prosperous future -- one where machine intelligence amplifies human wisdom and innovation benefits society as a whole. (Contributed by Ge Jiaming and Gao Pan, edited by Li Xueqing with Xinhua Silk Road, lixueqing@xinhua.org)
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