After floods kill dozens, local Chinese official uses AI to build evacuation app

Every year, summer rains cause flooding in China. They also bring high-stakes work for officials.

Once an evacuation order goes out, local governments have long checked on families by calling them on the phone.

Xie Yunshi, an official in the suburbs of the Chinese capital, told Beijing Daily that when waters rose in the past, his department would organise a dozen people to call every single family, sometimes at midnight.

But this year, Xie spent the price of a latte to solve this problem.

He bought 1 billion tokens for a domestic artificial intelligence platform, which cost about 30 yuan (US$4.40), and used it to create a smartphone app.

Grass-roots officials and volunteers can use the app to record whether people are out of danger, eliminating the need for endless phone calls.