China's eastern metropolis of Shanghai on Tuesday started to build the country's first pilot zone for the innovation and application of artificial intelligence (AI).

Approved by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the pilot zone in the Pudong New Area has set three main tasks, to establish an AI core industrial cluster, to promote AI application and to build a supporting system for AI innovation, said the Shanghai bureau of economy and information technology.

A batch of test fields will be established in the pilot zone for AI innovation and application in several pathfinding fields, including manufacturing, medical care, transportation and finance, according to the bureau.

The pilot area will also explore the layout, infrastructure, standard architecture and intellectual property transactions of the AI industry, removing barriers on qualification, data and security.

With rich application scenarios, Shanghai has been vigorously promoting the development of AI industry with its AI@SH action in recent years, attracting industrial leaders like Microsoft and IBM.

The city is eyeing a global AI hub with plans to expand the scale of its industry to more than 100 billion yuan (14.5 billion U.S. dollars) by 2020.