Building a Strong Cultural Country with Artificial Intelligence: Logical Foundations,Practical Challenges, and Strategic Pathways

During China's Fifteenth Five-Year Plan period, artificial intelligence has emerged as a key strategic driver for building up China's cultural strength. It not only reinforces the contemporary character of cultural development but also reflects the continuity and forward-looking vision of the Communist Party of China's strategic planning. The logic of AI-enabled cultural development can be understood as a four-dimensional, progressively integrated framework. First, AI strengthens the foundations of cultural inheritance and reinforces the productive capacity of spiritual and cultural creation through technological innovation. Second, it reshapes the digital cultural ecosystem through industrial upgrading, thereby supporting the development of core cultural industries. Third, it advances inclusive public cultural services by building intelligent networks for cultural provision, thus strengthening the social foundation for cultural development. Fourth, it establishes new paradigms of intelligent global cultural dialogue, enhancing the international influence of Chinese culture. AI-enabled cultural development holds considerable potential; however, it continues to face a number of practical challenges, including the absence of integrated mechanisms for managing cultural data resources, inadequate legal regulation of AI-generated cultural products, uneven regional development in cultural digitalization, a structural shortage of interdisciplinary professionals with expertise in both culture and technology, ethical risks associated with AI , and the lack of a comprehensive framework for evaluating the cultural effectiveness of intelligent technologies. To address these challenges, this paper proposes six strategic priorities: establishing integrated cultural data governance mechanisms to facilitate digital transformation; strengthening legal frameworks to protect the legitimate rights and interests associated with AI-generated cultural products; promoting coordinated and balanced regional cultural digitalization; cultivating interdisciplinary talent to foster innovation in cultural industries; mitigating technological ethical risks while safeguarding cultural and ideological security; and developing a comprehensive evaluation system for assessing the cultural effectiveness of intelligent technologies. Together, these measures provide practical support for advancing high-quality cultural development in the AI era.