Yichang brings DeepSeek AI to government services
By Ma Yuanchen.
Yichang has made strides in digital governance by integrating DeepSeek, a Chinese open-source large language model, into its government services.
On Tuesday, Zigui County in Yichang introduced its first “AI employee” powered by DeepSeek, which will operate 24/7 at the government service center. This AI can assist citizens with various administrative tasks, such as medical insurance payment inquiries, thereby reducing wait times and improving service quality.
The service center can now intelligently recognize users’ needs, guide them through application processes, and auto-fill information. Mr. Zhang used the terminal to query his medical insurance payment records by scanning a QR code with his smartphone. The entire process took less than five minutes. “The machine can provide full-process assistance seamlessly - it’s a game-changer,” Zhang said.
Zigui County has completed the localized deployment of DeepSeek and is developing AI-assisted application processes using technologies like optical character recognition (OCR) and semantic analysis.
Later this month, Zigui’s government service hotline will trial an AI assistant that analyzes citizen inquiries in real time, generates response recommendations, and produces data analysis reports.
Looking ahead, the city plans to explore more AI-driven applications, such as intelligent case analysis, automatic task dispatching, progress tracking, and performance evaluation for urban management, further enhancing the precision and efficiency of city governance.
In January, DeepSeek, a two-year-old Hangzhou-based Chinese AI company, released its open-source DeepSeek R1 model, attracting global attention.
