China Speech Valley, a driving force behind AI development in Hefei, shines at night in the Hefei National High-tech Industry Development Zone. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Hefei, the capital of Anhui province, ranked 47th among the world's top 500 innovative artificial intelligence (AI) cities in 2020 on a recent list released by China's leading AI research institutes.

The city ranked fourth after Shanghai among the most innovative AI cities in China.

The list ranked the 500 cities according to their AI innovation and application abilities based on the number of top AI scholars, the influence of AI papers, and the development of their AI industries.

Hefei is home to the first national industrial park to focus on AI and intelligent speech, China Speech Valley, a powerful engine for the development of the city's AI industry.

China Speech Valley had incubated more than 3,800 AI teams by the end of June 2020 and so far has developed over 300 AI products in fields such as education, healthcare and automobiles.