By incorporating AI in the work done using the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope, Chinese astronomers are trying to discover celestial objects and phenomena like pulsars.

Pulsars, or rapidly rotating neutron stars, are among the research frontiers.

Study of pulsars can help researchers understand extreme states of matter and events like collisions of black holes.

In an astronomical sense, a pulsar is equivalent to GPS used for ground navigation.

"For the first time, we were able to use AI to help find 22 pulsars, which included seven high-speed rotating millisecond pulsars with high scientific value in astrophysics," said Li Di, chief scientist of FAST, in an interview.

"Since the first discovery of pulsars in 1967, about 3,500 pulsars have been discovered globally.

AI and other cutting-edge technologies have helped accelerate the systematic discovery of pulsars," he said.

"Still, our discovery of 22 pulsars in a relatively short time is an impressive achievement.

As AI is now penetrating various industries like manufacturing, healthcare and education, the hunt for pulsars and more unknowns vividly demonstrates there are no limits to the country's applications of AI, industry experts said.

It leverages the company's AI technologies and experience to help accelerate China's pulsar hunt.

According to Wang Chengjie, the lead researcher from Tencent's YouTu Lab, an AI research department of the tech giant, three steps are critical to discover pulsars: observation with a radio telescope, recording the signal and finding out the dispersed and periodic signal that meets the conditions.

"Tencent's YouTu Lab has applied its computer vision technology as well as its cloud computing and storage capability, to help FAST detect pulsars.

AI has helped FAST to increase the efficiency of searching for pulsars by 120 times.

"Tencent will join hands with the National Astronomical Observatories to find pulsars and explore the universe using AI-enabled technologies, said Pony Ma, the internet giant's chairman and CEO.

Internet giant Tencent will join hands with the National Astronomical Observatories to find pulsars and explore the universe using artificial intelligence technologies.

Visual AI analysis would then provide clues to find pulsar.

Scientists are using pulsars to study extreme states of matter, search for planets beyond Earth's solar system and measure cosmic distances.