Professor Andrea Breard of the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany, told the audience to not be afraid or to leave upon hearing what she was about to share — that is, AI's potential to enable us to better understand the history of Chinese mathematics.

Her speech on Friday, at the ninth World Conference on Sinology, in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, unveiled the rhetorical beauty of classical Chinese mathematics texts and inspired notions about whether AI could help preserve that rhythmic quality in the process of translation.

Sinologists from some 50 countries and regions gathered for the conference in the southern Chinese city to investigate the trends of Sinology in the digital context.

Their myriad interests include digital research methods, translations of classics and the education of young Sinologists and mutual learning among civilizations in the age of AI.