On AI Empowering Traditional Chinese Medicine Publishing: A Preliminary Discussion

People's Medical Publishing House Co., Ltd., Beijing 100021

Abstract

Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) is a treasure of ancient Chinese science, and TCM publishing serves as a crucial vehicle for carrying and disseminating TCM knowledge. In recent years, artificial intelligence technology has gradually triggered disruptive transformations in the publishing industry, bringing tremendous opportunities for TCM publishing development. AI can empower knowledge dissemination, ancient text preservation, content creation, book production, and topic selection/editing in TCM publishing, while also presenting a series of unique challenges with TCM characteristics. [Objective] This paper discusses the impact of AI on TCM publishing, aiming to contribute to AI-enabled TCM publishing. [Methods] Starting from AI's role in assisting TCM publishing, we examine the opportunities AI brings, the challenges it poses, and strategies for addressing these challenges. [Results] AI can empower TCM publishing across multiple dimensions including knowledge dissemination, ancient text preservation, publishing content, book creation, and topic selection/editing, while simultaneously introducing copyright and ethical challenges. [Conclusion] Under the new circumstances, AI can empower TCM publishing, enhancing both quality and efficiency for TCM inheritance, thereby contributing to the promotion of China's excellent traditional culture and the realization of Healthy China.

Keywords: artificial intelligence; Traditional Chinese Medicine; publishing; editing; technology
Classification Code: G230
Document Code: A
Article ID: 1671-0134(2025)02-132-04
DOI: 10.19483/j.cnki.11-4653/n.2025.02.026
Citation Format: Wang Shihui. On AI Empowering Traditional Chinese Medicine Publishing: A Preliminary Discussion [J]. China Media Technology, 2025, 32(2): 132-135.

Traditional Chinese Medicine is a treasure of ancient Chinese science that has safeguarded the health of the Chinese nation for thousands of years. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, TCM has encountered an excellent opportunity for revitalization and development. As President Xi Jinping pointed out in his congratulatory letter on the 60th anniversary of the China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences: "We must thoroughly explore the essence of TCM treasures, give full play to the unique advantages of TCM, promote the modernization of TCM, and propel TCM onto the world stage, truly inheriting, developing, and utilizing this precious legacy from our ancestors" [1]. TCM publishing serves as an important means of carrying and disseminating TCM knowledge. In recent years, guided by Xi Jinping Thought on Culture, TCM publishing professionals have actively explored cultural origins, fully excavated outstanding traditional TCM culture, profoundly summarized research experiences, and led the modernization of TCM development. From the two dimensions of "upholding tradition" and "innovation," they have played an irreplaceable role in disseminating TCM knowledge, cultivating TCM talent, promoting TCM culture, and telling TCM stories effectively.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is an important technology that has gradually triggered disruptive transformations in the publishing industry in recent years. Its concept can be traced back to the 1950s, representing the technology and science of using computer systems to simulate human intelligent behavior. Particularly, Generative Artificial Intelligence developed on the basis of Generative Adversarial Networks (GAN) has brought tremendous opportunities to the development of scientific publishing. As a key element of new quality productive forces, AI simulates human learning and thinking through optimized algorithms and big data learning, demonstrating capabilities across various fields. In TCM publishing, AI can significantly enhance work efficiency, depth, and breadth, serving as a crucial measure for implementing the spirit of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China and the Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee [2].

1. Opportunities AI Brings to TCM Publishing

1.1 Empowering TCM Knowledge Dissemination

The development of publishing has evolved with changing knowledge delivery methods, progressing from oracle bones, bamboo slips, and paper to today's digital publishing, with authors, editors, and readers benefiting from each technological revolution. In November 2022, the National Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine issued the "14th Five-Year Plan for TCM Informatization Development" [3], which identified the main tasks of TCM informatization development as promoting innovative applications of TCM data resources and accelerating breakthroughs in key TCM digital technologies. The plan calls for using big data, AI, and other new-generation information technologies to strengthen the living inheritance of academic experience from renowned veteran TCM doctors and traditional techniques from veteran herbalists, supporting the development of TCM academic schools. It also advocates building a national digital library of TCM ancient texts based on existing digital platforms, establishing a protection database for TCM traditional knowledge, constructing AI technology application platforms and TCM knowledge service systems for TCM ancient texts, and supporting the construction of a digital museum for the National TCM Museum. A series of specialized TCM digital libraries have been built, containing knowledge articles, textbooks, academic works, ancient texts, and journals. For instance, projects such as the 2023 Provincial TCM Ancient Texts Digital Library Construction Project by the National Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine, the TCM Digital Library of China TCM Publishing House (the online exhibition hall of the National TCM Culture Education Base), the National Medical Classics Database of the China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences Information Institute, the Ethnic Medicine Digital Dissemination Platform of TCM Ancient Texts Publishing House, the Chinese Ancient Books Resource Library of the National Library of China, and the Shidian Ancient Texts Database jointly developed by ByteDance and Peking University. These digital libraries help readers quickly obtain relevant information from vast oceans of books and provide digital reading and knowledge services. Additionally, functions based on AI image recognition and document question-answering technologies can help readers immerse themselves in online exhibitions and even obtain preliminary answers by inputting questions through information retrieval. Building these platforms not only supports the integration of digital publishing resources and constructs knowledge service architectures but also promotes large-scale data platforms in the TCM field. From another perspective, they expand and emphasize the influence of high-quality TCM digital content to promote TCM as China's outstanding traditional medical technology and culture, while providing creators with opportunities to access more information for generating new knowledge and concepts.

1.2 Empowering TCM Ancient Texts Preservation

President Xi Jinping attaches great importance to the development of TCM and the collection, collation, and protection of ancient editions. He has pointed out that "we must collect and protect all ancient classics and materials that can be gathered since ancient times, and continue to inherit the world's only uninterrupted civilization." This important instruction provides direction for advancing TCM development and undertaking the collection, collation, and preservation of historical ancient books. Among numerous TCM books, many contain obscure and difficult content that cannot be comprehensively and efficiently mastered through individual effort alone. Moreover, various schools of thought have certain barriers between them, hindering academic communication and making it difficult to effectively disseminate many research achievements and practical experiences. These outstanding contents urgently need integration. In the 1970s, professionals first attempted to apply AI technology to the TCM field. In 2017, the State Council's "New Generation Artificial Intelligence Development Plan" [4] proposed accelerating AI innovation applications with healthcare as a key focus. Leveraging AI's exceptional capabilities in data collection and mining, data processing and analysis, and deep learning can facilitate the structured and scientific expression of large volumes of ancient literature and clinical experience. Based on this, AI applications in generative adversarial networks forming generative AI will help improve the capacity and efficiency of ancient texts collation and compensate for the shortage of high-quality talent and uneven resource distribution in TCM ancient texts research. For example, the research team from South China University of Technology has released multiple achievements including the "Ancient Texts Document Analysis and Recognition System," "Tonggu Large Model," and "Yi Script Document Analysis and Recognition System," using AI technology to make ancient texts more comprehensible and providing technical support for data mining, knowledge discovery, and intelligent development and utilization of Chinese ancient texts and cultural relics. Among these, the "Ancient Texts Document Analysis and Recognition System" can realize ancient texts sentence segmentation and vernacular translation; the "Tonggu Large Model" can intelligently perform vernacular translation, sentence segmentation, and ancient texts retrieval; and the "Yi Script Document Analysis and Recognition System" can automatically and accurately locate and recognize Yi script characters in images. These demonstrate that AI technology may bring new hope for the protection and utilization of TCM ancient texts.

1.3 Empowering TCM Publishing Content

Currently, generative AI large models can be classified according to interaction object types to generate personalized content such as realistic images, music, and text. For example, ChatGPT based on large models can generate images, music, animations, and other content. This capability may empower TCM publishing content, enabling TCM publishing to present information in more reader-acceptable ways. For instance, People's Medical Publishing House's project "The Sixteen Medical Texts Unearthed from Mawangdui Han Tombs and Digital Publications," which received key funding from the 2024 National Publishing Fund, includes animated presentations of Daoyin diagrams from the Mawangdui medical texts. Today, numerous animation generation models can complete the task from text description to animation output. In 2023, Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press built an AI-generated content platform using Amazon Web Technologies, flexibly constructing and deploying AI models to automatically generate text, images, and voice, providing support for publishing and educational services. This example offers valuable lessons for empowering TCM publishing content. Furthermore, generative AI large-scale visual-language model technology may revitalize publishing industry products and reshape models. Generative AI can capture and analyze reader attention hotspots through big data, recommending corresponding themes and topics based on editorial intent and target audiences. Simultaneously, it can provide appropriate suggestions for text content structure, writing style, and language to further enhance work quality and readability. For example, Alibaba Cloud's Qwen-VI can conduct market research and analyze reader interests by deeply understanding and analyzing graphic content on social media, helping publishers capture upcoming popular themes and changes in reader preferences. For TCM book bibliographic databases, large models can also precisely customize content that readers wish to learn and read, meeting "thousand people, thousand faces" reading needs.

1.4 Empowering TCM Book Creation

Like other book creators, TCM publishing creators can also benefit from AI technology development, mainly in three aspects: more convenient information access, AI-assisted document and image generation, and improved office efficiency. Certain AI models can assist book creators in general information retrieval, paper reading, and academic writing, ensuring depth and breadth in literature processing and improving knowledge acquisition efficiency. For example, the "Scientific Literature Large Model" jointly developed by the National Science Library of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and iFLYTEK Co., Ltd. can efficiently extract information and intelligently process scientific literature. The Volcano Engine Large Model Service Platform "Volcano Ark" and its pre-trained large models can complete research knowledge retrieval, paper intensive reading, data analysis, and thesis writing assistance through AI-assisted methods. The "PubScholar Public Welfare Academic Platform" jointly built by the National Science Library of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Computer Network Information Center, and Science Press adopts a new method of academic resource co-construction and sharing, integrating domestic high-quality public welfare academic resources to enable readers to obtain academic information more quickly and conveniently. The "Shuzhi Bencao" TCM Language Large Model based on Huawei's Pangu Large Model can assist researchers in mining and summarizing TCM theoretical evidence based on massive TCM text data pre-training. The "Tianhe Ling Shu" Large Model has conducted professional 3D modeling of all human acupoints, constructing vivid 3D digital humans that facilitate the mining and application of TCM evidence-based evidence, providing new impetus for TCM academic innovation and industrial development. AI models that improve work efficiency are also widely used in book creation, such as iFLYTEK's "Spark Cognitive Large Model," which features real-time voice recording-to-text and full-text summarization functions, efficiently meeting the needs of oral inheritance during TCM's unique follow-up diagnosis process and playing a significant role in the textualization and documentation of TCM characteristic scenarios.

1.5 Empowering TCM Topic Selection and Editing

AI empowers TCM topic selection and editing mainly in the following aspects: assisting and optimizing topic selection, improving TCM editorial work efficiency, and enhancing editing quality. Generative AI can assist editors in finding relevant materials, analyzing data, and completing topic planning based on editorial expectations through market analysis. The "Generative AI Digital Intelligence Publishing Project" led by CITIC Publishing Group aims to promote the deep integration of AI technology in the publishing process to enhance publishing benefits and reduce costs. Simultaneously, generative AI accumulates large amounts of data for publishers to use in various stages such as topic evaluation, translation, preliminary review, cover design, matching market hot topics, and document writing, significantly improving editorial capabilities. In terms of assisting editorial work, AI may facilitate the online integrated transformation of editorial workflows, achieving intelligence in manuscript organization, field management, and review processes to improve editorial efficiency. Regarding editing quality improvement, "MiDu WenXiu," the first large language model specifically designed for the intelligent proofreading vertical field, can assist professional users in improving proofreading quality, increasing proofreading speed, and reducing error rates, empowering high-quality development of language work in the new era. It is believed that AI models with added TCM-specific features will soon emerge, capable of strictly guarding ideological boundaries, identifying feudal superstitions and rumors, and recognizing prohibited TCM substances and Qigong content.

2. Challenges and Strategies for AI in TCM Publishing

While bringing opportunities to TCM publishing, AI also presents a series of challenges, including both common issues faced by the entire publishing industry and unique challenges distinctive to TCM. Beyond computer technology-level risks of AI (such as data quality, data security, and algorithm-level risks), generative AI in the publishing field may pose other serious risks, among which copyright disputes and technical ethics issues are particularly prominent, requiring publishers to consider challenges and strategies from an application perspective.

2.1 Copyright Challenges and Strategies

Currently, an increasing number of authors are using AI to assist writing. Generative AI can imitate original creators' styles and apply data and viewpoints through big data learning. If authors excessively rely on AI for article writing, it may constitute plagiarism in an academic sense, reduce publishing value, and infringe upon original creators' intellectual property rights. To regulate the copyright issues involved, the European Commission passed the draft "AI Act" in 2021, requiring the disclosure of all works used to train AI, while the Act also proposed transparency requirements for generative AI. In 2024, the "AI Act" [5] was adopted, requiring strict regulation of AI use. In response to this issue, the publishing industry has also formulated corresponding strategies. For example, People's Daily's "Tianmu" intelligent identification system can identify AI-generated content and deepfake content, tracing synthetic methods to their source. Pearson Publishing Group uses technical means to prohibit external AI from using its content for model training. Stanford University's DetectGPT tool possesses detection capabilities for AI-generated text, providing important technical support for editorial work. It can effectively distinguish between human-written and machine-generated content, ensuring content originality and publication quality.

2.2 Ethical Challenges and Strategies

AI-generated ethical challenges are particularly prominent in the publishing industry. Generative AI already has the capability to "write" articles [6], which may make it difficult for the public to distinguish information authenticity, interfering with social trust. AI-synthesized images or videos may be used in books and audio-visual products to disseminate false information, damaging personal reputations and privacy while interfering with readers' judgment of truth. In response to this issue, governance principles and ethical norms are gradually taking shape. In 2019, China released the "New Generation AI Governance Principles—Developing Responsible AI" [7], clarifying the governance framework for AI development to ensure safe, reliable, and controllable AI technology development. In 2021, the "New Generation AI Ethics Code" [8] was released, integrating ethics into the entire AI lifecycle and proposing basic ethical requirements including privacy and security protection. In 2023, the "Interim Measures for the Management of Generative AI Services" [9] was promulgated, perfecting China's regulatory framework for generative AI services to ensure effective risk prevention while developing technology. Currently, eight enterprises/institutions have had their large models approved for public registration and service provision in accordance with the "Interim Measures for the Management of Generative AI Services."

2.3 TCM-Specific Challenges and Strategies

The inheritance and innovation of TCM cannot be separated from AI technology empowerment. Current TCM publishing aligns with new development concepts and serves as an important boost for TCM to become new quality productive forces. However, AI-assisted TCM publishing still faces problems and challenges: First, TCM-related AI technology started relatively late overall, resulting in relatively weak TCM AI research, talent shortages, and insufficient creative resources. Second, TCM possesses the unique attribute of "pattern differentiation and treatment" (辨证论治), making it challenging to distill personalized diagnosis and treatment knowledge from "pattern differentiation" using AI large model technology and apply it to intelligent review and editing—this remains a significant challenge. Based on these two points, while many AI models have proofreading functions, mature products specifically trained on TCM big data for reviewing TCM manuscripts have not yet appeared. The key to addressing this problem lies in cultivating interdisciplinary talents in TCM and AI and promoting knowledge popularization. Currently, TCM universities have established interdisciplinary programs related to new engineering and new medical disciplines, such as the Intelligent Medical Engineering major at Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine. These programs aim to meet the development needs of China's new generation AI strategy by cultivating medical-engineering compound leading talents and medical innovation talents with solid foundations in TCM and engineering, mastery of data science and AI basic theories, methods, and skills, and medical-theoretical-engineering integrated thinking. People's Medical Publishing House and China TCM Publishing House also have AI and TCM information technology-related products.

The National Press and Publication Administration's "14th Five-Year Plan for Publishing Industry Development" [10] indicates that high-quality publishing industry development requires strengthening the supporting and leading role of new-generation information technology, innovating publishing formats, dissemination methods, and operation models, advancing digitalization and digital industrialization of the publishing industry, and greatly improving industry-level digitalization, datafication, and intelligence, thus pointing the direction for publishing. In July 2024, the Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China proposed that "high-quality development is the primary task of building a modern socialist country in all respects. We must lead reform with new development concepts" and "must enhance cultural confidence, develop advanced socialist culture, promote revolutionary culture, inherit excellent traditional Chinese culture, accelerate adaptation to the new situation of rapid IT development, cultivate a large contingent of outstanding cultural talents, and stimulate the cultural innovation and creativity of the entire nation" [11]. Under the new circumstances, AI can empower TCM publishing, enhancing both quality and efficiency for TCM inheritance, thereby contributing to the promotion of China's excellent traditional culture and the realization of Healthy China.

References:
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Author Introduction: Wang Shihui (1991—), female, from Guiyang, Guizhou, Ph.D. candidate, editor, research direction: TCM publishing.
(Responsible Editor: Chen Xuguan)