{"slug": "after-floods-kill-dozens-local-chinese-official-uses-ai-to-build-evacuation-app", "title": "After floods kill dozens, local Chinese official uses AI to build evacuation app", "summary": "A Beijing civil servant, Xie Yunshi, spent about US$4.40 on AI platform tokens to build a smartphone app that tracks family evacuations after deadly floods, replacing a system of manual phone calls by officials.", "body_md": "# After floods kill dozens, local Chinese official uses AI to build evacuation app\n\nFor under US$5 in tokens, a Beijing civil servant has created an app to keep track of which families have been evacuated\n\n[Phoebe Zhang](/author/phoebe-zhang)in Shenzhen\n\n[flooding in China](https://www.scmp.com/topics/flooding-china?module=inline&pgtype=article). They also bring high-stakes work for officials.\n\nOnce an evacuation order goes out, local governments have long checked on families by calling them on the phone.\n\nXie Yunshi, an official in the suburbs of the Chinese capital, told Beijing Daily that when waters rose in the past, his department would organise a dozen people to call every single family, sometimes at midnight.\n\nBut this year, Xie spent the price of a latte to solve this problem.\n\nHe bought 1 billion tokens for a domestic artificial intelligence platform, which cost about 30 yuan (US$4.40), and used it to create a smartphone app.\n\nGrass-roots officials and volunteers can use the app to record whether people are out of danger, eliminating the need for endless phone calls.", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/after-floods-kill-dozens-local-chinese-official-uses-ai-to-build-evacuation-app", "canonical_source": "https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3360650/after-floods-kill-dozens-local-chinese-official-uses-ai-build-evacuation-app?utm_source=rss_feed", "published_at": "2026-07-16 01:00:06+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-07-16 01:08:46.019874+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["artificial-intelligence", "ai-tools", "ai-products"], "entities": ["Xie Yunshi", "Beijing Daily"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/after-floods-kill-dozens-local-chinese-official-uses-ai-to-build-evacuation-app", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/after-floods-kill-dozens-local-chinese-official-uses-ai-to-build-evacuation-app.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/after-floods-kill-dozens-local-chinese-official-uses-ai-to-build-evacuation-app.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/after-floods-kill-dozens-local-chinese-official-uses-ai-to-build-evacuation-app.jsonld"}}