The development of AI-based earthquake early warning system in China

China is a country prone to earthquakes. Earthquake early warning (EEW) is one of the important means to mitigate earthquake disasters. To mitigate the damage caused by destructive earthquakes, we are currently developing an artificial intelligence (AI)-based EEW system in China. By utilizing emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence and big data analysis, we have developed a complete set of methods for continuous measurement of EEW parameters based on AI. This AI-based method achieves the research goal of improving the accuracy and timeliness of EEW parameters measurement in the entire workflow of EEW system, including waveform interference elimination, earthquake event recognition, P-wave picking, magnitude estimation, seismic damage zone prediction, and so on. Presently, the offline testing results of this AI-based method on earthquake data in the Sichuan-Yunnan region of China show that the AI-based magnitude estimation reaches ±1 magnitude estimation error 4 s earlier than the existing EEW system. Meanwhile, some modules such as AI-based magnitude estimation and waveform interference elimination have been running online in the Fujian Earthquake Agency in China. In the future, China is expected to establish and improve an AI-based EEW system, and further reduce the casualties and economic losses caused by earthquakes through AI-based EEW system.