Abstract: Primary liver cancer (hereinafter referred to as liver cancer) is one of the most common and deadly malignancies, posing a serious threat to human health. In recent years, advance-ments in artificial intelligence (AI) have opened up possibilities for the comprehensive enhancement of liver cancer diagnosis and treatment. AI technologies in liver cancer mainly include the machine learning (ML) and the deep learning (DL) models, with DL being a subtype of ML based on neural network structures. The application of ML and DL models in liver cancer has demonstrated tremen-dous potential, but there are still many issues that need to be addressed, including enhancing the generalizability and interpretability of results. The authors elaborate on the application progress of AI in the field of liver cancer in recent years, and explore the current challenges and future explora-tion directions.