AI – China at the forefront of a major economic transformation

For the first times since the industrial revolution, China will be at the forefront of a major economic transformation – the advent of revolution in Artificial Intelligence according to Kai-FU Lee , former president of Google China and now a leading venture capitalist in Chinese technology.

China’s “Sputnik movement”, when Google DeepMind’s AlphaGo defeated Ke Jie, the world’s leading player of the ancient Chinese game of Go and effectively showed the ability of modern AI. Mr Lee’s book foresees the moment when US realises that they are no longer leader in global application of AI. The original Sputnik movement happened when Soviet Union put the first satellite in orbit in 1957 which led to space race of the 1960s which US duly mastered and won.

Lee went on to say “What matters most is the implementation, not innovation of AI. The work of leading AI research is readily available in the internet. China’s motto is similar to Mark Zuckerberg’s “ Move fast and break things”. World’s cut throat business model has already allowed Chinese businesses to defeat leading western rivals in their home market.

The Chinese business’s ”trail and error” model  is well suited to rolling out the results of AI across the economy, even in introducing autonomous vehicles or flying cars, as china’s swarms may be inefficient  but they are effective. China huge population and dense urban settlement have created a huge demand for delivery and other services.

 

Lee argues “American start-ups like to stick to what they know: building clean digital platforms that facilitate exchange of information, but Chinese firms gets their hands dirty in the real world which integrate online and offline worlds”.

China’s backwardness allowed businesses to leapfrog existing services  and quickly swift to universal digital payment systems while western businesses still use outdated technology. China has more internet users than the US and Europe combined.

 

 

AI Superpowers: China, Silicon Valley and the New World Order by Kai-Fu Lee