Artificial
Intelligence is a frighteningly powerful new tool — and weapon. Who
and what will it serve? In the U.S., tech giants Facebook, Google,
and Amazon and their corporate agendas; in China, the needs of the
public and the economy. These two models should be thought through
now.
by
Jim Carey
Part
4 - AI, the planned economy, and China’s potential path to
superiority
While
Silicon Valley is doing its best to hyper-exploit workers and avoid
state control and regulation at all cost, there is a new model
emerging from China, which, instead of manipulating the state, is led
by one that lifts millions from poverty each year.
This
government is also led by President Xi Jinping, who has had his
dictums for the future of China inscribed at the base of the
Communist Party’s doctrine as ‘Xi Jinping Thought.’ This new
school of thinking (under a president who may now stay in office for
life) covers every aspect of Chinese policy from climate change
solutions, education, military strategy, and social programs to, of
course, technological development.
These
advancements are a part of a complete and ongoing overhaul of the
Chinese state under Xi, by which he intends to show that China has
officially attained world power status. Further facilitating this is
the fact that China is also expanding its role on the global stage as
the U.S. under Donald Trump recedes.
AI is
the perfect demonstration of this difference in priorities when you
look at factors like the decreasing U.S. state funding for AI
research compared to China’s plan to invest $150 billion by 2030.
While this may seem a short timeframe for any nation to truly “win”
the race for AI superiority, experts who work in China — such as
Kai-Fu Lee, a veteran of Microsoft Research and Google — say this
12-year window may be “too pessimistic” and that China could be
the clear leader in AI even sooner (an assessment with which even
some U.S. firms agree).
Since
some believe that China is already leading in AI, it is worth noting
what some of their major projects are. Besides the usual human-like
robots, China has also created impressive AI programs, such as one
that managed to teach itself enough to receive a medical
accreditation.
A major
focus of Chinese AI programs is the ways the advancements in
technology can aid in the administration of China’s planned
economy. China looks to use its advancements in AI to partially or
fully run crucial pieces of infrastructure, such as automated oil
production lines and seaports. With past Chinese innovations in the
planned economic model and this new position as a leader in AI, it
now seems that, by integrating this technology, China may avoid some
pitfalls that have caught up other countries with large state
bureaucracies.
This
isn’t to say that Beijing and Silicon Valley are always in
competition. Indeed there are some joint projects between U.S.
companies like Google and Chinese firms (although these relationships
are often tenuous and Google has been kicked out before for not
following China’s censorship laws). The fundamental difference
between how these companies work in the U.S. and China is that in the
U.S. they effectively control the state while in China the state
restricts them.
U.S.
firms are also distrusted by the Chinese and are often accused of
poaching Chinese talent produced by China’s superior STEM
education. As stated above, Google has already been kicked out of
China for not complying with censorship rules (while still helping
U.S. spy agencies), in an attempt to create the appearance that it
was making some brave political stand. The difference in this power
dynamic is clear: in the U.S., cities beg companies like Amazon to
open an office building, while in China we find the CEO of Facebook
asking Xi for baby names and requiring his staff to read the Chinese
president’s speeches.
This
balance of power between capital and the state in China illustrates a
manner in which AI can be developed responsibly. Now obviously, China
will most likely encounter its own roadblocks as it develops its AI,
and of course there is the potential with any new technology like
this for misuse or abuse, whether by corporate or state actors. But
at least the world now has another viable option and model for the
future of AI rather than just that offered by Silicon Valley.
Vladimir
Putin was right to say that whoever wins the race for AI will lead
the world, but the question that the world should be considering is:
What kind of actors should we trust to lead the next great
technological leap forward?
***
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