AI Superpowers

China, Silicon Valley, and the New World Order

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Kai-Fu Lee: AI Superpowers (2018, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company)

256 pages

English language

Published April 4, 2018 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

ISBN:
978-1-328-54586-2
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4 stars (2 reviews)

The United States has long been the leader in Artificial Intelligence. But Dr. Kai-Fu Lee--one of the world's most respected experts on AI--reveals that China has caught up to the US at an astonishingly rapid pace. As Sino-American competition in AI heats up, Lee envisions China and the US forming a powerful duopoly in AI. He outlines the upheaval of traditional jobs, how the suddenly unemployed will find new ways of making their lives meaningful, and how the Chinese and American governments will have to cope with the changing economic landscape.

"Kai-Fu Lee--one of the world's most respected experts on AI and China--reveals that China has suddenly caught up to the United States at an astonishingly rapid and unexpected pace. In AI Superpowers, Kai-fu Lee argues powerfully that because of the unprecedented developments in artificial intelligence, dramatic changes will be happening much sooner than many of us have expected. Indeed, …

6 editions

Great read on China's A.I. scene

5 stars

Mr. Lee makes good arguments for why China may become a dominant global powerhouse in AI. In a growing multipolar world, his arguments are very reasonable.

In essence, the arguments boil down to two major shifts:

  1. From the age of discovery (e.g., heavy research focus, primarily in the U.S. and Canada) to the age of implementation (e.g., scrappy, do-anything entrepreneurs apply research to real-world business models).

The described 'gladiator' style of entrepreneurship in China where ultra nimble founders do anything it takes to beat out the competition and tune to market demands is worth a read alone. There's even an interesting story of how search engine competitors played nasty tricks on Google China.

  1. From the age of expertise to the age of data (e.g., quantity of data is the fuel to power ever-more accurate and powerful AI algorithms).

This was the most important takeaway from the book for me. The …

Subjects

  • Artificial intelligence
  • Technology, economic aspects