Lately we’ve been hearing a lot about advances in AI, an abbreviation that still makes me chuckle. As someone who grew up on a dairy farm, AI meant something quite different. To be clear, there’s nothing funny about artificial insemination when you’re breeding an elite herd of Holsteins – it was part of our lexicon. Yet I’m sure all you city folk are snickering... or wondering what I'm talking about.
Most regular people understand AI to mean artificial intelligence, and it’s creating a big stir. Over the next decade, AI will dramatically transform our society (much like the other AI did for dairy farmers, but enough about that). On the other side of the world, the transformation is already happening.
According to tech giant, Kai-Fu Lee, China is leading the world in cutting-edge AI technologies, some of which make us Westerners uneasy. Paying with your phone, to offer one example, is only starting to catch on here, but is widely used in China. The Chinese skipped credit cards and went straight to cellphone banking. Even the homeless accept payments by phone – simply scan their personal QR code to make a donation. (If you’re wondering what a QR code is, you may struggle with the oncoming changes.)
Pay-with-your-face technology is even more revolutionary. At one KFC in China, you can actually order your fried chicken with... yes, your mugshot. Facial recognition is becoming so advanced that programs not only can identify you in a busy street of people, but also tell if you look guilty enough to be the one who just stole that homeless man's QR code.
China is re-inventing its infrastructure to facilitate a myriad of AI technologies. An entire city is being developed to accommodate automated cars. The first intelligent highways are being built, with roadways filled with sensors and pavement embedded with solar panels so that electric vehicles can charge continuously while driving (at least that’s the goal).
If this sounds like science fiction, you’d be right. I’m still trying to grasp what a QR code is...
And it’s happening at a rate that could leave many people in the dust. In his book, AI SuperPowers: China, Silicon Valley, and the New World Order, Lee suggests that nearly half of existing jobs could be automated in the next 15 years. This includes both white- and blue-collar occupations. Lawyers and doctors are not immune.
Lee also claims that the most populous country on earth will soon be the most progressive, technologically speaking. China now attracts 50% of all AI investments in the world, a substantial increase from only a few years ago. By 2030, it’s expected to take in twice as much revenue from AI technologies as the U.S.
China has a lot going for it: A government that invests billions in new start-ups, research and development; an entrepreneurial class of workers; and reams of user data – a secret ingredient for deep learning technologies.
All of this is taking rural China into the digital world at breakneck speed. Lee, who grew up in the U.S. but returned to China to become head of Google China, is aware of the perils. He writes extensively about the coming challenges that AI presents, job losses being one of them.
What he doesn’t (and can't) write about is the threat that an authoritarian state like China may pose with such technology. The Huawei story of its CFO being arrested in Canada goes deeper than the alleged theft of American technology. Countries also understand that the Chinese government could wield extraordinary power when Chinese companies build the technology. The security fears are so real that some countries have already banned Huawei from building their 5G networks.
Clearly, we’re only beginning to understand the scope and risks of AI technologies. One can hope that by the time we do, it’s not too late.
And that’s nothing to chuckle about.
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