In this article, we will reflect on the book AI Superpowers, which shows how power shifts from the West to the East.
Global product change has given two transitions from the era of discovery to the era of implementation and from the era of experience and expertise to the era.
The bedrock of Silicon Valley with the latest inventions and discoveries and paths that are unforgivable to copy and their ceaseless activities enable them to declare artificial masterpieces.
And yet, with abundant data, hungry investors, AI science and a supportive political environment, from discovery to application and expertise to data, the game is shifting to China.
Copying Chinese startups from examples and even successful Chinese examples is not only a source of shame for global and Chinese research activists, but if someone’s trump card is just a new idea, this idea will inevitably be copied.
Verbatim memorization has been the primary Chinese training throughout the years, as entry into the Chinese imperial bureaucracy required verbatim memorization of ancient writings and the writing of an eight-part essay. And the hunger and expectation of parents and two grandfathers and two grandmothers from the Chinese, who are only children, has provided all the conditions for them to copy what they see.
Many copies and the presence of their cheap smartphones as valid SIM cards have created a space for the use of various startups and massive data.
The power of big data
If AI is the new electricity, big data is the fuel that powers the generators. After China’s dynamic and unique ecosystem flourished in 2012, the country has become the largest contributor to this fuel for the age of AI.
Chinese startups have sparked an explosion of innovation, leading the way to bring online services to the real world, tying the internet into the fabric of China’s economy and turning Chinese cities into the first cashless spaces since the barter economy. And by creating a smart idea, a shared bike revolutionized urban transportation.
Crowdfunding, crowdfunding and reverse engineering, yes they are crazy, burning money and creating tons of startups.
China owns big data just as Saudi Arabia owns the world’s largest oil reserves. The invention of deep learning means that we are moving on from the age of expertise, creating successful machine algorithms for the ability of technical skills and large amounts of data.
In fact, an algorithm built by an ordinary engineer can outperform algorithms built by world experts, provided the engineer who built it has access to a huge amount of data.
China’s only score is not only about the quantity of data, but also about the quality of the data. Silicon Valley giants collect data by monitoring countless activities on the Internet, and the Chinese collect data from the real world: the what, when, where, how, all the text of the daily lives of millions of Chinese, collected using mobile apps.
