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The Race for AI Supremacy

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The Race for AI Supremacy The race for AI supremacy A Chinese-made robot at CES in 2017 KAI-FU LEE Photograph by By Peter Elstrom Christaan Felber The chairman and chief executive officer of Sinovation Ventures says America's technology industry can't afford to underestimate the artificial intelligence com• panies he's funding in China. Lee, a Taiwan native, has spent most of his profes• sional life in China, but he lived for a quarter-century in the U.S. before becoming a venture capitalist, and he's worked for Apple, Microsoft, and Google on one side of the Pacific or the other. Lee spoke with Bloomberg Businessweek shortly before the official release of his book AI Superpowers: China, Silicon Valley, and the New World Order. His comments have been condensed and edited. Why should Google and America's other too many to browse, and its software The other thing the government did AI leaders be worried about competition maximizes deliveries, so the delivery that's been helpful is the infrastructure from China? costs you well under $1 per order. investments. In China, the 3G, 4G cov• A lot of people in Silicon Valley erage is better than in the U.S. Sure, in assume if you're a copycat, you're What's stopping an American quasi- U.S. cities, they're great. But if you go doomed for life. You're never going counterpart such as Uber or Seamless into country areas, they're not as good to become a great innovator. China from doing the same thing? as in China. has proven that wrong. Think about a It's hard for any country to learn new very smart, hardworking bunch of peo• tricks. The American way has been light What sorts of knock-on effects are those ple with strong leadership and busi• on logistics, more into extracting rents kinds of investments having in the war ness skills who just haven't been in an from their software platforms and let• forAI supremacy between U.S. and environment as lucky as Silicon Valley. ting someone else do all the ground- Chinese companies? Being a copycat first actually turned out level stuff. Someone such as Wang Xing My position is that China has more or to be the best training ever. is willing to take on the really hard work less caught up in AI. The U.S. has certain Think of it as a pyramid. For all these of hiring tens of thousands of delivery advantages, such as the best universities copycats entering the base of the pyra• people, then managing them and mak• and, historically at least, immigrants mid, most will not make it because they ing sure they're efficient and on time. who want to come from all around the never learn to build a good product. This is a messy job. world. China has other advantages, But if you copy at the first stage, then including more data, more support• learn from the experience and make Maybe especially messy in China. ive government policies, and now very your next startup better or your cur• Obviously the government hasn't been shygoo d entrepreneurs. rent product better, that's a very formi• about trying to make things easier for tech dable solution that Silicon Valley never companies. What are the most important What about the creepiness inherent in thought possible. things it's done in that regard? the state slurping up that much data The biggest role the government and monitoring its citizens so aggres• Is there a company that stands out? plays in China is through what I call a sively? It sounds like the road to dysto• Wang Xing's Meituan Dianping is one techno-utilitarian policy, which means pian science fiction. example. Here's someone who copied letting technology companies have a The real issue facing mankind is Facebook, Twitter, and Groupon. But try with as-yet-unproven technologies: not whether the U.S. is ahead or China with Meituan, he figured out how to use Let them try it in some limited way and is ahead. The real issue is that AI will technology and his business skill to turn then see what happens, and if it works, create so much wealth and so many it into an innovative, profitable enter• let them push the limits and go into challenges-the replacement of jobs, prise. He won the loyalty of merchants even gray areas-like letting Alibaba and privacy, security-that we really should by building very good software. He also Tencent go into payments. Their Alipay work together on potential solutions. If took control of the user experience, so and WeChat services took the country we don't have good solutions, any one you can deliver food in a reasonable by storm. There's no longer any room of these issues can lead to disasters period of time-20 or 30 minutes-and for credit card companies. That spirit larger in scale than any other disasters the food will be hot when it arrives. You matches the scrappy, fast execution of in human history. We need to start pre• can see 500, maybe 5,000 restaurants, entrepreneurs in China. paring now. © .
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