The report said China is no longer in a position of technological inferiority relative to the United States but rather has become a true peer that may have the capability to overtake the United States in AI.
China’s military thinkers anticipate the approach of a “singularity” on the battlefield, where humans can no longer keep pace with the speed of machine-led decisions during combat.
Baidu alone has more than 60 different AI platforms and has spent $1 billion buying up Western AI firms.
China’s government and leading technology companies will be putting tens of billions of dollars towards the race to become dominant in Artificial Intelligence.
McKinsey reported that Global venture capital funding for AI had grown from $589 million in 2012 to over $5 billion in 2016. McKinsey estimates that the total market for AI applications will reach $127 billion by 2025.
Much of the momentum behind AI in China is being driven by private-sector tech firms. Aided by huge volumes of search data and their many product lines, some of China’s Internet giants are on the cutting edge of technologies such as image and voice recognition. These capabilities have been integrated into new products, including automated personal assistants, autonomous cars, and so forth.
There are several other China AI startups.
US Currently has more AI technical talent
The US currently has 850,000 AI technical people while China has about 50,000. There are 70,000 overseas chinese AI technical talents working in the US and China is lobbying to win them back.
Baidu plans to train 100,000 more AI technical talents within 3 years.
China annual graduates four times as many students as the United States (1.3 million vs. 300,000).
China has taken the lead in supercomputers
China has 202 of the top 500 supercomputers versus the US with 143 of the top 500.
Just six months ago, the US led with 169 systems, with China coming in at 160. Despite the reversal of fortunes, the 144 systems claimed by the US gives them a solid second place finish, with Japan in third place with 35, followed by Germany with 20, France with 18, and the UK with 15.
China has also overtaken the US in aggregate performance as well. The Asian superpower now claims 35.4 percent of the TOP500 flops, with the US in second place with 29.6 percent.
Brian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and a popular Science blogger with 1 million readers per month. His blog Nextbigfuture.com is ranked #1 Science News Blog. It covers many disruptive technology and trends including Space, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Medicine, Anti-aging Biotechnology, and Nanotechnology.
Known for identifying cutting edge technologies, he is currently a Co-Founder of a startup and fundraiser for high potential early-stage companies. He is the Head of Research for Allocations for deep technology investments and an Angel Investor at Space Angels.
A frequent speaker at corporations, he has been a TEDx speaker, a Singularity University speaker and guest at numerous interviews for radio and podcasts. He is open to public speaking and advising engagements.