If you have been paying any attention to the news over the past couple of years, you know that there is a lot of hope placed on Artificial Intelligence to make our lives better in the future. There is good reason to have high expectations on how A.I. will change the world around us. As Forbes’ Bernard Marr stated in a recent article, “We’re already in a society where systems can accomplish tasks we didn’t believe would be possible in our time.” Over time, A.I. will become as critical to society as have GPS and the internet. Although there is much controversy and disagreement on the ethics and potential in this technology, one thing most people in the industry agree on is its power for leverage.
Thanks to the technological advancements made to date, companies like Amazon, Google, Apple, Netflix, Facebook, and Microsoft have become giants. Often compared to Goliath, these companies rely on A.I. to maintain their distinctive lead in their respective fields. More importantly for the Unites States, they have drastically improved our way of life and fueled the American economy. It is for this reason that experts believe whichever country has the lead in AI will become the most powerful nation in the world. We have been the leaders in the field for years; however, things are changing. China has been steadily catching up to the U.S. and partly because we have been taking our foot off the pedal.
“The early adopters are anticipating rapid change. No matter their country, they resoundingly agree that AI is “very” or “critically” important to their company’s success today.” — Deloitte Insights
The Government
One of the biggest contributors to us falling behind in A.I. is the government. Whether Democrat or Republican, the reality is that very few politicians have a significant focus on artificial intelligence. Our leaders have lost sight of the importance in maintaining technological advancement. In their defense, most can’t begin to comprehend how machine learning and A.I. have evolved since the 50s. They grew up in different times. By the time the internet came out they were already adults trying to make a safe living. The U.S. government supported the roll out of a very primitive version of today’s internet, understanding the potential it presented for the country. Although the buzz around the internet led to the dot com bubble, and a 34% drop in the Nasdaq, it cannot be argued that the internet changed everyone’s lives for the better.
Beyond them, it’s estimated that 7,000 to 10,000 new online enterprises were launched in the late 1990s, and by mid-2003, around 4,800 of those had either been sold or gone under. Trillions of dollars in wealth vanished almost overnight. — Brian McCullough
Soon after the bubble burst, we went through 9/11 and the attention started shifting to national security. This was a direct attack in our home soil. Most of us had never experienced anything like it, but Americans came together and prevailed. Naturally, the government’s attention on technological innovation declines and money budgeted for the defense industry rose. In less than ten years, the housing market crashed and we had the 2008 recession. The people in charge had to work on getting the economy back on its’ feet. Focus was placed in agriculture, manufacturing, and a series of fiscal stimulus programs. The government didn’t realize the world around us was changing and leaving us behind.
While we have been going through these difficult times, the Chinese government has been fully dedicated to technology. More specifically, they have focused heavily on artificial intelligence. They worked with industry experts to understand what is needed to become a leader in the field. In addition to working with experts, China has spent more than any other country in financing research and development. From 2013 to 2018 China accounted for 60% of the global investment in A.I., while the United Stated only accounted for 29%. Unfortunately, this hasn’t changed over the last couple of years and the results show. One of the biggest hurdles in the field has been applying artificial intelligence to the betterment of physical objects, such as cars. While no one has completely cracked the code, China seems to be on the front of the pack.
Out to the East, they have been holding massive events where thousands of people are involved in robotics competitions centered around artificial intelligence. These events are televised, and over 20 million people tune in to watch engineers develop the best robots in the competition. This is a proven tactic used to get more people interested in a field. Much like how American children idolize athletes from different sports, Chinese children are being influenced to idolize technological advancement. An example of how those skills have been applied in the real world is Frank Wang (Wang Tao). He is the founder of DJI, which is a Chinese company specialized in drones for various industries. They are the world’s largest manufacturer of commercial drones. With their lead in the industry, they were able to launch the Matrice 300 RTK. This drone uses A.I. allow owners to enable automatic routine inspections, where the drone will identify the point of interest, photograph what needs inspecting, and report results to the user. All this without any user interface.
Our Culture
Americans’ longing for freedom and privacy directly oppose the fundamental principle of machine learning. Machine learning is what allows artificial intelligence to learn, and what allows machine learning to work is data. The more Americans learn about the data gathered by their devices, social media networks, and the government in general, the more we oppose these things. Research conducted by the Pew Research Center found that “Some 81% of the public say that the potential risks they face because of data collection by companies outweigh the benefits, and 66% say the same about government data collection.” I’m not making the case that we should give up our rights and liberties for the advancement of A.I.; but, it is clear that China holds an advantage over the U.S. in that aspect.
While we try to find the right balance of sharing personal information and advancing artificial intelligence, the Chinese government and major companies have access to data of over 1.4 billion people. There is little to no resistance to the collection of their data due to the government’s power and Chinese desire for convenience. They rank as the country with the highest population in the world, and there is no sign of that stopping. With the amount of information available to them, it will be difficult for any other country to compete. The use of this data will ensure exponential growth in the learning of their A.I. systems.
Even if we find a compromise on how to use our data as contribution for machine learning int he Unites States, we will have to deal with the downside of competition. Competition has fueled innovation among companies in the country. It pushes companies to be better than the other by trying to develop the best products and services. In the case of artificial intelligence, the concept of competing interests means that information is segmented between dozens of companies. As mentioned before, one of the major keys to advancing A.I. is quantity of data. Major players in the industry have their own programs and collect most of their own data. They may work on segments that overlap with other companies, but collaboration is limited in fears of losing their advantage.
On the other hand, the Chinese government and companies in their country notoriously have a very close relationship.
“The relationship between the party and private sector companies is, up to a point, flexible — certainly more so than with state companies. The party doesn’t habitually micromanage their day-to-day operations. The firms are largely still in charge of their basic business decisions. But pressure from party committees to have a seat at the table when executives are making big calls on investment and the like means the lines have been dangerously blurred.” — Richard McGregor
The blurred lines between the two means that companies working on artificial intelligence have access to pretty much any information they may want. The government is able to manage the data in the country and allow their top players to have access to all of it. Rather than these companies competing among themselves, they are competing with American companies to give China control of the world.
Conclusion
If things continue to evolve as they have, China will beat the US in Artificial Intelligence. Between the governments’ focus, our cultural practices, and the amount of information available to China, it will be extremely difficult for the U.S. to compete. Not all hope is lost, because the United States still has the largest economy in the world. A significant amount of countries rely on us to survive. The world’s leading companies are modeled after American companies. And of course, the American sense of work ethic and innovation has always shown to overcome. It should only be a matter of time before we realize that we need to take action now, which starts with getting educated in things like Artificial Intelligence.
