Book Sips #10 — ‘AI Superpowers’ by Kai-Fu Lee
Dr. Kai-Fu Lee — one of the world’s most respected experts on AI and China — reveals that China has suddenly caught up to the US at an astonishingly rapid and unexpected pace.
In AI Superpowers, Kai-fu Lee argues powerfully that because of these unprecedented developments in AI, dramatic changes will be happening much sooner than many of us expected. Indeed, as the US-Sino AI competition begins to heat up, Lee urges the US and China to both accept and to embrace the great responsibilities that come with significant technological power. Most experts already say that AI will have a devastating impact on blue-collar jobs. But Lee predicts that Chinese and American AI will have a strong impact on white-collar jobs as well. Is universal basic income the solution? In Lee’s opinion, probably not. But he provides a clear description of which jobs will be affected and how soon, which jobs can be enhanced with AI, and most importantly, how we can provide solutions to some of the most profound changes in human history that are coming soon.
A sip:
“In stark contrast, China’s startup culture is the yin to Silicon Valley’s yang: instead of being mission-driven, Chinese companies are first and foremost market-driven. Their ultimate goal is to make money, and they’re willing to create any product, adopt any model, or go into any business that will accomplish that objective. That mentality leads to incredible flexibility in business models and execution, a perfect distillation of the “lean startup” model often praised in Silicon Valley. It doesn’t matter where an idea came from or who came up with it. All that matters is whether you can execute it to make a financial profit. The core motivation for China’s market-driven entrepreneurs is not fame, glory, or changing the world. Those things are all nice side benefits, but the grand prize is getting rich, and it doesn’t matter how you get there.”
― Kai-Fu Lee
AI Superpowers
China, Silicon Valley, and the New World Order
by Kai-Fu Lee
Why read?
Nobody understands the complexity of issues that will drive the explosive development of artificial intelligence in China and the U.S. better than Kai-Fu Lee. He is a technical wizard who has led AI research and development teams in both countries, has lived in both cultures, and today operates one of the most prominent AI venture funds in China. His insights into the diverse cultural, governmental and technical factors that will frame the competition between nations make this book a must-read for anybody interested in the future of AI, and how it might change the world order.
272 pages, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt 2018
