AI hegemony: the United States no longer monopolizes China's important partner

In 2025, China's artificial intelligence basic theory will achieve a major breakthrough, called "AI Year" in 2017, and 2018 is the key year for AI to take off. In the international AI hegemony competition, the United States is no longer the leader, the United Kingdom needs China's cooperation, and China's cornering overtaking is just around the corner.

British media said that around AI, China and the United States are in the hegemony competition, and the results of Sino-British interaction in science, industry, industry and finance will also attract attention.

The BBC website reported on January 26th that "Artificial Intelligence: English, Chinese and American Performed "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms"", the data shows that from 2012 to now, there are 1354 companies in China's AI field with a total investment of 144.8 billion yuan. In 2017, the total investment in AI exceeded 62.2 billion yuan, a hundred times more than the 600 million yuan in 2012.

According to the report, the Chinese media cheered AI for providing China with the opportunity to “overtake the curve” or even “override the car” and avoid the “middle-income country trap” on the way.

The Chinese government regards artificial intelligence as the main driving force for industrial upgrading and economic transformation. The policy on AI technology is to encourage, support and promote. The development of China's AI industry has obviously accelerated since the second half of 2017. In July last year, the State Council of China formulated the "New Generation Artificial Intelligence Development Plan", with clear objectives: 2020, the overall technology and application of artificial intelligence is synchronized with the world's advanced level. In 2025, the basic theory of artificial intelligence achieved a major breakthrough, and in 2030, it became the world's major artificial intelligence. Innovation Center. A week ago, China published the White Paper on Artificial Intelligence Standardization. The Chinese media referred to 2017 as the “AI Year”, and 2018 was the key year for AI to fly from the academic industry to the industry.

Another set of data confirms China's status in the world's first AI technology application: wages soar in AI-related industries, an estimate that has doubled in the past three years. According to statistics from the technology recruitment website 100offer.com, the current AI industry in China, the starting salary of college graduates is 300,000-600,000 yuan per year, and the team leader with three or five years of experience can earn up to 1.5 million yuan.

According to the report, an artificial intelligence industry roadmap published on the China Economic Online shows that China's strength in artificial intelligence technology is still weaker than that of the United States, especially the chip segment, most of which are new ventures, while the US chip industry is mostly Intel. Large companies such as NVIDIA are in town. In terms of the basic technology framework, giants such as Google, Microsoft, and Amazon, and Baidu, Tencent, and Alibaba in China, the gap in power is self-evident. Specific to the technical level, machine learning, speech recognition, natural language processing, computer vision, etc., Chinese corporate financing surpassed the US counterparts, especially AI applications, last year showed an explosive trend, mainly reflected in security, finance, medical, education, retail , robots and smart driving industries.

In December last year, the European think tank Eurasian Group and risk fund SinovaTIon published a joint investigation report "China's artificial intelligence revolution: understanding Beijing's structural advantages", that China and the United States are competing for world dominance in the AI ​​field.

The report believes that the AI ​​hegemony dispute between China and the United States is two-way, making technology a major source of Sino-US trade friction. The United States still leads China in terms of cutting-edge hardware and talent, while China's Internet users surpass Europe and the United States, providing tremendous data fuel for artificial intelligence innovation.

The report said that China is narrowing the gap with the United States, but after careful analysis, it can be found that this is not a winner-take-all competition. The process of grafting, hybridization and blending occurs at different levels. AI is the future, and this future is full of unpredictability.

The report also pointed out that the United Kingdom is the first country in the world to prepare for the introduction of AI technology to assist government affairs. The British government will set up a new advisory body, the Data Ethics and Innovation Center, to liaise with the rest of the world, and is also preparing to join the AI ​​Council of Davos. British Prime Minister Teresa May announced at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland on January 25 that Britain is a world leader in artificial intelligence (AI).

So, is the UK ready to lead the world of artificial intelligence? After all, the United States and China have invested tens of billions in the AI ​​industry, making the UK ashamed.

BBC Technology correspondent Seren Jones said that Prime Minister May did not brag in Davos. Many of the world's top artificial intelligence experts are in London and Cambridge. For example, Google's Alexa was developed in the UK, and the robot "Alpha GO", which defeated the World Go Championship, was also born in the UK. But the problem is that these scientists work for technology giants such as Amazon and Google, and the government does not have much research and development and application, and the protection of AI assets is also lacking. He believes that the most worrying thing is that China is advancing on the AI ​​road, and the UK is still struggling with the ethical impact and other related issues brought about by AI technology.

A week later, Teresa May will lead a British economic and trade delegation to visit China and conduct a "historic visit" to Beijing and Shanghai. Whether the Prime Minister’s visit to China can make a breakthrough in the cooperation in the AI ​​field is waiting to be seen.

According to the report, China’s status as a trading partner is very important on the UK’s “post-EU” roadmap.