News not noise #16
The German government has published their AI strategy which will officially be announced next week. It is a good step in the right direction. But with investments of 3 billion Euro until 2025 (500 Million Euro per year) it is not ambitious enough to get Germany to the top spot in the AI race. Just look at China.
In July 2017 China announced their AI strategy and began to flood the Chinese economy with funds for AI developments. The city of Beijing recently provided US$2.1 billion to build an AI industrial park on the outskirts of the city, Shanghai and 17 other Chinese cities have similar ambitions, and the city of Tianjin has even announced it will set up a US$16 billion fund to invest in local AI firms and institutions. In addition, there are extensive investment programs to train AI engineers and experts, government grants for AI entrepreneurs, and tax benefits for companies.
I will have a blog post on the German AI strategy to discuss this in more detail.
China has been a focus of this newsletter for some time. And this is no different this time, with a very interesting study looking at the adoption of AI in China vs the rest of the world in non-Tech sectors
AI and Innovation
From Gene Editing to A.I., How Will Technology Transform Humanity? | NYTimes
Great conversation between a geneticist, an oncologist, a roboticist, a novelist and an AI researcher.
One of the fathers of AI is worried about its future | technologyreview
Yoshua Bengio is without doubt one of the most influential figures in the area of AI. In this very insightful interview he is looking at the AI race between countries, the question of AI domination by a few companies and countries and the hard challenges for AI research.
AI vs. Lawyers | lawgeex
LawGeex has an interesting study where 20 experienced US-trained lawyers were pitted against the LawGeex Artificial Intelligence algorithm. The study details how AI has overtaken top lawyers in accurately spotting risks in everyday business contracts like NDAs.
China
Global Competition With AI in Business: How China Differs | MIT Sloan
Very interesting findings from MIT Sloan on the adoption of AI in the non-Tech sectors from a survey of 300 executives in China that was compared with a concurrent wider survey of more than 3,000 executives in 126 countries.
Chinese companies are investing aggressively in AI and adapting their business models to accommodate for AI’s potential. Compared with the rest of the world, Chinese Pioneers have higher investment levels across the board in AI-related technology, data, processes, and talent. Not surprisingly, Chinese Pioneer companies are then also the most likely to have modified their business model in the past year to take advantage of AI. Which is not always delivering the expected results. The report clearly shows that China’s AI strategy and adoption is not limited to the Tech Companies.
China identifies 17 key areas to make AI breakthroughs | zdnet
The key areas for AI development in China include intelligent vehicles, intelligent service robots, intelligent drones, neural network chips, and intelligent manufacturing among others.
A US attempt to keep AI out of China’s hands could actually help China | technologyreview
The US is looking at broadening its restrictions for technology exports. This is intended to help US companies be more competitive but could results just in the opposite effect, giving Chinese companies an advantage.
How China Walled Off the Internet | NYTimes
Raymond Zhong reports how China rules how China became a superpower. And the special role of the Government which means that the best way for tech companies to thrive in China is to make themselves useful to the state. Not without risks.
Xi Jinping Calls for ‘Healthy Development’ of AI | newamerica.org
A translation of Xi Jinping’s speech at a Politburo study session that emphasized the continued importance of artificial intelligence (AI) in official Chinese development and governance goals.
Billion-dollar tech startups hold promise for China’s economy | nikkei.com
Fascinating insights to China’s startup boom. Mainly driven by Tech companies. Over 70 Unicorns (valued at 1B US$ or more). 16000 ventures are established every day (and most go out of business very quickly).
