{"id":37696,"date":"2018-10-04T12:09:16","date_gmt":"2018-10-04T10:09:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/?p=37696"},"modified":"2018-10-04T12:09:16","modified_gmt":"2018-10-04T10:09:16","slug":"chinas-plan-for-domination-in-artificial-intelligence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/en\/2018\/10\/chinas-plan-for-domination-in-artificial-intelligence\/","title":{"rendered":"China&#8217;s plan for domination in Artificial Intelligence"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-37699 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/assets\/\/ai1-650x433.png\" alt=\"AI and bias\" width=\"554\" height=\"369\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>The already pervasive influence of Artificial Intelligence in our lives<\/b><\/p>\n<p>The key selling point of this year\u2019s iPhone, Apple\u2019s most expensive device yet, is not it\u2019s battery life or speed, but the AI capabilities that are built into it.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>One feature, revealed in Cupertino at an early September presentation, was the enhanced camera present in <a href=\"https:\/\/whatphone.com.au\/sim-only-byo-plans\/2018-iPhone\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">this year\u2019s iPhone<\/a>. Improvements in the images it gathers and collates have come this time, not just from an improved quantity and quality of the lens(es) on the back of the product, but in the Artificial Intelligence capabilities which are built into it.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>This year\u2019s iPhone no longer takes pictures, it collates data from the lens \u2013 which the phone uses to create great looking images, using AI to help produce the best result. It\u2019s an important distinction and just one reason why Apple has now included a \u2018Bionic Processor\u2019 in the phone \u2013 a CPU with Neural Processing capability.<\/p>\n<p>Apple is just one example of how AI has already started to contribute to the many of the tasks we perform each day. AI is the heart of the Google Searches we do, the smarts behind the shows Netflix recommends you watch and the nudge you need to add something that \u2018people like you\u2019 bought, to your cart, when you\u2019re shopping on Amazon.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>AI is also at the core of one of the major behind the scenes struggles for influence in the world. And make no mistake, China is winning the fight. The commercial opportunity is huge. (McKinsey estimate it could generate <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zdnet.com\/article\/mckinsey-ai-will-create-13-trillion-in-value-by-2013\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">$13 trillion per year<\/a> by 2030.) The strategic and military applications are likely to be equally substantial. It\u2019s the modern day space race.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s worth thinking \u2013 if, as seems likely, China wins the war over ownership of the most used AI. The impact may be far more reaching than who makes the most money.<\/p>\n<p><b>China is already leading in the war over AI<\/b><\/p>\n<p>This week China announced what appeared to be a softening of its previously extremely hard line on global domination in the area of Artificial Intelligence (AI). China is out investing, our strategizing and out researching America when it comes to Artificial Intelligence. They have a broad, well considered, holistic approach to the topic, which combines 3 areas.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><b>AI Strategy:<\/b> China has a single, clearly stated, National vision around owning the AI market. They have aligned resources from University Educational programs in AI to allowing Alibaba, their biggest eCommerce concern, to run an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.alibabacloud.com\/et\/city\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">entire city<\/a> for them.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li><b>New economic model:<\/b> China ensures that the messy world of capitalism does not undermine the national interest. To this end, Government representatives sit on the boards of China\u2019s major technology conglomerates, to ensure strategy in the interests of the company doesn\u2019t waver too far from the interests of the country.<\/li>\n<li><b>Research and Development:<\/b> Of course, Alibaba\u2019s AI services are all cloud-based. Alibaba will spend slightly over $7bn USD in Research and Development projects, in the year ahead, making them third in the world behind Alphabet and Amazon but ahead of Ford, IBM and Facebook. They are only a part of the country\u2019s $400+ bn spent since the turn of the century in R&amp;D as a whole. The US still spends more on R&amp;D but China is growing their investment dollars faster and will soon overtake.<\/li>\n<li><b>More data:<\/b> China simply has more data than anyone else \u2013 and data is the most important part of any AI solution. The country contains 1.3bn people and a government which uses advanced surveillance techniques to follow its people. Nearly 25% of the world\u2019s population lives in China and they generate a great deal of information about their behavior and movements.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>China also has a strategic advantage in terms of the number of qualified workers to contribute to AI projects. Some estimates suggest that there are only 10,000 suitably trained individuals in the field of Artificial Intelligence, on the globe at this time.<\/p>\n<p>In contrast, the major competitor in the AI saga, America, has little cohesive strategy and appears to be leaving it to the market to make America best in the world at AI. Given their experience with Google, Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft and the rest, who have achieved their own brand of domination, when left to their own devices, that may not seem like such a ridiculous stance to the Trump Administration.<\/p>\n<p><b>What is \u2018Bias\u2019 built into Artificial Intelligence?<\/b><\/p>\n<p>There are a number of ramifications likely to follow China\u2019s successful acquisition of the number 1 spot in ownership of Artificial Intelligence. There is, however, one more harder to see, potentially negative outcome which people in the Western World might experience; Bias in favor of a Chinese perspective.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Kay Firth-Butterfield and the World Economic Forum believes such bias, baked into AI algorithms, either intentionally, or more likely tacitly, could be a real issue, unless we choose to address it head-on.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><iframe width=\"600\" height=\"500\" frameborder=\"0\" src=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/video\/2018\/09\/17\/we-need-to-make-the-ai-industry-more-diverse-in-the-west-ai-expert.html\"><span data-mce-type=\"bookmark\" style=\"display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;\" class=\"mce_SELRES_start\">\ufeff<\/span><span data-mce-type=\"bookmark\" style=\"display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;\" class=\"mce_SELRES_start\">\ufeff<\/span><span data-mce-type=\"bookmark\" style=\"display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;\" class=\"mce_SELRES_start\">\ufeff<\/span><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>In theory, and on the face of it, computers can\u2019t be biased in the solutions they offer. They have no emotional components, no subconscious fears or favors to project on to the data they analyze<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>When AI systems output results which contain the prejudice of their designers, that\u2019s Bias in AI.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The problem comes when humans are involved in the design of the algorithms which interpret those data, imposing their own views on it. When AI systems output results which contain the prejudice of their designers, that\u2019s Bias in AI.<\/p>\n<p>In part, at least, the problem is that those designing the software in The West, at Google and Facebook and the other technology behemoths, are typically young white men \u2013 at least for now.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>The result of this single gender, single ethnicity, has been some \u2018obvious problems\u2019 with some Artificial Intelligence solutions which have been brought to the fore, so far.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>One good example is Google\u2019s AI software which \u2018recognized\u2019 African Americans as \u2018<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/2018\/1\/12\/16882408\/google-racist-gorillas-photo-recognition-algorithm-ai\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">gorillas<\/a>.\u2019<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>In simple terms, if your intent, as a programmer, is derived from different beliefs and mental models, to mine, you\u2019ll likely design a different AI engine and get a different AI answer than if I did the same thing.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Take a simple, possible, example. Imagine you\u2019re designing an AI system to mark an essay submitted by schoolchildren for their High School finals. The title of the paper is \u2018How my family contributed to my success.\u2019 There are two AI systems doing the marking. One is Chinese and comes from a cultural heritage which values community and family bonds, one is from Google which favors the rights of the individual and an entrepreneurial approach.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s easy to see the potential for very different content (in the form of essay answers) to be \u2018rewarded\u2019 with a higher mark.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Now, apply that reward thinking and the effect it would have on student behavior, to the entire educational process. For the whole time, they\u2019re at school, the \u2018right\u2019 result from their AI marker is to provide solutions consistent with different values. It\u2019s more than possible that kids trained by an AI system, developed by a different cultural framework in China, would behave differently from one designed in the US.<\/p>\n<p><b>Summing up Chinese bias in AI<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Given what are reasonable concerns about bias, built into AI, in existing AI systems, there may be cause for concern as China progress down the path to owning the field.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span>In the event that China won the AI war, the effects on our own culture and norms could be more dramatic than we think. The bias could be \u2018against\u2019 Western values and impose aspects of Chinese culture on our behavior.<\/p>\n<p>Is such a thing so unlikely? Consider Hollywood, California. It is, unquestionably, the world center for the manufacture of movies and has, since the invention of \u2018talkies\u2019 produced and disseminated hundreds of films per year. When asked what you consider heroic, you might answer John McClane, the lone wolf who beat the bad guys at Nakatomi Plaza in \u2018Die Hard\u2019.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Equivalently, you could say it was Ariel from The Little Mermaid. With either answer, the US produced the concepts to which you refer. It could be the sort of influence China stands to gain by winning the fight of who owns the best AI solutions.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><em>Ralf is an I.T expert and a technology blogger, he writes about mobile phones and the latest technology news.\u00a0 He currently works at\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/whatphone.com.au\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Whatphone.com.au<\/a>\u00a0as a content manager and his writings can be seen\u00a0on various technology blogs. He also loves taking pictures when free. You can follow him on Twitter\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/IamRalf12\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">@IamRalf12<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; The already pervasive influence of Artificial Intelligence in our lives The key selling point of this year\u2019s iPhone, Apple\u2019s most expensive device yet, is not it\u2019s battery life or speed, but the AI capabilities that are built into it.\u00a0 One feature, revealed in Cupertino at an early September presentation, was the enhanced camera present<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":77,"featured_media":37699,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"subtitle":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[113],"tags":[1078,1034,1825,255,1522],"class_list":["post-37696","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-finance","tag-ai","tag-alibaba","tag-alphabet","tag-amazon","tag-artificial-intelligence"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37696","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/77"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37696"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37696\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37699"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37696"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37696"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37696"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}