Chinese Initiatives in AI Research: Setting Benchmarks
In July 2017, China’s state council released the country’s strategy for developing artificial intelligence (AI), entitled 'New Generation Artificial Intelligence Development Plan'. The policy outlines China's strategy to invest and build a domestic AI industry worth US$150 billion in next decade to become a leading AI power by 2030. This official development marked the beginning of the AI sector becoming a national priority and has been included in President Xi Jinping's grand vision for China. While 2017 was the first time when AI was specifically mentioned in a Communist Party of China work report, AI ambitions of China to be in part with the USA has been existing for a long time. This article outlines the AI ambitions of China and socio-political and policy debates which are shaping China's AI strategy.
China is a nation with the highest population in the world and is also on the path to become one of the largest economies. However, it has also sowed seeds to become the world leader when it comes to Artificial Intelligence (AI). While the Chinese government has released two documents New Generation Artificial Intelligence Development Plan (AIDP) and Made in China 2025, which highlight the core of China's AI Strategy, the total spending of Chinese government on AI has not been public. But it is estimated that the spending is in billions of dollars as even regional governments of China have invested in AI. While it is no secret that China's race in the AI advancement has to do with being in par and even better than United States of America, China believes that AI is a critical component to the future of global military and economic power competitions. Chinese AI is based on three main pillars – Research and Development, Use of the AI and its governance.
China keeps a close check and knowledge about the AI developments in USA. Chinese officials often refer to AI reports frequently of U.S. national security think tank publications and cite them, but while U.S policy making companies do not put similar efforts in effectively at translating, analyzing, and disseminating Chinese publications on AI. China's AI research is making significant impact. According to the research conducted by Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence in Seattle, Washington about most cited paper index on the scholarly search engine Microsoft Academic, it was found that China has steadily increased its share of authorship of the top 10%. In 2018, the share of most cited AI research papers was 26.5%, not far behind United States at 29%.
Source: Nature Research Journals
One of the factors which has contributed towards China's AI progress is the capacity to retain the talented researchers. According to the China AI Development Report published in 2018, by the end of 2017, China was home to the second largest pool of AI scientists and engineers. While the USA ranked fist at around 29,000, China was not far behind at 18,200. While China is still 6th in its number of top AI researchers, there has been significant progress. In the past, many scientists and researchers had to go to US for the training and then stayed there to work for the global companies. Now, however, the increasing numbers of Chinese scientists and the progress indicates that times are changing. AI institutes in China are trying to lure Chinese researchers based abroad by giving them the bait of high salaries.
China's plan to be the global leader in AI is also within reach, given that it is home the growing industry of tech companies like Alibaba, Baidu and Tencent. China has also ten privately owned startups which are valued at more than US$1 billion, including facial recognition firm, SenseTime. While these companies are not at the same level as US companies like Microsoft and Google, there is a lot of potential and a plethora of opportunities to develop AI and train the systems due the sheer disposal of human capital of China. As for China's online commerce and social networks, the country can take advantage by compiling the data and building the required systems.
But like all nations, China is also using the development of AI for surveillance, censorship and for military purposes. The Chinese military is funding the development of new AI-driven capabilities to make autonomous weaponry and battlefield decision-making. This decision of China has led to the making of 'intelligent army' which will go beyond the use of robotics on land, water and sea. They seek to develop a tactical information database using AI which will monitor the military developments of the other countries and create 'humanized equipment', which would be more efficient in the battlefield than the use of manpower. For the same, China has heavily invested in the development of the synergy between the civilian industry and the military, also known as Civil-Military Integration (CMI). It must also be noted that such innovations have dual use. For example - facial recognition algorithms that are designed to identify and tackle crimes in China are being used by the government to recognize Uighur Muslims in China, who are a minority.
China has tried to use AI both in economic and military spheres to increase its global influence. Even when global domination is the aim, China has made sure to establish the rules of governance. The aim has built consonance and trust between the companies and the researchers and thereby promote new collaborations. China has set eight principles for its development and use of AI and if Chinese companies cannot follow these eight rules then the government will not allow them access to global data. It is important to know that these eight principles may or may not be implemented on the Chinese government. The rules include - harmony, fairness and justice, respect for privacy, safety, transparency, accountability and collaboration, and are similar to those released by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. One of the key challenges faced by all groups when AI comes into the picture, is transparency. While there are no agreed standards globally, many countries are chalking out their own guidelines about how to proceed ahead.
The Chinese aim of AI domination is not impossible to achieve but does have some challenges. While Chinese capacity to retain back its human capital is increasing, it has not yet reached its full potential. The government is yet to take over the USA or United Kingdom when it comes to treating its employees with benefits like extremely high salary, health benefits, and insurances among other things. The Chinese officials need to increase its funding to the universities and colleges as it would not only be rewarding with high publications but also with creating an environment which is full of opportunities. While China has world class companies, it still lags behind in of technological tools like algorithms which can be used to design and train the systems to study more complex objects rather than quick developments of AI products. China also lags behind in hardware given that China also lacks in designing the commuter chips which are the foundational requirement which support the AI advancements.
China’s pursuit of AI domination is more than a symbolic race with the United States, as AI technologies promise advances in health care, transport and communications, and increase in the stature of the nation that make fundamental breakthroughs. While Chinese domination in the sphere of AI is a probable scenario, one cannot ignore that it still lags behind. It needs to tackle a list of challenges in order to achieve its dream of global AI domination.
Pic Courtesy-Michael Dziedzic at unsplash.com
(The views expressed are personal.)
