Will China Overtake the US in AI?

January 3, 2018

Is the U.S. investing enough in AI technology? Not according to DefenseTech’s piece, “Google Exec: China to Outpace US in Artificial Intelligence by 2025.” Writer Matt Cox reports that the chairman of the Defense Innovation Board has warned that China is pursuing AI so vigorously that they will have caught up to the U.S. by 2020, will have surpassed us by 2025, and, by 2030, will “dominate” the field. However, Google’s Eric Schmidt, speaking at November’s Artificial Intelligence and Global Security Summit at the Center for New American Security, disagrees. Cox quotes Schmidt:

Just stop for a sec. The government said that. Weren’t we the ones who are in charge of AI dominance in our country? Weren’t we the ones that invented this stuff? Weren’t we the ones who were willing to go and exploit the benefits of all this technology for betterment of American exceptionalism and our own arrogant view?” Schmidt asked. “Trust me. These Chinese people are good,” he continued.

Currently, the United States does not have a national AI strategy, nor does it place a priority on funding basic research in AI and other science and technology endeavors, Schmidt said. “We need to get our act together as a country,” he said. “America is the country that leads in these areas; there is every reason we can continue that leadership.

Schmidt went on to note that today’s immigration restrictions are counterproductive, noting:

Iran produces some of the smartest and top computer scientists in the world. I want them here. It’s crazy not to let these people in. Would you rather have them building AI somewhere else or would you rather have them building it here?

Schmidt asserts the real problem lies within the gears of bureaucracy but suspects interdepartmental cooperation would improve drastically if we happened to be at war with a “major adversary.” I hope we do not have the chance to confirm his suspicion anytime soon.

Cynthia Murrell, January 3, 2018

Written by Stephen E. Arnold · Filed Under AI, Google, Government, News

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Stephen E. Arnold monitors search, content processing, text mining and related topics from his high-tech nerve center in rural Kentucky. He tries to winnow the goose feathers from the giblets. He works with colleagues worldwide to make this Web log useful to those who want to go "beyond search". Contact him at sa [at] arnoldit.com. His Web site with additional information about search is arnoldit.com.