Linguistic AI Research in China
January 4, 2018
How is linguistics AI fairing in the country with some of the most complex languages in the world? The linguistics blog Language Log examines “Linguistic Science and Technology in China.” Upon attending the International Workshop on Language Resource Construction: Theory, Methodology and Applications (PDF), writer Mark Liberman seems impressed with Chinese researchers’ progress. He writes:
The growing strength of Chinese research in the various areas of linguistic science and technology has been clear for some time, and the presentations and discussions at this workshop made it clear that this work is poised for a further major increase in quantity and quality. That trend is obviously connected to what Will Knight called “China’s AI Awakening” (Technology Review, 10/10/2017).
Liberman shares a passage from Knight’s article that emphasizes the Chinese government’s promotion of AI technology and links to other recent articles on the subject. He continues:
The Chinese government’s plan is well worth reading — and Google Translate does a good job of making it accessible to those who can’t read Chinese. Overall this plan strikes me as serious and well thought out, but there seems to me to be a potential tension between one aspect of the plan and the current reality. One of the plan’s four ‘basic principles’ is ‘Open Source.’ … This is very much like the approach followed in the U.S. over the past half century or so. But it’s increasingly difficult for Chinese researchers to ‘Actively participate in global R & D and management of artificial intelligence and optimize the allocation of innovative resources on a global scale,’ given the increasingly restrictive nature of the ‘Great Firewall.’
Hmm, he has a point there. The write-up compares China’s plan to Japan’s approach to AI in the 1980s but predicts China will succeed where Japan fell short. Liberman embeds links to several related articles within his, so check them out for more information.
Cynthia Murrell, January 4, 2018
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