BEIJING: Artificial intelligence has grown to be a significant enough worry that it was added to the G7 summit’s weekend agenda, which was already jam-packed with important topics.
Concerns over AI’s negative effects coincide with US efforts to limit China’s access to essential technologies.
The US appears to be in the lead in the AI race right now. Furthermore, there is already a chance that the present limitations on semiconductor shipments to China may impede Beijing’s technical advancement.
Analysts predict that China will eventually overtake the United States since AI solutions take time to develop. Chinese internet businesses “are arguably more advanced than US internet companies, depending on how you’re measuring advancement,” Kendra Schaefer, head of digital policy research at Trivium China, told the BBC.
However, she says China is “an estimated 10 to 15 years behind global leaders in the ability to manufacture high-end equipment and components.”
Silicon Valley’s influence
Silicon Valley, probably the world’s top entrepreneurial hub, is the US’s largest advantage. It is the origin of technological behemoths like Google, Apple, and Intel, which have influenced modern life.
According to Pascale Fung, head of the Centre for Artificial Intelligence Research at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, the nation’s distinct research culture has aided innovators.
Without a specific product in mind, researchers may work for years to advance a technology, according to Fung.
For many years, OpenAI, for instance, ran as a non-profit organisation while it developed the Transformers machine learning model, which later powered ChatGPT.
“Most Chinese businesses have never experienced this climate. Only until they noticed the need would they begin to develop deep learning systems or substantial language models, she continues. “The Chinese AI faces a fundamental challenge here.”
The nation’s effort for research has received backing from US investors as well. Microsoft said in 2019 that it would invest $1 billion (£810,000) in OpenAI.
According to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, artificial intelligence (AI) is one of the most revolutionary technologies of our time. It has the potential to assist in resolving many of the most important problems facing our planet.
