Daily Times

“Are computers going to become so smart that they can boss us around? If robots do everything, then what are we going to do?” were the questions a five-year-old student at a Beijing kindergarten asked Kai-Fu Lee, which he narrates in his book, “AI Superpowers: China, Silicon Valley, and the New World Order.”

Ever since the arrival, evolution and expansion of Google, the US technology giant has literally taken over the world. Today, the word “Google” has become synonymous to “do a search over the Internet.” Google would not have become a global phenomenon had there been no Silicon Valley in California, US, which brainstorms, nurtures, implements and develops ideas to run the world of digital technology.

This technology aided by the miracles of modern science has overtaken our world and dictates us through automated systems, software, Android and iOS applications and it seems that AI or artificial intelligence has already taken over our everyday lives.

Kai-Fu Lee, former President of Google China and an expert in artificial intelligence, discusses and deliberates upon how the Silicon Valley and China will facilitate the world in exploring, understanding and adapting new vistas in artificial intelligence. At present, Kai-Fu Lee is the Chairman and CEO of Sinovation Ventures, a tech-based investment company aspiring to create the Chinese tech companies that will make a name for themselves in the global digital landscape.

Kai-Fu Lee’s detailed facts and explanation on the subject investigates how deep learning or machine learning has evolved over the years. Lee mentions with great interest and enthusiasm how AI has changed human lifestyle where researchers, futurists and CEOs are talking and discussing AI’s involvement to facilitate our everyday tasks from interpreting human speech to forecasting consumer behavior and from making business decisions to driving a car.

Kai-Fu Lee, former President of Google China and an expert in artificial intelligence, discusses and deliberates upon how the Silicon Valley and China will facilitate the world in exploring, understanding and adapting new vistas in artificial intelligence. At present, Kai-Fu Lee is the Chairman and CEO of Sinovation Ventures, a tech-based investment company aspiring to create the Chinese tech companies that will make a name for themselves in the global digital landscape

Lee also looks at the contrasting business cultures of China and the US and how this difference may lead to a greater reason for them to co-exist in today’s world dominated by AI. While the US tech companies tend to bring out original products, Lee states that “China’s startup culture is the yin to Silicon Valley’s yang: instead of being mission-driven, Chinese companies are first and foremost market-driven.”

Kai-Fu Lee explains one of the most interesting facts and technical details to AI in the chapter, “The Four Waves of AI.” He mentions them as Internet AI, Business AI, Perception AI and Autonomous AI. Lee explains that Internet AI deals with algorithmic systems that acquire knowledge from Internet users to organize the best content. This refers to the advertisements you see on your Facebook profile, which relates to the product searches you made on Google. The second wave, Business AI, discusses how companies and businesses organize data to form meaning out of it, which can show a historical analysis of actions or can predict the future. In China, Business AI is being used in the financial sector where AI-powered apps are assisting users in microfinance. Lee says, “AI will do the analytical thinking, while humans will wrap that analysis in warmth and compassion.”

Perception AI, the third wave, is all about the exceptional amalgamation of the real, physical world with the digital world. Lee tells us how the online-merge-offline environments “will bring the convenience and abundance of the online world into our offline reality.” In China, KFC and Alipay (Ali Baba’s mobile platform for payments) have introduced the ‘pay-with-your-face’ system, which will make cash and cards obsolete. The fourth wave, Autonomous AI is the most amazing of them all. Robots and gadgets that can complete humans’ work for them at the given time is part of this wave. Intelligent machines, as Lee argues, will change and ultimately reshape all industries.

Kai-Fu Lee has termed AI as the “electricity of the 21st century.” He discusses that to harness the power four analogous inputs are required which include abundant data, hungry entrepreneurs, AI scientists and an AI-friendly policy environment. Lee further explains that the strengths of China and the United States in AI predict a balance of power in the new world order governed by AI. The book explores many more domains of China’s rise as a technology giant. Lee has written this book as an artificial intelligence expert, as a venture capitalist, as an entrepreneur and as a user of digital technology. This book is a must-read for students, professionals, academicians, researchers and those who want to know how humans and AI will co-exist. Maybe that five-year-old kindergarten student may eventually get the answer to his question, “If robots do everything, then what are we going to do?”

The writer is an independent researcher, author and columnist