Is China beating the US in AI development?

APD NEWS

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China is gradually showing its ability to compete at a high level in the development of artificial intelligence (AI) technology.

“The race for global leadership in AI is pushing [forward]. In the 80's (sic), the market was dominated by the US. And recently, China has become very present too,” Carlos Moedas, European Commissioner for Research Science and Innovation, posted on Twitter.

China has been leading the US in patents with the general keyword "artificial intelligence" since 2013. Statistics from CB Insights show that China had 641 patents last year, while the US only had 130. The difference in number has grown rapidly from 76 in 2013 to 511 last year.

“In 2017, over 530 video surveillance patents and over 900 facial recognition patents were published in China. This continues to show China's commitment to Artificial Intelligence,” as Internet of Things expert Kyle Ellicott tweeted.

On the other hand, the US has been leading China in the past five years in patents under the more specific term of "machine learning".

“As one AI researcher told me, it doesn’t matter whether a Chinese or an American makes a specific advance because any new knowledge can be built upon by other scientists,” wrote Tim Culpan, a Bloomberg columnist who writes about technology in Asia.

“What matters more is the goal and the implementation of technologies that are being developed. It comes down to who is using AI for the greater good, and who is using it for ill.”

But Culpan also admitted that China's enormous population - which is roughly four times larger than that of the US - can be a great data source for feeding the machine-learning algorithms, thus breeding better AI products.

As seen by many, China is making progress in AI implementations to improve people’s everyday lives.

“From airports to jaywalking, facial recognition is a part of everyday life in China,” wrote Iain Brown, data scientist SAS Software, in a tweet.

Wall after wall

The US has been very active in blocking Chinese tech companies from entering its market recently.

Huawei's Mate 10 smartphone has an AI chip in it that allows it to offer a smarter camera.

But the company's cooperation with AT&T to sell the phone in the US hit a wall.

Huawei's response to this incident was emotional, demonstrated when its mobile device manager made an off-script speech at this year's Consumer Electronic Show (CES) in Las Vegas.

Many believe the US government is behind this move.

As noted by another Bloomberg columnist, Nisha Gopalan, the US Committee on Foreign Investment rejected Broadcom's takeover of Qualcomm because it was worried the deal would benefit Huawei.

And Huawei is not the only target. "The panel also nixed Ant Financial Services Group's bid for MoneyGram International Inc. because the Chinese state had a tiny holding in Jack Ma's company," Gopalan wrote in her article.

Data and chart from Bloomberg

The Americans will have to broaden the definition of "what constitutes national security" to cope with China's rise, she added.

But buying US companies is not the only way China obtains AI technology.

China has a "national team" of companies that are determined to develop their own AI tech.

Baidu is making cars run autonomously; Alibaba is building smart cities in China; Tencent is pouring money into providing an AI boost for hospitals, and iFlyTek's voice translation gadget works well with English.

And, more importantly, they are doing it with or without the US tech - and they don't want to lag behind any country in the world.

(CGTN)