Will China spearhead the charge of Artificial Intelligence?

Alex Woodruff explores the projects and motivations underpinning China’s AI revolution

China is investing in AI on an unmatched scale. Projects include news-reading robots, foreign relations strategizing computers and cutting edge military technology. America is especially concerned about the latter. The acceleration in China’s AI innovation is partly a response to the burgeoning US-China trade war, which has grown increasingly tech-focussed. Trump’s prospective ban on China using American tech, such as microchips, aims to quell China’s AI innovation, much of which has piggybacked off ‘stolen’ western technology. China may be forced to develop their own tech from scratch, but it looks too late for this to slow down the Eastern juggernaut.

China has a profound advantage in AI innovation. This lies in ‘data’, the last of the three requisites in the AI trinity: software, powerful computers, and data, as reported by Economist. Their data-based advantage is courtesy of the country’s lack of security protection on personal information. If the Chinese government decides it wants country-wide medical data records…it gets them. With unbridled access to the public domain, state-influenced enterprises have established immense ‘Data Factories’ that churn data at unprecedented rates, proliferating China’s mammoth digital infrastructure.

Cheap labour, the unsung hero of China’s AI success, underpins the viability of these factories. MBH, one of the country’s largest data factories, pays employees $425 per month on average. Factory founder, Mr. Liu, intends to expand his work force by 50% in 2020. America, and indeed the entire West, simply cannot compete with this level of return on investment. China has eclipsed western innovation and become the spearhead of the AI revolution. This was showcased in December 2019, when Chinese tech giant Baidu overtook Google and Microsoft in the Artificial Intelligence Human Language Comprehension Competition. Baidu’s Ernie (Enhanced Representation through kNowledge IntEgration) topped the global leaderboard when it became the first programme in history to score above 90 in the trials.

As is often the case with China though, this enterprising accomplishment came at the expense of much social upheaval. Some AI implementation has already provoked domestic riots. In 2019, urban protesters took to the streets to target surveillance street cameras that identify citizens with facial recognition software. In the tier-one city Shenzhen (China’s answer to Silicon Valley) this staggeringly accurate, Orwellian type, spy software been used by authorities to convict undocumented migrants, jaywalkers, even to monitor toilet paper usage in public facilities. Rioters uprooted the camera’s posts and then furiously traded blows with armed police, in outcry against the subjugation. Western media sympathised with these dissentients in commemoration to victims of the Tiananmen Square ‘incident’, which the CCP continues to downplay.

In schools, AI projects have also been extensive. Kindergarten goers in China have already become used to interacting with AI robots that use ‘machine learning’ to gauge children’s expressions. A rather disturbing venture is the mind-reading Focus 1 Headband, produced by biotech start-up BrainCo. Focus 1 has been piloted in a few primary schools in 2019. When worn by children in class, these headbands measure brain waves and report back a metric of the child’s concentration and attention levels to the teacher. Focus 1 uses a traffic light system; if the headband’s light shines green that means the child’s mind is focused.

However, this prying contraption has concerned and angered many parents. In spite of their desire for their children to achieve academic excellence, a groundswell of parents say this is a step too far and that schools are treating young children like “lab animals”. In November, a primary school suspended trials of the headbands, which so far have not been used without parent’s consent. It remains to be seen whether the CCP will staunchly rollout this product in more schools. Even though most seem to not approve, there may be a niche market of particularly undaunted parents who embrace this type of AI; they can purchase a headband themselves for a minimum of $450 for home-schooling purposes. Whatever becomes of the Focus 1 Headband, it is a sign that China is serious about AI investment and no section of society is safe from it.

China undoubtedly has both the means of investment and desire to underpin their AI pursuit. These factors may propel China past the United States in the ‘Technology Arms Race’ before America has even established a proper plan of action for AI. Some political retaliation against the Chinese could impede collaborations in innovation processes, although probably in the short term though. Trump’s ban on Huawei set a solid precedent and constricted the market for the Chinese firm, and embargos may be the best response to encroaching Chinese exports.

Amidst the ferocious and provocative trade war though, the President must not overreact to China’s emphasis on AI, unless it threatens the US directly. Crucially, there is a contrast in the motives of China and America’s respective AI endeavours. For the United States, AI falls mostly within the remit of Business as Usual. Of course it is nice to be frontrunner in the global leagues, but AI is ultimately no more economically vital than technology that has come before. For China though, the operation engenders much more than global competition. For the authoritarian CCP, AI is a means of bringing the people under closer control. The very reason that China has an advantage in AI is that its people have a disadvantage in protecting their own privacy and wages. Trump, with his pride and combative nature, runs the risk of getting caught up in a race for a medal which is not as valuable to the US as it is to China. Before rushing to outdo China’s AI progress, US should consider how AI would impact the prosperity and licence of its own society.