Is China Outsmarting America in AI? (nytimes.com)

An anonymous reader shares an NYTimes article: Beijing is backing its artificial intelligence push with vast sums of money. Having already spent billions on research programs, China is readying a new multibillion-dollar initiative to fund moonshot projects, start-ups and academic research (Editor's note: the link could be paywalled; alternative source), all with the aim of growing China's A.I. capabilities, according to two professors who consulted with the government on the plan. China's private companies are pushing deeply into the field as well, though the line between government and private in China sometimes blurs. Baidu -- often called the Google of China and a pioneer in artificial-intelligence-related fields, like speech recognition -- this year opened a joint company-government laboratory partly run by academics who once worked on research into Chinese military robots. China is spending more just as the United States cuts back. This past week, the Trump administration released a proposed budget that would slash funding for a variety of government agencies that have traditionally backed artificial intelligence research.

Comments

Re:AI is not a wise thing to spend money on

[gweihir]

Every year we keep stupidly claiming that AI is just around the corner. Every year we are disappointed.

The truth is we have tricked ourselves. The rapid pace of Moore's law (computing power keeps doubling) has created incredible simulations. But paintings and statues do NOT spontaneously come alive, no matter how accurately they simulate a person. Neither do computer chips.

Indeed. But most people fall for cargo-cult, i.e. they cannot distinguish things that look similar on the outside. Apparently, actually understanding how something works requires advanced human intelligence, and it seems only something like 10% of the population has that. Hence the stupid claims.

There is a fundamental difference between real AI and what computer chips can do. The ability of computer chips to parse written, audio, and visual information is amazing, and keeps growing but it is NOT real AI and will never be.

While I sort-of agree at this time, there is a small, residual change that the physicalists are right and that humans are only advanced automatons. But it does indeed not look like it at all. A lot of research has not produced any credible theory how general intelligence (true/strong AI) could be created and it clearly is not a question of computing power. For example, the only thing we have that approaches strong AI in still a very limited field is automated theorem proving. But this one gets bogged down in complexity so early, that a smart human being can do things that a computer the size of the whole universe cannot do.

And there is the elephant in the room, constantly ignored by Neuro-"science": Consciousness. Observable only together with intelligence, and nobody has any idea what it is or how it works. In fact, current Physics does not allow it, as there is no mechanism for it. Saying it is an "emergent property of complexity" is just bullshit and akin to claiming it is "magic". Now, is two things are getting observed only together, a sound assumption is that they are facet of the same thing. Yet that also gets ignored by those that predict strong AI "anytime soon".

Computers will shortly be able to accept input via camera and microphone as accurately as they get it from a keyboard or mouse. That is not real AI. Nor is the amazingly complex search functions and databases we have created.

They are useful, and worth investing in, but more money has been wasted on them than is appropriate.

The term usually used these days is "weak AI". Weak AI was historically called "automation" and it is the "AI" without intelligence.

Re:No

[sit1963nz]

Much of the current problem started with WWII.

The USA was lucky, not great.

Name any other large, well populated, educated, industrialised nation with large amounts of natural resources that was not bombed during WWII. During the 1940-1970s the USA was able to build on what they already had, the rest of the world was effectively rebuilding roads, rail. schools, hospitals, and all the other infrastructure required. More to the point, they were able to build and sell the things the rest of the world needed.

During the 1950s the USA account for over 50% of the entire worlds GDP, today its about 20%.
The world is no longer reliant on the US, sure it impacts all the world, but so does China and the EU.

The US is 4% of the worlds population, so 96% of the worlds population and 80% of world trade are not US based.

China can (and will) surpass the USA, so will India and Brazil, may not happen in my life time, but it will happen, and I am not so sure the US is capable to accepting that cultural shock. I think high up in some sectors of the US government they understand this which is why they are meddling in the politics of Asian countries, they don't want as Asian Trading Bloc because that is 60% of the worlds population, and the area of greatest economic growth potential. Growth potential in the USA is almost nil, its a saturated market.

And while Trump et al keeps shouting USA USA USA and USA first, the rest of the world keeps on improving, and putting the USA further and further down the ladder. For example, the world is not longer reliant on Boeing, there is Airbus, and China is getting into the act too. ARM is doing well, Its British not US. Samsung is doing well, again not US. And there are thousands of examples where non-US products are better than US ones.

Its not like the US has failed, it more like the rest of the world has grown up and is no longer dependant. And because of that, the natural progression is that the US will fall behind in many fields .