MIT Sloan Management Review Article on Is China Taking the Lead in AI?

China is investing heavily in AI, but assessments that it has developed a technological edge over the United States are an oversimplification.

In 2017, the Chinese government announced plans to “lead the world” in artificial intelligence by 2030. The announcement has fed considerable uneasiness in the United States and elsewhere about the scope of China’s aspirations and the extent to which the country might use AI to tighten control over its citizens and develop more sophisticated military capabilities. However, the anxiety over China’s plans for AI may be overblown, says Jeffrey Ding, an economics and technology researcher at the University of Oxford’s Future of Humanity Institute. Yes, there are many signs that China is making huge investments in AI, and it leads the world in AI-related patent filings and publications — in 2017 alone, it won some 900 patents related to facial recognition, compared with fewer than 150 in the United States. However, Ding says, China’s overall position is more complicated and requires a nuanced view.