AI Superpowers: China, Silicon Valley, and the New World Order

by Kai-Fu Lee

THE STUFF OF AN AI SUPERPOWER As I laid out earlier, creating an AI superpower for the twenty-first century requires four main building blocks: abundant data, tenacious entrepreneurs, well-trained AI scientists, and a supportive policy environment. We’ve already seen how China’s gladiatorial startup ecosystem trained a generation of the world’s most street-smart entrepreneurs, and how China’s alternate internet universe created the world’s richest data ecosystem. This chapter assesses the balance of power in the two remaining ingredients—AI expertise and government support. I believe that in the age of AI implementation, Silicon Valley’s edge in elite expertise isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. And in the crucial realm of government support, China’s techno-utilitarian political culture will pave the way for faster deployment of game-changing technologies. As artificial intelligence filters into the broader economy, this era will reward the quantity of solid AI engineers over the quality of elite researchers. Real economic strength in the age of AI implementation won’t come just from a handful of elite scientists who push the boundaries of research. It will come from an army of well-trained engineers who team up with entrepreneurs to turn those discoveries into game-changing companies.