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

by Kai-Fu Lee

As a result, society will be able to cost-effectively support far more compassionate caregivers than there are doctors, and we would receive far more and better care.

Paralegals at law firms could hand their routine research tasks off to algorithms and instead focus on communicating more with clients and making them feel cared for. AI-powered supermarkets like the Amazon Go store may not need cashiers anymore, so they could greatly upgrade the customer experience by hiring friendly concierges

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics has found that home health aides and personal care aides are the two fastest growing professions in the country, with an expected growth of 1.2 million jobs by 2026. But annual income in these professions averages just over $20,000.

Other humanistic labors of love—stay-at-home parenting, caring for aging or disabled relatives—aren’t even considered a “job” and receive no formal compensation.

Whereas these have previously focused on feel-good philanthropic issues like environmental protection and poverty alleviation, social impact in the age of AI must also take on a new dimension: the creation of large numbers of service jobs for displaced workers.

Service-focused impact investing, however, will need to be different. It will need to accept linear returns when coupled with meaningful job creation. That’s because human-driven service jobs simply cannot achieve these exponential returns on investment. When someone builds a great company around human care work, they cannot digitally replicate these services and blast them out across the globe. Instead, the business must be built piece by piece, worker by worker.

I don’t want to live in a society divided into technological castes, where the AI elite live in a cloistered world of almost unimaginable wealth, relying on minimal handouts to keep the unemployed masses sedate in their place. I want to create a system that provides for all members of society, but one that also uses the wealth generated by AI to build a society that is more compassionate, loving, and ultimately human.

I propose we explore the creation not of a UBI but of what I call a social investment stipend. The stipend would be a decent government salary given to those who invest their time and energy in those activities that promote a kind, compassionate, and creative society. These would include three broad categories: care work, community service, and education.

These would form the pillars of a new social contract, one that valued and rewarded socially beneficial activities in the same way we currently reward economically productive activities. The stipend would not substitute for a social safety net—the traditional welfare, healthcare, or unemployment benefits to meet basic needs—but

Endowing these professions with respect will require paying them a respectable salary and offering the opportunity for advancement like a normal career.

I envision the private sector creatively fostering human-machine symbiosis, a new wave of impact investing funding human-centric service jobs, and the government filling the gaps with a social investment stipend that rewards care, service, and education. Taken together, these would constitute a realignment of our economy and a rewriting of our social contract to reward socially productive activities.

After so many years as an “Ironman” of professional achievement, I needed to be knocked off my pedestal and face my own mortality before I appreciated what many so-called less successful people brought to the table.

But this is not a new Cold War. AI today has numerous potential military applications, but its true value lies not in destruction but in creation. If understood and harnessed properly, it can truly help all of us generate economic value and prosperity on a scale never before seen in human history.

When Google promotes its TensorFlow technology abroad, or Alibaba implements its City Brain in Kuala Lumpur, these actions are more akin to the early export of steam engines and lightbulbs than as an opening volley in a new global arms race.

For adaptations in how we approach work, we would be wise to look to the culture of craftsmanship in Switzerland and Japan, places where the pursuit of perfection has elevated routine work activities into the realm of human expression and artistry. Meanwhile, vibrant and meaningful cultures of volunteering in countries like Canada and the Netherlands should inspire us to diversify our traditional notions of “work.” Chinese culture can also be a source of wisdom when it comes to caring for elders and in fostering intergenerational households. As public policy and personal values blend, we should really take the time to study new experiments in defining and measuring progress, such as Bhutan’s decision to pursue “Gross National Happiness” as a key development indicator.