INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
America may have created AI, but China is taking the ball and running when it comes to one of the world most pivotal technology
innovations.
That according to Kai-Fu Lee, a world-renowned AI expert who founded Sinovation, a China-United States fund that raised its
fourth fund worth $1 billion earlier this year.
Speaking at TechCrunch Disrupt San Francisco, Lee — who led Google in China before it left
the country — said any lead America tech industry may have enjoyed is rapidly being eroded by hungry Chinese entrepreneurs who have oodles
more data at their disposal to build, train and deploy AI systems.
People assume that because the United States is so strong in AI
research, that theUnited States should dominate,& Lee said
&But actually, China is catching up really fast.
Sinovation already has five AI companies in its portfolio that are valued at over $1
billion — that might be a record for any VC firm worldwide — and he explained China &magical ascent& in AI has taken just two
years.
Coming from way behind, now [China] is actually ahead of the United States in AI implementation,& Lee said
&AI we should think of it as electricity
Thomas Edison [the inventor of electricity] — and also the AI deep learning inventors who were American — they invented this stuff and
then they generously shared it.
Now, China, as the largestmarketplace with the largest amount of data, is really using AI to find every way
to add value to traditional businesses, to internet, to all kinds of spaces
The Chinese entrepreneurial ecosystem is huge so today the most valuable AI companies in computer vision, speech recognition, drones are all
Chinese companies,& Lee added.
Sinovation Chairman CEO Kai-FU Lee says China has surpassed the United States in terms of AI capabilities
#TCDisrupt pic.twitter.com/r71HlXgDDd
mdash; TechCrunch (@TechCrunch) September 5, 2018
But it isn''t just progress in the eyes of
investors — who create valuations through their investment — Lee said thatChinese AI firms generate more sales, too, while Chinaaccounts
fornearly halfof all VC investments and43 percent of allAI startups.
These are companies that were founded between two and four years ago,&
Lee explained.&This is really how fast it been, you have to be there to see the excitement and the pace.
In the case of Sinovation, their
billion-dollar AI companies include crypto firm Bitmain, image recognition company Megvii (known as Face++), fintech-focused4th Paradigm,
autonomous driving AI company Momenta and chip outfitHorizon Robotics.
Much of the reporting around how China is using artificial
intelligence centers around ways that the government is using facial recognition for surveillancepurposes
While that has included crime fighting, with facial recognition successfully used to identify and capture suspects, there are also concerns
around more sinister applications, such as the surveillance of Chinese minorityUighur Muslims
China is reported to have detained as many as one millionUighurin camps, and facial recognition technology is believed to be one key part of
surveillance strategy.
Lee, however, brushed off concern around the darker applications of AI in China, pointing out that the technology has
the capacity to be abused anywhere in the world
He said China is also using the technology to develop new kinds of retail, manage busy urban traffic, build new kinds of educational
services and more.
Indeed, Sinovation takes an unusual route to develop technologies and startups
As well as investing, it also develops technology in-house using a team of 200 people in its &institute.& Not only does that team work with
portfolio companies and on a consultancy basis, but it develops its own services where it sees gaps in the market.
Indeed, the firm recently
spun out its first venture from that tech team, which helps traditional retailers develop online-to-offline capabilities, which essentially
marry the benefits of online commerce with more traditional brick and mortar retail
That a strategy in which Chinese e-commerce giants Alibaba and JD.com have invested heavily.
