China is only one to two years behind the U.S. in developing AI technologies, according to former Google chairman Eric Schmidt, who chairs the U.S. government's National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence. Speaking before the Senate Armed Services Committee yesterday, Schmidt said the U.S. should ideally keep a five to 10-year lead over China in AI and other emerging tech.
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- Schmidt said China is “relentlessly focused” on becoming the world leader in so-called "high" technologies, such as quantum computing. In fact, it's already "well ahead" in areas such as facial recognition, he noted.
- Due to the diffusion of AI technologies, "anything that’s invented in the open source AI world will immediately be adopted by China,” he said, adding: “The threat is very, very real.”
- The National Security Commission on AI plans to release a report on March 1, which will call on the U.S. and its close allies to invest in 10 high-tech priorities.
- When discussing the report, Schmidt said he was worried the U.S. fails to understand the true threat from China in areas such as AI, machine-learning, hypersonics, semiconductor manufacturing, and 5G technologies. The U.S. should focus on AI and high tech as a matter of national security, not just commercially, he added.
Related:
- The U.S. maintains a "substantial lead" in artificial intelligence worldwide, though China is closing the gap in some areas, according to a January report by the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation.
- The U.S. leads in startup investment and R&D, they found. However, China had the highest number of supercomputers at 214, compared to 113 in the U.S. and 91 in the EU. China also published the most AI research papers in 2018, the last year data was available.
- The researchers predicted that China will eventually catch up to the U.S. in its development and use of AI technologies. Lead author Daniel Castro concluded that the U.S. and EU should pay attention to China, as countries that lead "will shape its future and significantly improve their economic competitiveness, while those that fall behind risk losing competitiveness in key industries."
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