US, China need each other for future development of AI, Hong Kong professor says
- Despite trade war, AI researchers in the US, China are working together to develop the technology
- Hong Kong could become a hub for ‘cross-continental’ development of AI
Despite an ongoing squabble between the US and China over the intersection of technology and national security, the world’s two largest economies will need each other to develop artificial intelligence and other advanced technologies in the future, according to an AI expert.
Speaking at the Asia-Pacific Council of American Chambers of Commerce’s business summit in Hong Kong on Monday, Pascale Fung, director of the Centre for Artificial Intelligence Research at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, said that academics and the private sector will continue to work together, even if their governments do not see eye to eye.
The US and China are expected to dominate the development of AI in the future because the two countries spend the most in terms of percentage of gross domestic product on research and development and they are the two largest markets in the world, giving the countries a vast amount of potential data to mine.
“AI is going to change the world. It affects all of our lives. It needs to be a joint effort between different industries and different countries,” Fung said. “To prevent an AI dystopia and to maximise the benefit of AI, China and the US need to continue working together, even if not at the government level, at the academic level, at the company level in the private sector.”
The US and China have been engaged in a trade war for much of the past 12 months, with Washington claiming that Beijing engages in unfair trade practices, such as the forced sharing of technology.
American politicians also have raised concerns about the Made in China 2025 programme, which is designed to increase domestic production of technology and modernise China’s manufacturing.
The US has dominated the development of AI for years, but China has aspirations to become the world leader in AI by 2030, she said.
Researchers in both China and the US are already using code for AI that has been developed in each others’ countries and shared on public forums, which has lowered the barrier to entry in developing the technology, Fung said.
“The R&D of AI in the US and China share a very common DNA,” Fung said. “There has always been close collaboration between American and Chinese researchers in AI.”
Fung said that the Hong Kong government is helping fund joint labs between Chinese and US academic institutions to create new AI technology.
“You will see a lot more formal and open collaboration between Chinese and American AI researchers,” she said. “Hong Kong will become a hub for such cross-continental and cross-cultural collaboration.”
