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Artificial intelligence
Opinion
Robert Delaney

Opinion | Can China really lead the world in artificial intelligence when it seeks to control thought?

Robert Delaney says China’s State Council has proven it can accomplish great things, but the nation’s ambitions for hi-tech innovation may be undermined by the pursuit of ideological conformity

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A robot called “Teotronico” that can play the piano and sing is exhibited at the 2017 World Robot Conference in Beijing in August. Photo: AFP
The process by which the Communist Party of China reanoints President Xi Jinping this week might be traditional, but one of his government’s recent initiatives may determine China’s global position in the most cutting edge area of tech innovation.
This year, the State Council announced that China aims to become a global leader in artificial intelligence by 2030, when the total output value of AI industries in the country is targeted to surpass 1 trillion yuan (HK$1.19 trillion).

China’s Communist Party Congress Explained

No one disputes the potential disruption AI-leveraged applications represent for industries – finance, transport, manufacturing, health care, and the like – generating large amounts of data.

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“Tech giants and digital native companies such as Amazon, Apple, Baidu and Google are investing billions of dollars in the various technologies known collectively as artificial intelligence,” a McKinsey Global Institute report said.

IBM to invest US$240m to create an artificial intelligence lab with MIT

These companies, McKinsey said, “see that the inputs needed to enable AI to finally live up to expectations – powerful computer hardware, increasingly sophisticated algorithmic models, and a vast and fast-growing inventory of data – are in place. Indeed, internal investment by large corporations dominates: we estimate that this amounted to [US]$18 billion to $27 billion in 2016.”

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China is aiming to be a global leader in artificial intelligence by 2030. SCMP Graphics
China is aiming to be a global leader in artificial intelligence by 2030. SCMP Graphics
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