Think China’s data is an unbeatable AI advantage? A new report says otherwise
- A research group report cites five elements that make data valuable for artificial intelligence technologies
- While China enjoys some advantages, it trails the US in others
In this dawning age of artificial intelligence (AI), data is the new oil and China is the new Opec.
But a new report released on Tuesday suggests that the staggering amount of data generated by China’s 1.4 billion population may not be as big an advantage in the global AI competition as it was thought to be.
The report by MacroPolo, the in-house think tank at the Paulson Institute in Chicago, argues that data is not a single-dimensional resource for AI and despite China’s formidable data reserves, the United States still holds advantages in data quality and data diversity.
“Many assume the size of China’s population gives it an advantage in the volume of data, but this is actually misleading,” said Matt Sheehan, a San Francisco-based fellow at MacroPolo who wrote the paper.
“The relationship between data and AI prowess is analogous to the relationship between labour and the economy. China may have an abundance of workers, but the quality, structure, and mobility of that labour force is just as important to economic development,” he said.
The research comes as the US and China, competing on so many economic and cultural fronts, are locked in a rivalry over AI technologies.