AI Superpowers

China, Silicon Valley, and the New World Order

By: Kai-Fu Lee

Narrated by: Mikael Naramore

Length: 9 hrs and 28 mins

Publisher's summary

THE NEW YORK TIMES, USA TODAY, AND WALL STREET JOURNAL BESTSELLER

Dr. Kai-Fu Lee - one of the world’s most respected experts on AI and China - reveals that China has suddenly caught up to the US at an astonishingly rapid and unexpected pace.

In AI Superpowers, Kai-fu Lee argues powerfully that because of these unprecedented developments in AI, dramatic changes will be happening much sooner than many of us expected. Indeed, as the US-Sino AI competition begins to heat up, Lee urges the US and China to both accept and to embrace the great responsibilities that come with significant technological power. Most experts already say that AI will have a devastating impact on blue-collar jobs. But Lee predicts that Chinese and American AI will have a strong impact on white-collar jobs as well. Is universal basic income the solution? In Lee’s opinion, probably not. But he provides a clear description of which jobs will be affected and how soon, which jobs can be enhanced with AI, and most importantly, how we can provide solutions to some of the most profound changes in human history that are coming soon.

©2018 Kai-Fu Lee. (P)2018 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

Questionable if the book stayed objective

The book started out analytically enough, and focused on the things relevant to the title. Towards the end, it was more of a personal narrative, and whole that's not necessarily a bad thing, it does raise the question if the conclusions drawn at the end are objective and analytically correct, or more of a emotionally motivated idealism. Love is a powerful thing after all, but not a great thing for analyzing trends rationally.

Enthralling!

Throughout this book Lee goes from describing the history, technology, theories, development and eventual implementation of artificial intelligence as he himself grapples with his own definition of humanity. On one hand, he points to the dangers of exacerbated inequality that this new technology presents for millions while on the other he draws from personal life experiences to paint a picture where society coexists and benefits from this emerging revolution.

A Must Read!

Kai-Fu Lee, gives us a great view of what is happening now and what is to come in AI and how we are all interconnected today and in even more in the near future with AI. One of the key components of this book is that Mr. Lee does educate westerners on Chinas business practices today and past history. This ever engaging and educational book is a must-read for anyone wanting to intercept the moment of truth "the human AI" convergence. I enjoyed the history lesson and the humor. This book and Mr. Lee are "Brilliant"

Heavy on sentiment, light on technical details

Disappointing book overall. Some of the sections felt out of place. Sounded like a propaganda book text in some places.

It’s still wrong though

Fascinating and informed. The author provides perspective to the various driving forces behind AI and it’s future consequences. The author also emphasizes the merits of the entrepreneurial dynamics behind China’s rapid progress in this field. describing the tenacity and “gladiator’ like qualities they demonstrated to adapt, modify and improve on ideas and concepts they had copied, mainly from Silicon Valley. While all this may indeed be a correct analysis, I personally found it a little too complimentary, and seemed to being glossing over the reality that the “copying” was so precise, so comprehensive, that the term “stolen” would have been a more accurate description...... just sayin.

It's Ok

Sort of an infomercial for investing in China, and definitely not familiar with the size and scope of American defense-related research and investment. Lacks accuracy and knowledge of the government procurement market. "US government research funding for artificial intelligence plummeted"... Umm.. yeah, sure, for free money handed out to non-classified / non-cleared people in public universities or whatever... but DARPA hasn't slowed down at all, rather, the foot has been on the accelerator... but would not be available to Chinese nationals living in the US, or Chinese-controlled development companies, obviously.

If China was so far ahead, they wouldn't be sending all of their best and brightest to US universities... Let's be practical, China really hasn't figured out how to create a supply chain to support a worldwide nuclear submarine fleet deployment.. their aircraft carriers have weird-looking "ski jumps" on the end of them to toss the slow-moving planes into the air because they haven't figured out how a steam-driven catapult works yet.. and every piece of military tech they have is a rather cheap-looking knock off of some product of the American military-industrial complex. If they can inch ahead in low-margin telecom tech, or some incremental jumps in artificial intelligence here & there, who cares? We still have a larger economy with 1/5 of the population. We love our country and our leaders.. and we are free to choose them.. which is a stark contrast to the Chinese Communists. They can slap some lipstick on a pig like this piece of propaganda, but they are still the single largest driver of pollution and global warming in the world, they have murdered and imprisoned millions for political reasons, and given the chance - almost any of them would move here. Ask the Hong Kong protestors... The fact that the US isn't really rushing headlong into displacing our workforce is sort of a good thing, not a bad thing.

Extremely good and worthwhile insight into China's

Extremely good and worthwhile insight into China's startup culture. Explains the foundations that may cultivate an incredibly strong AI powerhouse out of China. Also shares ideas on pro-social activities to complement the disruptions of AI

A great book, but solutions not fully thought out.

The first part (first 90%) of the book is priceless in its examination of AI and the rise of tech and AI entrepreneurship in China, this alone makes the book well worth reading.

Kai Fu is an extremely talented person who has the arrogance to match, though he has mostly recognized this character flaw (though it taints his solutions somewhat in the suggestions at the end).

The book is a disorganised at the end, the near term solutions for job losses are weak sauce, though his heart is clearly in the right place and later addressing long term solutions he ends up both rejecting Universal Basic income for being not enough of a solution (fair point) and for leaving too much up to the recipients (though he later appears to backtrack in this pointing out that diversity of human activity is a vital strength), he wants stipends only for those doing tasks that are considered to be doing worthy tasks by the government. It seems like he didn't research the UBI movement enough as in the end he essentially makes the case for UBI while renaming it, he wants a stipend that depends on people doing something socially productive, then he points out how people with unconditional income (pensions etc) tend to do socially productive things anyway and points out the difficulty of policing his conditional payment (I bet he's never had to go through the misery of applying for and maintaining right to unemployment benefit in his life). Finally he forgets he's living well within the bubble if the top 0.001% and that most families in the world could never afford his compassionate jobs etc... Not without a very hefty basic income which he rejects. It would be a nice idea if it could be made to work, but a very risky solution to rely on, no VC would back it that's for sure.

Still the whole book is well worth reading, even if the solutions are low on detail and a bit confused.

Interesting

It’s a worthwhile read in that it compares China and the US’s efforts and ability in AI and discusses one of the future adverse effects of the technology. However it’s primary thrust is the story of an ambitious engineer who didn’t understand the important aspects of life until he had a bout with cancer. Then he suddenly understood the shallowness of both the money rat race as well as the coldness of an engineer’s World. Much of what he learned is already well known among older people and those who live outside the rat race, namely the overwhelming importance of human relationships. But he still has more to learn. He doesn’t seem to realize that the human character is made up of many, many different parts - some, it is true relates to love but much relates to greed, ego, power and evil. Nevertheless, it is a good read and I would especially recommend it for younger people.

Must read/listen

This is must listen to anyone interested in the future of technology; just hope US Policy Makers would listen to this masterful work by an AI pioneer and visionary.