AI Superpowers by Kai-Fu Lee: China, Silicon Valley and the New World Order
An inspiring book about the growth of China and the development of artificial intelligence, written by one of the best-known voices on AI in the country. Kai-Fu Lee draws on decades in engineering and technology to describe what might happen next.
Author: Kai-Fu Lee
Title: AI Superpowers: China, Silicon Valley, and the New World Order (2018)
Format: English paperback (Harper Business), 288 pages
Scope: Technology, economics and geopolitics
Amazon: www.amazon.es/dp/0358105587 (ASIN 0358105587)
An Oracle of Chinese AI
Over his career Kai-Fu Lee has become an oracle of AI-related technology in China. His wide experience in engineering and technical roles, and his public talks on AI over many years, have made his name there. In the book he recalls his life story and gives his views on where the AI revolution might lead, and he tries, as a teacher, to inspire the young to advance in the field.
Dystopias and Utopias
He sketches possible dystopian scenarios that could transform the world we know, and utopias that could become reality. Where one model sees AI as a system for managing health care and education, he argues that Silicon Valley’s tendency to dream big, experiment and iterate will help as we navigate uncharted waters. Many other countries will follow this exponential growth, and new ways of investing will emerge.
Self-Driving Cars
Cars with sensors and screens will help drivers park in the right place and keep to the speed limit. According to the reviewer’s reading, in China there are already officials in charge of adapting roads to this new wave of AI, while in the United States Tesla is among the companies investing in and researching self-driving cars.
A Career Across Two Worlds
Kai-Fu Lee was born in Taiwan and studied in the United States, where his doctoral work at Carnegie Mellon University produced a pioneering speech-recognition system. He went on to work at Apple, to found Microsoft’s research laboratory in Beijing in 1998, and to serve as president of Google China. In 2009 he founded Sinovation Ventures, a venture-capital firm investing in Chinese technology start-ups, which gave him an insider’s view of the country’s tech boom.
Four Waves of AI
The book describes four waves of artificial intelligence: internet AI, which powers recommendations and advertising; business AI, which analyses data in sectors such as banking and insurance; perception AI, which uses sensors and cameras to understand the physical world; and autonomous AI, such as self-driving vehicles and robots. Lee argues that China’s huge population, abundant data, entrepreneurial culture and government support give it real advantages in the age of implementation, when the key is not inventing new algorithms but applying them.
A Personal Turn
The most surprising chapters are personal. In 2013 Lee was diagnosed with lymphoma, and facing serious illness led him to question a life devoted almost entirely to work. That experience shapes the book’s final argument: as AI takes over many routine jobs, societies should value what machines cannot do, especially compassion, care and human connection, and find new ways to reward such work.
What Came Next
Lee later explored possible futures in fiction with AI 2041 (2021), written with the science-fiction author Chen Qiufan, and he went on to found an AI company of his own.
Reading It Today
Some predictions have aged better than others, but the book remains a valuable insider’s account of how China’s tech industry thinks and competes.
Its closing reflections on work and human dignity are as relevant as ever.
Why Read It
For readers who want to understand the AI race between China and the United States from someone who has worked on both sides of it.
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