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A review by rick2
AI Superpowers: China, Silicon Valley, and the New World Order by Kai-Fu Lee
4.0
Thought this would be a bit fluffy and light on content due to the cover and hyperbolic positioning. Glad to say this is a fantastic book from someone who is deeply immersed in the subject. Kai-Fu Lee worked for Microsoft’s Research Asia division in the 90s, built out much of Google China in the 2000’s and now does investment in the AI space in China.
As a Chinese investor in mostly Chinese companies, it follows that this is a mostly pro-China tech industry book. Basically every early chapter is oriented around “Why China will lead the world in this area.” For example in chapter 5 when talking about business-based intelligence and how US firms rely much more on external consulting which sets them up to have better data available, Lee ends his point by saying “but you never know, with technology anyone can leapfrog the current system” ok dude. I’ll buy a lot of it. But not all of it.
The book also neatly skips over delicate political subjects like the use of AI in northwestern China as a sort of panopticon technological prison. This book mostly focuses on how much potential the Chinese market has to be the global leader in the space, and often points to leading statistics on how much Chinese companies and universities are contributing. And while this book is not necessarily set up to critique the space that way it was a glaring omission.
However that being said, this book does a fantastic job of pointing to the advantages of China in the arms race that is AI research. Government support, national alignment and work ethic, and the growing education capabilities.
The book also takes a hard turn about halfway through into a more speculative area. What do we do about the changes coming due to this technology? The credibility built by the author pays off in a way that I think proved very effective. His personal story lends some credibility to his slightly “namaste” peace-love-and-happiness, take on how we should deal with the changes. I think his criticism of UBI inside is one of the better I’ve read. Positioning it as a sweeping “one-size-fits-all“ solution to a highly varied problem is flawed. And anyone with half a brain cell can agree that we need to compensate emotional labor and care positions in a more sustainable way.
I think many of the points are well-founded. Lee is obviously very enthusiastic at times and can get carried away with the subject he talks about, but that’s a given and easily understandable given his background. There’s some flaws that critical thinking solves easily, but overall this is one of the better books I’ve read about the topic.
I think anyone interested in AI and learning more about the next 5 to 20 years, or looking for insight into the Chinese technology market should read this book.
As a Chinese investor in mostly Chinese companies, it follows that this is a mostly pro-China tech industry book. Basically every early chapter is oriented around “Why China will lead the world in this area.” For example in chapter 5 when talking about business-based intelligence and how US firms rely much more on external consulting which sets them up to have better data available, Lee ends his point by saying “but you never know, with technology anyone can leapfrog the current system” ok dude. I’ll buy a lot of it. But not all of it.
The book also neatly skips over delicate political subjects like the use of AI in northwestern China as a sort of panopticon technological prison. This book mostly focuses on how much potential the Chinese market has to be the global leader in the space, and often points to leading statistics on how much Chinese companies and universities are contributing. And while this book is not necessarily set up to critique the space that way it was a glaring omission.
However that being said, this book does a fantastic job of pointing to the advantages of China in the arms race that is AI research. Government support, national alignment and work ethic, and the growing education capabilities.
The book also takes a hard turn about halfway through into a more speculative area. What do we do about the changes coming due to this technology? The credibility built by the author pays off in a way that I think proved very effective. His personal story lends some credibility to his slightly “namaste” peace-love-and-happiness, take on how we should deal with the changes. I think his criticism of UBI inside is one of the better I’ve read. Positioning it as a sweeping “one-size-fits-all“ solution to a highly varied problem is flawed. And anyone with half a brain cell can agree that we need to compensate emotional labor and care positions in a more sustainable way.
I think many of the points are well-founded. Lee is obviously very enthusiastic at times and can get carried away with the subject he talks about, but that’s a given and easily understandable given his background. There’s some flaws that critical thinking solves easily, but overall this is one of the better books I’ve read about the topic.
I think anyone interested in AI and learning more about the next 5 to 20 years, or looking for insight into the Chinese technology market should read this book.