Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post website published an article by Li Kaifu, Chairman and CEO of Innovation Works, on September 18th. The most serious threat to artificial intelligence is emerging economies. The main contents of the article are as follows:
Most of the research on the impact of artificial intelligence on employment and the economy is concentrated in developed countries such as the United States and the United Kingdom. However, through my experience as a scientist, technology company executive and venture capitalist in the United States and China, I began to believe that facing artificial intelligence The most serious threat is emerging economies.
Artificial intelligence is significantly accelerating the pace of factory automation, taking over daily work such as customer service or telemarketing. Compared to low-wage workers in developing countries, artificial intelligence does less of the cost of doing these jobs and will do it over time. Better. Check the Apple phone scratches the robot without the Spring Festival; artificial intelligence customer service will not ask for a raise.
If there are no cost factors that cause them to set up factories in developing countries, companies will put many of these functions back to their headquarters. As a result, emerging economies that cannot grasp the bottom-level development ladder will be in a dangerous situation: A large number of low-skilled young people with the greatest comparative advantage will become a burden.
Artificial intelligence relies on data to run, and this dependency is continually consolidated in all walks of life: the more data you have, the better the product; the better the product, the more users you get; the more users you get, The more data you have.
We have seen that this phenomenon has already appeared in pure online products such as Google search, and will soon be copied to other artificial intelligence-intensive industries such as autonomous vehicles. The result will be: Production capacity and wealth are unprecedentedly concentrated in elite labor In the hands of smart companies, almost all of them are located in the United States and China.
According to a study by consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers, by 2030, artificial intelligence will generate $15.7 trillion in global wealth, but only two countries will account for a full 70%.
So, what should the emerging economies do? The first step is to recognize that the traditional economic development path is no longer viable, and the next wave of emerging economies must formulate new guidelines.
This requires a two-pronged approach to solving educational problems. For a large number of less educated workers, countries must seek to establish a unique people-oriented service industry. Even the best robots cannot make visitors feel at home in the homestay. Feeling. Poor countries can form complementary relationships with artificial intelligence superpowers in industries such as tourism, culture, hotline centers and aged care.
At the same time, developing countries need to develop their own niche markets in the field of artificial intelligence. Factory robots can work anywhere in the world. However, the microfinance algorithm developed by the US consumer credit report is in Ethiopia. The agricultural country is useless, where the borrower has neither a credit card nor a traditional mortgage.
To fill the gap, the government needs to fund its best and most outstanding students to receive artificial intelligence education and establish local enterprises that use artificial intelligence. It is necessary to discover mathematics and engineering prodigies as early as possible, and train and send them to the world's top artificial intelligence colleges.
These are not easy tasks. It is much more difficult to train 1 million small businesses than to build 100 large factories. For countries that still need to solve malnutrition problems, it is a difficult task to let top students go abroad to study abroad. However, if developing countries can achieve this balance, artificial intelligence may also provide them with valuable new opportunities: improving livelihoods and developing the economy without suffering from the predicament of sweatshops or environmental degradation.
Larger countries with more resources, such as the United States and China, can help. Education and training opportunities may be more valuable than financial support. To make artificial intelligence a gospel rather than a global burden, then you need to share its benefits.