Artificial Intelligence: AI competition between US, China underway

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Both China and the U.S. consider artificial intelligence to be critical to their development. Some people even call the two countries' AI development a new kind of arms race. But is it really? Reporter Ge Yunfei talked to some of the most senior industry insiders in China and the U.S. to find out.

On June 5th, one of the most important events in the world's tech industry was held here.

GE YUNFEI, SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA "Right behind me is the San Jose Convention Center in which this year's Apple developer conference WWDC is underway. China is Apple's 2nd largest market after the U.S. - and the company is facing major challenges from local Chinese competitors like Huawei and Xiaomi."

So far, Chinese consumers appear unimpressed with Apple's new function called Memoji. It's an update on iPhone with tongue detection, new characters, and the ability to create a custom Animoji. The technology behind Memoji is based on artificial intelligence. In fact, from smartphones, healthcare, transportation to gaming, AI has already infiltrated every aspect of our lives.

Talking about the importance of AI, Russian President Vladimir Putin said this last year-"Whoever becomes the leader in this sphere will become the ruler of the world."

Tim Bajarin is a Silicon Valley analyst, who has been following the tech industry over the past 37 years. Witnessing AI development here, Tim said the future of AI is in the U.S. and in China.

TIM BAJARIN, PRESIDENT, CREATIVE STRATEGIES "I actually think it'll be a two-horse-race. I don't think it'll be a one-win or another. I think both of them, both of the countries will play leadership roles."

Tencent's "WANG ZHE RONG YAO" or King of Glory is China's most popular mobile game. Tencent says 70 million people play it every day, and that gives the company a big advantage in AI development. Its AI department is training artificial intelligence programs to play King of Glory.

FORREST YAO, VICE PRESIDENT, TENCENT "We have a bigger population than the U.S., which means we can generate more data. And, in fact, in AI applications, I think China is not weaker than the U.S., and maybe even better."

China has the world's largest population of 1.4 billion people. Another advantage-Alibaba says China may also have the world's most open-minded attitude toward AI.

HUA XIANSHENG, SENIOR DIRECTOR, ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE, ALIBABA "Network, like cameras, like data centers and storage, those kind of things are already there. People are more open and more willing to use the technology to solve their problems. I think these are the primary two reasons."

But in fact, there is a growing concern in the U.S. that Chinese advances in AI could erase America's decades-long supremacy in technology. A fear expressed in Trump administration trade conflicts with China over intellectual property and in visa restrictions against Chinese students studying cutting-edge technologies in the U.S.

TIM BAJARIN, PRESIDENT, CREATIVE STRATEGIES "I agree that data is important, but the power to manage and create the data is equally important. So, for example, the most powerful semiconductors that are designed for AI are still basically produced here. They're being done by Nvidia. They're being done by IBM and they're being done by Intel."

FORREST YAO, VICE PRESIDENT, TENCENT "I think the U.S. is still leading China in terms of talent for fundamental research. They have a long history in AI training and lots of subcategories like mathematics, statistics, machine learning, data mining and robotics. But in China, we only started training several years ago."

Experts say the AI competition between U.S. and China is still driven by companies and universities rather than by governments. So, the alleged Cold War in AI may be exaggerated. Ge Yunfei, CGTN, from the Silicon Valley in California.