<story><title>China’s AI Awakening</title><url>https://www.technologyreview.com/s/609038/chinas-ai-awakening/?set=</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>monkmartinez</author><text>&amp;gt; ...but anyone sitting here scoffing that China can’t make itself a world leader in a field by simply pouring money and support onto the problem needs a serious history lesson.
They have before, and there is every indiction they will again, here with this.&lt;p&gt;What are they currently leading?</text></item><item><author>shadowmint</author><text>Extremely relevant quote from the talented Mr Ng:&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; “When the Chinese government announces a plan like this, it has significant implications for the country and the economy,” says Andrew Ng, a prominent AI expert who previously oversaw AI technology and strategy at China’s biggest online search company, Baidu. “It’s a very strong signal to everyone that things will happen.”&lt;p&gt;ie. There is going to be a tonne of money poured into this.&lt;p&gt;Will it make a difference, tangibly to economic transformation? Who knows...&lt;p&gt;...but anyone sitting here scoffing that China can’t make itself a world leader in a field by simply pouring money and support onto the problem needs a serious history lesson.&lt;p&gt;They have before, and there is every indiction they will again, here with this.&lt;p&gt;More interesting: will it be as transformative as everyone is hoping?</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>eighthnate</author><text>They are leading in solar, renewable, nuclear, patents, electric vehicles, high speed rail, hydropower, # of cities, industrialization, # of new universities, etc.&lt;p&gt;China is leading in pretty much everything right now. They are the top trading partner of pretty much every significant country. And they are planning on building another 100 cities in the next 10 years.&lt;p&gt;It is ridiculous how much change china is going through right now. Historically, urbanization&amp;#x2F;cities correlated with economic&amp;#x2F;military strength. Will that trend hold.&lt;p&gt;China currently has 100 million man cities...&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.theguardian.com&amp;#x2F;cities&amp;#x2F;2017&amp;#x2F;mar&amp;#x2F;20&amp;#x2F;china-100-cities-populations-bigger-liverpool&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.theguardian.com&amp;#x2F;cities&amp;#x2F;2017&amp;#x2F;mar&amp;#x2F;20&amp;#x2F;china-100-cit...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;They are planning to double that in the next 10 years.&lt;p&gt;We have 10 cities that are 1 million+ people. Europe ( including turkey and russia ) has 33 million man cities.&lt;p&gt;Think about that.</text></comment>
<story><title>China’s AI Awakening</title><url>https://www.technologyreview.com/s/609038/chinas-ai-awakening/?set=</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>monkmartinez</author><text>&amp;gt; ...but anyone sitting here scoffing that China can’t make itself a world leader in a field by simply pouring money and support onto the problem needs a serious history lesson.
They have before, and there is every indiction they will again, here with this.&lt;p&gt;What are they currently leading?</text></item><item><author>shadowmint</author><text>Extremely relevant quote from the talented Mr Ng:&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; “When the Chinese government announces a plan like this, it has significant implications for the country and the economy,” says Andrew Ng, a prominent AI expert who previously oversaw AI technology and strategy at China’s biggest online search company, Baidu. “It’s a very strong signal to everyone that things will happen.”&lt;p&gt;ie. There is going to be a tonne of money poured into this.&lt;p&gt;Will it make a difference, tangibly to economic transformation? Who knows...&lt;p&gt;...but anyone sitting here scoffing that China can’t make itself a world leader in a field by simply pouring money and support onto the problem needs a serious history lesson.&lt;p&gt;They have before, and there is every indiction they will again, here with this.&lt;p&gt;More interesting: will it be as transformative as everyone is hoping?</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>rjtobin</author><text>One area is scientific computing:  based on, for example, the Top500 list, or their recent successes with the Gordon Bell prize (basically best paper prize for the biggest supercomputing conference).&lt;p&gt;Of course there are a lot of political factors in both of those achievements.  But money definitely translated into results.&lt;p&gt;(I&amp;#x27;m not arguing that China is the best nation in this area either, but they are clearly a leader.)</text></comment>