China is Becoming an AI-State

China will likely lead the future of surveillance capitalism and artificial intelligence by 2030.

This article was first published on the Last Futurist on November 18th, 2019.

As we dawn on the close of 2019, the tensions in the strategic rivalry and trade war between the United States and China heralds a new wage of data-harvesting, surveillance capitalism, and artificial intelligence competition.

China stands poised to invest its Venture Capital and state-packed paradigm to out-perform American capitalism’s rather lackluster efforts in AI innovation. President Xi Jinping’s emphasis on even blockchain as part of its AI-push are notable, where in the West of the Earth the FTC, regulators and Congress have gone after cryptocurrency ICO projects and Facebook’s Libra (Calibra) product.

It’s foreseeable that in the next twenty years China will invest heavily in AI-focused strategies including in E-commerce, the Cloud, mobile payments, a state-backed digital RMB and in areas like Ed-Tech, facial recognition and a sophisticated social credit system that could become the dominant paradigm in the world.

Even Australia is starting to mimic China’s bold use of facial recognition technology for things like access to services and parts of the internet.

China's Social Credit System is an Unfair Advantage in the Next Capitalism

This suggests that China’s policy of surveillance capitalism is being ramped up in ways that companies like Google, Facebook, and Silicon Valley might not have anticipated properly. Just as startups like ByteDance, the owner of the TikTok app, appear more innovative than companies like Facebook in the consumer mobile apps space.

China could in the foreseeable future become dominant therefore in its entire economy being embedded with artificial intelligence, such being the case with its leadership in 5G, mobile payments, logistics and delivery and integration of AI in education.

If U.S. congress committees recognize that China could become superior in AI, this has many important ramifications in the business world as well as how policy around AI will likely evolve in the 21st century.

The trade war of 2019 demonstrates the potential for a cold tech war that spans a capital war, AI-arms race, and a race for superiority in the 4th industrial revolution itself. As futurists, we are watching this development closely.

It was not too long ago where China was seen as the culprit of copying and rampant intellectual property theft but if things continue as they have been, it won’t’ be so long until the United States will have to copy China‘s models better just to keep up.

The U.S. Will Try to Copy China But Fail Due to Different Ethics and Fewer Consumers

This however for AI policies and ethics of technology, could mean a kind of surveillance capitalism manifesting in the mid-21st century that could represent a severe impingement on our freedom. This is one reason why so many are watching the Hong Kong protests so closely.

Global policy, geopolitics, and technology are intersecting with the push for AI-supremacy and currency wars that makes the trade aspects of the global super-power rivalry seem potentially far more dangerous and long-lasting.

China has a rather high probability of investing more and progressing more rapidly than the United States with a more dynamic venture capital structure, more Government support and more data with a significantly larger customer database. China can also spread its influence into high-density regions of East Asia, South Asia and from there into developing continents like Africa and South America.

China's Approach to Facial Recognition Will Usher in Global Social Credit Architectures

In the 2020s China can also catch up to the United States in the Cloud and in advertising. Meanwhile, the President of the U.S. in October 2019 banned (blacklisted) significantly facial recognition companies from China.

Many in America and Europe believe the way China is utilizing innovation for the state could undermine human rights which appears to be the case in West China where Muslims minorities are persecuted.

China’s economic, technological and AI progress could come to the detriment of citizens and minorities viewed as enemies of the Chinese Government. China’s push into surveillance capitalism with a totalitarian flavor has certain advantages to scale an AI society, IoT and the 4th industrial revolution with a smart technology social credit system.

That is, the world’s second-largest economy will continue pushing its domestic technology sector in a manner that fast-tracks its AI development. China is the country to watch in technological innovation and economic impact on the global economy. No other country even comes close.

As futurists, we voiced this opinion many years ago, but what is still a somewhat unpopular view of the future of AI, is getting more consensus from analysts, experts, and even stockmarket onlookers. China’s progress has global policy consequences a lot of us don’t see coming.

If Google and Facebook Started the Data Harvesting Trend, China will Profile, Monitor and Control Citizen Behavior More Efficiently

Meanwhile, if there are protests in many parts of the world, a more powerful China utilizing AI to weaponize data against its citizens and even in other countries could create more social unrest as technology is misused in biased ways or against individuals and groups.

We are witnessing China have a superior in-app economy representing significant digital transformation. Its online-to-offline, super app, mini-program, and mobile payment innovation is very different from the U.S in its model.

Artificial intelligence will gradually become more integrated with Chian’s innovations and while AI is still broad term for technology that makes machines mimic human intelligence, for example, in recognizing images or speech; China’s superiority in facial recognition, in particular, can in the 2020s lead to new innovations where the U.S. and the world may find themselves behind China.

China will complete and utilize progress Silicon Valley made, for its own ends and processes.

China Is Leading Digital Transformation

From mobile payments to E-commerce to viral apps, it's clear China is starting to lead various aspects of digital transformation in Asia. While China will need ten to fifteen years to play catchup in AI (especially regards to talent), with its growing economy and technological prowess China's sphere of influence will likely be world dominant by 2050.

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