China has a strategy to dominate artificial intelligence (AI), perhaps the single most important technology of the 21st Century. America is the world’s current leader in AI, but the People’s Republic of China has a plan to dominate the field within 10 years.
Swarms of drones controlled by Artificial Intelligence could provide supplies and weapons to an army in the field, attack infantry forces, or even overwhelm and destroy aircraft carriers.
Chinese companies have already far outpaced American companies in patents related to essential aspects of artificial intelligence such as deep learning and machine learning, Adweek recently reported. The People’s Republic also accounts for nearly half (48%) of the investment in AI-related startup companies. This statistic makes China worth paying close attention to.
Alibaba alone has plans to invest $15 billion in AI laboratories all over the world, including America. Alibaba will set up labs for artificial intelligence research in Russia, Israel, Singapore, and Silicon Valley.
One Chinese City Will Spend $16 Billion In Artificial Intelligence
Just one Chinese city, Tianjin near Beijing, plans to invest $16 billion or 100 billion yuan in artificial intelligence, Reuters reported. The funds will be spent to develop intelligent robots and other devices.
An obvious use of that AI will be to develop smarter and deadlier drones that might be able to neutralize America’s military might. An excellent example of such AI-powered weaponry would be a massive swarm of drones that can destroy an aircraft carrier.
China Can Use AI To Create Deadly Drone Swarms
It is already possible to operate massive swarms of robots through the cloud using artificial intelligence. A British company called Ocado operates a fulfillment center where 1,100 robots are used to pack groceries for home delivery. Ocado’s robot swarms operate in the cloud.
Other military uses of such drones would be to supply an army in the field, attack infantry forces, or to overwhelm and destroy enemy aircraft. A real horror of 21st century warfare would be a swarm of drones equipped with rocket launchers or automatic cannons blasting a city to rubble.
The investment in Tianjin is part of a plan destined to make China the dominant power in AI by 2025. That means China might have the lead in next-generation military technology by 2025.
The Chinese are also investing heavily in AI for traditional industry. Reuters reported that Tianjin plans to spend 30 billion yuan ($4.67 billion) in AI applications for existing factories. That might make the factories more efficient and competitive with American manufacturers.
One result of Chinese AI investment would be cheaper manufactured goods which can be used to undercut American prices and industry. Average Americans might benefit from that because of lower prices at Walmart and Amazon. Widespread use of such AI-powered robots might kill hundreds of thousands of jobs. This scenario may lead to high levels of unemployment and social and political unrest.
How AI Can Help China Dominate The Internet And Control Information
Artificial Intelligence might enable the People’s Republic to dominate the internet and control what Americans see, read, and hear online.
A Chinese company called GTCOM is developing intelligent software that is capable of processing 120 million pieces of data from more than 112 countries, Adweek reported. GTCOM’s platform is capable of mining 30 million news articles and 500 million social media accounts for data each day.Theoretically, GTCOM would be able to rewrite the news or social media entries to manipulate the information flow. One use of GTCOM’s platform might be to censure blogs or news articles critical of the Chinese Communist Party or its leaders on websites in other countries.
Other potential uses would be to plant false news stories to spread panic or influence public opinion. GTCOM invested $12 million in developing a Natural Language Processing algorithm that can read articles in over 30 languages.
Americans should be worried about Chinese investments in AI as well as other strategic metals. This is because they might give the People’s Republic of China an insurmountable military, technological, and economic edge over the United States.