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30 Dec

Beijing Targets Change in the 996 Work Week

Chinese Labor Practices Part 2

Did you miss the first part of our blog about changes to the Chinese 996 work week?

Read part one before you read the conclusion.

Even with the PRC putting more pressure on Chinese businesses to comply with the official 44-hour work week, there are many employees in China who believe that businesses will continue to find ways around the labor laws. In a recent Tech Crunch article, one Chinese worker was quoted saying, “ByteDance (a Chinese MNC in the internet tech space, parent company of TikTok, with a presence in over 150 markets, 60,000 employees and 15 R&D centers worldwide) is cutting back official hours and pay, but if nothing else changes, it doesn’t really matter. People still want to keep their jobs and get promoted, so of course they will work as much as they can … or move to a company that will pay them more to do it.”

While there are still some serious misgivings about whether change and relief really are on the way, senior managers in many Chinese companies are paying close attention to the recent government mandates. Corporate audits are on the way, and it’s expected that the result will be more employees hired into companies who have been operating a 996 schedule, and a reduction in the number of hours each employee is required to work. Whether corporate titans like Jack Ma agree or not, Beijing is now signaling that it will no longer cast a blind eye in favor of business over labor.

In part, Beijing is responding to the results of the most recent ten-year census. China’s demographics are changing. The population growth rate has dipped to its lowest point in many decades, and its society is aging. To remain competitive in the world market, China’s younger workers must remain engaged. Growing worker discontent is a potential landmine that could derail China economically, and the stability of the Chinese government relies on domestic peace. Despite China’s status as a communist nation, Karl Marx and Vladimir are never referenced or discussed – keeping the workers happy is the best alternative to any consideration of things such as collectivization, and history has recorded what happened in Russia when the workers had decided they’d ‘had enough’ of feudalism.

To be fair, demanding work schedules are common practice in the United State, too. Among salaried managers, it’s not uncommon to work anywhere between a 45 – 60 hour week, despite that fact that our own labor laws set maximum week at 40 hours. Like the Chinese, this is a generally understood truth, and not something one would find in any employee handbook. Managers have similar reasons for making sacrifices as the Chinese do, and our work week has developed in a similar creeping way, and like the Chinese, American workers make the sacrifices because we know that if we don’t others will, and we do it because we now have a global marketplace, and our companies face tough competition. Also like the Chinese, our younger workers are questioning the fairness of these requirements, and also like the Chinese, our younger workers are beginning to vote (at least about employment options) with their feet.

At the end of the day, it is a question of values, and ethics, and the kind of lives people want to live.

A word from you sponsor: While my above article is intended to be accurate, factual, and fair I do feel it is important to close with a personal editorial comment. Call me “old school” if you choose but I take my hat off to anyone who is willing to WORK HARD. One of the differences I observed in my early visits to the country side of China in contrast with MOST of the other countries in Asia was that people WORK.

As we drive on gravel and dirt road you don’t find people sitting or lounging. They WORK. I have seen many people busy sweeping dirt. Not sure why but they are WORKING.

I think this embedded work ethic is something to commend in the DNA of Chinese culture. Are there exceptions. Of course but the exceptions only prove the rule.So, please do not misconstrue anything said in this article as critical. Finding appropriate work expectations is an age-old challenge for every country

Word4Asia has been helping our US-based clients achieve their goals in China for over twenty years. We’re able to do this because we have a keen understanding of the ever-changing social and legal landscape of our host nation, and because we only accept opportunities where we are convinced we can add value.Â We are always interested to speak with new clients, as well as old acquaintances and friends who may be considering new opportunities and tactics in China. We hope you’ll reach out to Dr. Gene Wood (gene@word4asia.com) for a friendly word of advice and opening conversation.

Sources:
The future of China’s work culture

China steps in to regulate brutal ‘996’ work culture

What is China’s 996 work culture that is polarising its Silicon Valleys?

‘996’ Is China’s Version of Hustle Culture. Tech Workers Are Sick of It.

30 Nov

Beijing Targets Change In the 996 Work Week

by Sarai Fetty

Chinese Labor Practices Part 1

Please see the writer’s editorial statement at the end of the article before closing.

If you think you’ve been working long hours since the pandemic began, or maybe just generally, you should see what Chinese, white-collar tech workers have been facing for years!

Millions of Chinese employees work a 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. schedule, six days a week. This is referred to as a 996 work week. Employers, Alibaba for example, believe it is a critical part of the success they’ve enjoyed. From management’s perspective, the 996 schedule also played a major role in the rapid growth of the Chinese economy. There are variations on this schedule, including a 995 schedule, alternating weeks of 996 followed by a 995 schedule, and even a 997 schedule. While this massive effort has helped propel the success of many Chinese tech giants, it has also taken a human toll.

The prevalence of a 996 work schedule has been creeping into China’s tech sector since the early 2000’s. This was the period when Chinese tech companies started experiencing rapid growth. It was so rapid, in fact, that the firms could not hire new workers fast enough to keep pace with expanding sales. In various corporations, temporary stop-gap solutions, such as increasing overtime hours gradually became the norm. Additionally, China’s main economic advantage over other nations was lower wages. They had set customer expectations that basically backed themselves into a corner. Maintaining or expanding global market share requires tight control of labor costs – and the 996 schedule became the status quo, regardless of labor laws guaranteeing a 44-hour work week.

A few anecdotes will explain the situation that many tech workers have faced since then. In 2015, a Tencent developer collapsed and died while walking with his pregnant wife. A year later, a 34-year-old deputy chief editor of the Tianya online forum suffered a fatal cardiac arrest at a Beijing subway station. In 2018, a 25-year-old employee at drone manufacturer DJI also died from a cardiac arrest. Even if workers are not dropping dead, most are experiencing significant ‘burn-out’ and some have begun communicating their frustration and exhaustion on Github, an opensource community for software developers. Developed by Microsoft, it’s the one Western social media site that the PRC has not blocked. Posts like these are most often left by younger employees. Increasingly, these burnt-out employees are advocating for ‘lying flat’; rejecting the pressure and ambition that defined the lives of earlier generations.

Communication about the 996-work week has been closely managed so that it does not become a movement that would alarm China’s central government. However, the growing discontent has recently (August 2021) resulted in a series of communications from the PRC. These pronouncements, pointed at firms where 996 is in place, remind managers about Chinese labor laws that limit the work week to just 44 hours, not 72.

While older workers are resigned to the 72-hour week, some of China’s younger workers are seeking a work/ life balance that would allow them more time off for personal activities, and more rest. Management, as you would probably suspect, is pushing back strongly. For instance, Alibaba’s billionaire founder, Jack Ma, said this about the 996 schedule:

“[It’s] a huge blessing that many companies and employees don’t have the opportunity to have. If you join Alibaba, you should get ready to work 12 hours a day, otherwise why do you come to Alibaba? We don’t need those who comfortably work eight hours.”

Effecting change to ensure all workers receive a 44-hour work schedule would mean changing the prevailing philosophies, psychologies and incentive structures present in 996 businesses. For example, Huawei is a massive Chinese telecommunications firm. Their corporate environment has been called a ‘wolf culture’, and it’s a ‘kill or be killed’ place to work. Senior management believes that by pitting their employees in competition with one another, productivity will be much higher, and the company will be better at fighting external threats. Huawei is not a leader in unique technologies. They follow others. They believe that their speed, cost control, and flexibility are the keys to their success, and they believe 996 game them their competitive edge. Companies like Huawei believe that their willingness to work as hard as they do, in contrast with competitors who have more traditional 40-hour work schedules, is a badge of honor. Huawei’s employees are required to take a ‘striver’s pledge’. Basically, it’s an ‘oath’ to work a 996 schedule, despite the existing labor laws. This ‘striver’s pledge’ is just one example of how Chinese companies are skirting the law to drive their employees to near-constant labor. Financial incentives are also used. Annual dividends more than hundreds of thousands, sometimes even millions of dollars are paid out to individual employees, in many cases eclipsing employees’ salaries. In some Chinese companies, carrot-and-stick MBOs meant to encourage spectacular performance for spectacular incentives are based on unattainable goals. This puts more power in the hands of the manager to determine if they deem the ‘effort’ of the employee to be satisfactory. This practice is more common among local Chinese firms than among China’s MNCs. The other side of the coin is that other companies do not pay their workers for the overtime hours, but they still demand the time. Companies in this category are savvy about the loopholes and exemptions that allow them to evade legal obligations.

Keep in mind, the 996-work schedule is technically illegal. Smart companies are not going to publish that schedule in their employee handbooks. There are more subtle, but clearly understood ways of communicating this fact of life to employees. Examples you will find among China’s tech giants today include:

Companies provide free evening meals to their employees.
Companies reimburse employees for late night taxicab rides home.
To attract and retain younger employees, firms like Tencent and Alibaba pay very attractive wages that exceed five times the going market wage. The extremely high cost of living in China’s big cities practically demands salaries in those lofty altitudes.
The law of the Chinese tech sector jungle says career advancement will fall to those who make touch sacrifices like a 996-work week.
Chinese corporate culture places priority of the job and company over the family. To the Chinese worker, the company is a close group of colleagues who are making the same sacrifices. In essence, personal relationships between workers are closer than those between spouses or parents and children.
Urban tech workers increasingly recognize that there is fierce competition for their jobs coming from the rural areas. Workers from China’s interior are especially eager to make the hard sacrifices and work a 996 week because opportunities in the farming regions where they come from are so limited.

Like all our blogs, this description about working conditions in China is intended to be accurate, factual, and fair. We are constantly working to present an accurate picture of China to you, our readers.

Finding appropriate work expectations is an age-old challenge for every country.

However, I want to balance what has been said in this blog, with another observation about Chinese culture that I have always been struck by, and that it is the nearly universal commitment to hard work that is pervasive throughout China. It is one the traits about the Chinese that I most sincerely admire. While there are, as everywhere, exceptions to the rule, I believe that the exceptions only make the rule that much more obvious. So, please do not misconstrue anything said in this article as critical.

During my drives along gravel and dirt roads, I’ve never seen people sitting or lounging. Instead, they WORK. I have seen many people busy sweeping dirt. At times I was not sure why, but people were consistently working.

Call me “old school” if you choose, but I take my hat off to anyone who is willing to work hard.

We keep a close eye on the changing landscape in China, because we know it’s important to your understanding of this fascinating market place. For over twenty years, Word4Asia has been helping organizations like yours achieve their objectives through consistently solid consulting and hard work. If you’ve got China in your sights for 2022, we hope y you’ll reach out and start a conversation with us! You can reach me, Dr. Gene Wood, at gene@word4asia.com.

Sources

The future of China’s work culture

China steps in to regulate brutal ‘996’ work culture

What is China’s 996 work culture that is polarising its Silicon Valleys?

‘996’ Is China’s Version of Hustle Culture. Tech Workers Are Sick of It.

03 Nov

Brain-Computer Interface

by Sarai Fetty

Brain-Computer Interface

Part Two of Our Look at Emerging Technology in China and the United States

In our most recent blog, we highlighted how China’s rapidly growing tech sector is challenging America’s lead in the exciting field of artificial intelligence. In this month’s blog, we take a second look at a closely related tech field – BCI – brain computer interface. In BCI, China has established an early, and important lead.

Brain Computer Interface research (BCI) was first conducted in the 1970’s at University of California, Los Angeles. The technology bypasses nerves and muscle tissues to directly connect the brain to the external world, opening new communication channels for human expression. BCI can turn thoughts into observable actions. Through thought-controlled manipulation of external devices, BCI is already helping injured patients recover their mobility. In the future, through remote use, robots may one day become avatars for these individuals.

BCI is a bioscience sector that promises to collect, analyze, and process the electronic signals (synapses which occur between neurons (brain cells)). This technology is opening doors for advances in industry, aerospace, medicine…. and inevitably, military purposes. Each of these markets are valued in the trillions of dollars. There are two development paths currently, invasive devices, and external devices. Invasive (implanted) devices provide a much stronger electrical signal but carry obvious health risks.

In the United States, one firm, Neuralink (owned by Elon Musk), is leading first-wave development. In China, much of the development is coming from the city of Tianjin, already a global tech leader. There, a neuro-engineering team of scientists at Tianjin University has recently developed the second-generation ‘BrainTalker” chip. As one might imagine, development has been slowed for several reasons: availability of front-end collecting chips and high-performance processors. Some of the technology required for Tianjin University’s development is also being held back due to tech blockades emanating from the United States and a few European nations. In the US, these items have been listed under an ‘export control’ list of emerging technologies.

In the United States, a large amount of innovation work has been focused on medical uses for this technology. For instance, in 2015, the FDA approved the first-ever neurostimulator which has proven effective in arresting seizures in epileptic patients. The Chinese, too, are developing biomedical technology, tiny implants that are inserted into brain tissue. These include Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) and Spinal Cord Stimulation (SCS) implants. This technology is being used in clinical trials with patients who suffer non-motor function related brain issues, such as neuropsychiatric conditions, opioid addiction, Tourette syndrome, depression, and anorexia, Meanwhile, in the West, there is more focus on motor-function related illnesses, such as Parkinson’s disease.

Within China, there are at least four separate sectors that are all concurrently working on brain computer interface technology; government, university research, startups, and established medical device makers. China’s 13^th five-year plan included an emphasis on the China Brain Project. A primary motivating factor is China’s realization that by 2030, half the world’s patients with neurodegenerative disease will reside within its borders. The China Brain Project allocates significant research funding into three Chinese universities; Tsinghua University, Tianjin University, and Zhejiang University. In addition, two new research institutes have been opened to work specifically on BCI: the Institute of Neuroscience in Shanghai, and the Chinese Institute for Brain Research, Beijing. In 2020, researchers at Zhejiang University successfully completed the first brain-computer interface implant in a human patient. The patient, a quadriplegic, has mastered the ability to manipulate a robotic arm simply with his thoughts. He can now shake hands, carry drinks, eat fried dough sticks and play Mahjong using the mind-controlled, robotic arm.

The National Engineering Laboratory for Neuromodulation, at Tsinghua University is responsible for the creating China’s first locally developed DBS device. This device is now being produced and sold by PINS Medical, Beijing, for use with patients throughout China.

Tianjin University has developed a ‘Brain Talker’ computer chip, a mind-controlled, rehabilitation hand robot, and a ‘Mind-Typing cap’. Users using this cap can type 69 Chinese characters per minute on a smart phone, much faster than can be typed with thumbs.

Neuramatrix is a Chinese company, incubated at Tsinghua University. The company was launched in 2019 and claims to have a BCI implant chip that competes closely with the chip coming from Elon Musk’s company, Neuralink. Other Chinese firms are focusing on non-invasive, commercial products (mostly headbands) with meditation, and biofeedback applications.

Two firms, PINS Medical and Sceneray offer implant DBS systems on par with, if not more advanced than their Western equivalents. These products are all approved by China’s analog to our FDA and carry the European CE mark. In addition to the Chinese market, both firms are enjoying sales in Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Indonesia. Both companies offer advanced remote wireless control of the implants, with well-established methods for remote programming and calibration of the devices and monitoring battery levels through telemedicine by clinicians working from remote locations.

In addition to these exciting medical engineering breakthroughs, additional work is being conducted for military applications. A search on YouTube will yield a video of a group of drones, flying high above a field. Those drones are being controlled by someone wearing a BCI headband device. American universities, such as University of Delaware and Arizona State University have led development in this field. There is much discussion, both in the United States and in China, regarding military applications for BCI. In the United States, DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) is both research institution as well as source of investment capital behind additional work being done in the field.

China also sees strategic military importance in BCI technology. CCP General Secretary Xi Jinping has referenced innovation research of this type as necessary to ‘keep pace with the times’. The Chinese are interested in the synergies that exist between brain science, artificial intelligence (AI), and biotechnology. To that end, China is seeking to achieve a ‘hybrid intelligence’ for use by the People’s Liberation Army that will provide an entire spectrum of military functions including command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (C4ISR) systems. Researchers in this field are pursuing development in various forms of warfare; cyber, electronic, and psychological warfare. Lt. Gen. Liu Guozhi, Director of the Central Military Commission Science and Technology Commission has said that “AI will accelerate the process of military transformation, ultimately leading to a profound revolution in military affairs . . . The combination of artificial intelligence and human intelligence can achieve the optimum, and human-machine hybrid intelligence will be the highest form of future intelligence.” Command and control of these ‘informatized’ and ‘intelligentized’ warfare will be achieved through brain-machine integration, enabled by cloud infrastructure.

Chinese military scientists and strategists expect that this revolution in warfare will also demand transformation of the human element of warfare, which may require seeking command of the brain and biological sciences. This work, too, is already underway in both the United States and in China. Chinese Major General He Fuchu serves on the Central Military Commission Science and Technology Commission and has predicted that “The weaponization of living organisms will become a reality in the future, and non-traditional combat styles will be staged. The ‘biological frontier’ will become a new frontier for national defense.” Fuchu has also predicted that battles of the future will be played out with high-performance low-power computing, highly intelligent autonomous decision-making, active learning, and continuous increases in intelligentization, promoting the emergence of highly intelligentized and autonomous combat forces.

As ever, the rate of technological advancement is proceeding at an increasing rate of change. Word4Asia hopes for a positive future; we will continue to monitor and report on these and other fascinating advances. We hope you’ve enjoyed this latest blog. We’ve always got our eyes trained on the latest developments in China, and we enjoy sharing them with you.

Should your plans include projects in mainland China, we hope you’ll reach out. Word4Asia has over twenty years of active presence and on-going productive and mutually beneficial relationships in China. We’ve developed an impressive network, and our understanding, relationships and skills may be valuable to you in your present or future efforts. Please feel free to contact Gene Wood at gene@word4asia.com.

Sources

China develops self-made brain-computer interface chip, curbing tech ‘bottleneck’ amid US tension

China’s Brain-Computer Interface Landscape in 2021: Has the Dragon Woken up to Neurotech?

Mind over matter to transform lives

China Unveils Brain-Computer Interface Chip For Mind-Reading

Brain-Computer Interfaces Are Coming. Will We Be Ready?

Minds at War China’s Pursuit of Military Advantage through Cognitive Science and Biotechnology

China Focus: Brain-machine technology enables paralyzed man drink cola, play mahjong

04 Oct

Artificial Intelligence

by Sarai Fetty

Behold the Wooden Horse

When Servants Become Masters

He was granted power to give breath to the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak and cause as many as would not worship the image of the beast to be killed. He causes all, both small and great, rich, and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads, and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man: His number is 666 (Rev. 13:14–18).

If you’re not a techno-geek, you may have missed the dawn of the “Age of Surveillance Capitalism” – a recent book by the author, Shoshana Zuboff. However, think about these recent events:

An English online newspaper, The Guardian, reported that an Amazon Echo Dot advice in London had awakened itself, and began to randomly spout off a series of ecommerce transactions that the device’s owner had recently executed using the device. Among these, train tickets were booked, and the Echo Dot programmed the recording of television shows.
A woman in Portland, Oregon reported that her Alexa device had ‘overheard’ private conversations, record them, then email them to an acquaintance.

Given tech products that are already easily available, and what is being now being developed in research labs in countries all over the world, it’s easy to see that our species is standing at a new crossroads. AI is going to play a central role in how society continues to develop, and like all technologies, whether it is for good or bad depends entirely on how mankind chooses to use the technology. There are two camps; the one that says, ‘all’s well, fear not’, and the other side that says, ‘proceed with caution’. Some researchers contend that AI will never deliver significant, practical value. Someone once said that those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it. To that point, take this excerpt from a 1911 article in the Saturday Evening Post, written by one of the early inventors of the automobile (there were many).

“Things are very different today. But in the ’[18]90’s, even though I had a successful bicycle business, and was building my first car in the privacy of the cellar in my home, I began to be pointed out as “the fool who is fiddling with a buggy that will run without being hitched to a horse.” My banker called on me to say: “Winton, I am disappointed in you.”

Today, the United States leads the world in total investment (private and public combined) in developing Artificial Intelligence. In 2020, total US investment was exceeded $23 Billion. China is in second place, with close to $10 Billion and while the gap is still significant, the Chinese government has made it a very high-level priority. They are keenly interested in speech and image recognition. Since 2015, American firms have raised 56% of total global capital that has been invested in AI. In China, most of the development comes from the universities and research institutes, most of which are government owned or sponsored. To really see how hard the Chinese are working to close the gap, just look at China’s global share of published AI research papers; in 1997, their contribution was just 4.3%. In 2017, they published 37,343 papers (27.8% of all published research papers, globally). The Chinese are focused on speech recognition, speech synthesis, and vision (image/ video recognition). A recent article by the Chinese journalist, Xiaomin Mou states that 73% of Chinese investment in AI has benefited the B2B Services, Lifestyle & Consumption, Transportation & Automobile and Health industry subsectors. In the United States, the National Science Foundation, along with Amazon, Google, Intel, Accenture, the Department of Homeland Security and USDA are cooperating to operate these new NSF AI institutes:

for Collaborative Assistance and Responsive Interaction for Networked Groups
for Advances in Optimization.
for Learning-Enabled Optimization at Scale.
for Intelligent Cyberinfrastructure with Computational Learning in the Environment.
for Future Edge Networks and Distributed Intelligence
for Edge Computing Leveraging Next-generation Networks
for Dynamic Systems
for Engaged Learning
for Adult Learning and Online Education
for Agricultural AI for Transforming Workforce and Decision Support
for Resilient Agriculture

China’s relative command of the application of AI in their consumer markets has been an important insulator against foreign market competitors. The Chinese have mastered the use of machine learning and a sophisticated AI engine to analyze all available data points, including the millions of conversations consumers have about the brand online, which can be challenging because of the firewalled Chinese internet.

China’s marketers have an important advantage in understanding consumer brand and product sentiment and more importantly how sentiment changes over time. They use a combination of social listening and sophisticated modeling of how changes in sentiment impact purchase patterns. China’s brands use this technology strengthen their brand strategies and tactics, and it shows up in retail sales. China’s consumers have also rapidly adopted many products in the IOT (internet of things) category. These products range across a wide, and ever-increasing range of products such as smart phones, smart refrigerators, smartwatches, smart fire alarms, smart door locks, smart bicycles, medical sensors, fitness trackers, smart security systems and so on. By the end of this decade, more than 8 billion IOT devices will be connected to China’s firewalled internet. Capable of observing, measuring, and recording everything imaginable, these devices will be inescapable. Of course, those same products are growing in popularity in the United States, too.

This great leap forward in China’s development of AI was made a policy in 2017, when China announced in its ambition to become the world leader in artificial intelligence (AI) by 2030. China is now making faster progress in AI than either the US or the EU. Central and local government spending on AI in China is estimated to be in the tens of billions of dollars. In this field of research, there are two overwhelmingly important assets, data and computer science and engineering talent. China has strengths in both areas.

As AI is of strategic importance to China, the nation’s government has instituted an array or policies to support its growth. These policies send a clear signal to different AI stakeholders, including entrepreneurs, investors, and even researchers, that AI is a field that is being backed by the government and is worth corporate investment. China’s approach to AI development and implementation is fast-paced and pragmatic, oriented towards finding applications which can help solve real-world problems. Rapid progress is being made in the field of healthcare, Chinese corporations are investing in several areas; healthcare applications, such as AI Doctor chatbots, machine learning to increase the pace that pharmaceutical product development occurs at, deep learning for medical image processing (useful for early detection of certain diseases, such as cancer), and surveillance, and military applications. Two-thirds of global investment in artificial intelligence is pouring into China, one of the reasons that the AI industry there grow 67% last year alone.

These are the top five Chinese AI firms:

AI will balance supply and demand. China has planned for an entire ecosystem that will support AI; legal frameworks, resources, goals, local-level adaptation – and of course, the capital to support continued growth in AI are all coming together rapidly. Government, too, plays a vital role. There are local and provincial incentives for the administration and politicians to assert themselves in the AI industry and to seek higher levels of responsibility. At the university level, hundreds of new AI professorships have been established, and hundreds of thousands of schools are being created.

As developing AI is a top-down, centralized imperative, cross-sector partnerships connecting tech companies and research institutions have been developed at the local city, and regional levels. Municipal and provincial governments across China are establishing cross-sector partnerships with research institutions and tech companies to create local AI innovation ecosystems and drive rapid research and development. By 2025, all industries in China will be securely connected in an AI network; company control, and production will be AI-reliant. AI will balance supply and demand. China has planned for an entire ecosystem that will support AI; legal frameworks, resources, goals, local-level adaptation – and of course, the capital to support continued growth in AI are all coming together rapidly. Government, too, plays a vital role. There are local and provincial incentives for the administration and politicians to assert themselves in the AI industry and to seek higher levels of responsibility. At the university level, hundreds of new AI professorships have been established, and hundreds of thousands of schools are being created.

If this sounds like science fiction to you so far, meet Hua Zhibing, a student enrolled in Tsinghua University in Beijing. Hua has been in love with literature and art since birth, she says. At six, Hua can write songs, poems, and draw. She is expected to be able to create websites soon. By the way, did I mention that Hua is also an AI-powered virtual student whose image has been seen around the world on Weibo — China’s answer to Twitter — and other social media? Hua absorbs data such as text, images, and videos. She is believed to has some reasoning and emotional interaction abilities. In another year, she will have the intellect of a 12-year-old, and she will continue to develop after that, too. Researchers involved in the project hope that at some point, she will have a higher EQ (emotional intelligence) so that she will be able to communicate like a real human. The AI software that runs Hua uses 1.75 trillion parameters that allow ‘her’ to simulate conversational speech, write poems and understand pictures. It surpassed the record of 1.6 trillion parameters set by Google’s Switch Transformer. It’s not science fiction, and it’s happening faster than most of us can comprehend.

We’re converging on a point where science fiction and reality are becoming the same thing. It’s only a matter of time before robots and AI replace humans in manufacturing, design, delivery and even marketing of most goods, lowering costs to a tiny fraction above materials costs. AI-driven robots will self-replicate, self-repair, and even partially self-design. Houses and apartment buildings will be designed by AI and use prefabricated modules that robots put together like toy blocks. And just-in-time autonomous public transportation, from robo-buses to robo-scooters, will take us anywhere we want to go. In 2020, Forbes magazine published statements from a report by the World Economic Forum; their prediction is that by 2025, 85 million global jobs will be replaced by automation (AI and robots). To raise concerns more, WEF also projects that the current 70/30 split between jobs done by people vs. machines will also have switched to a 50/50 split. Consider the kinds of work that technology, produced by these leading Chinese firms, is already capable of producing:

There was a time when machines were clearly tools to make people’s paths easier. For millennia, they mostly served our needs, although there were always occasions for their utility to be turned in harmful directions. The great cellist, Pablo Cassals once made a comment that seems especially insightful now, though, “Man has made many machines, complex and cunning, but which of them indeed rivals the workings of his heart?”, and those are the words we’ll use to end this month’s blog.

Word4Asia is a consulting firm that assists organizations with strategic growth plans focused on mainland China. We’re proud of the relationships we’ve enjoyed, and the service we’ve provided our clients for more than twenty years. Perhaps your eye is on China, too? We hope you’ll reach out to us. I’d be happy to talk with you and see if there is anything in our experience that benefits you. I’m pretty sure there is! Contact me at gene@word4asia.com.

Sources

Is China Taking the Lead in AI?

Artificial Intelligence in China

Is China Emerging as the Global Leader in AI?

China and AI: What the World Can Learn, and What it Should be Wary Of.

China: Artificial Intelligence Superpower

China Overtakes US in AI Research

China: The AI Factory of the Future.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theatlantic.com/amp/article/614197/

Then Pentagon is Racing to Stay Ahead of China in AI.

Meet China’s Five Biggest AI Companies

Understanding China’s AI Strategy