Geopolitical intelligence platform Stratfor warns that the US and other western democracies concern themselves too much with data privacy to the detriment of their efforts to remain ahead of China in the field of artificial intelligence. China’s practice of “digital authoritarianism” allows it to develop its AI capabilities without worries over privacy and other ethical concerns.
Read more of Stratfor’s insights into data privacy and AI on its website:
The race to dominate AI development will be a defining feature of the rivalry between the United States and China, and as such, will define the 21st century:
The United States, for now, has the lead in AI development when it comes to hardware, research and development, and a dynamic commercial AI sector. China, by the sheer size of its population, has a much larger data pool, but is critically lagging behind the United States in semiconductor development. Beijing, however, is not lacking in motivation in its bid to overtake the United States as the premier global AI leader by 2030. And while that timeline may appear aggressive, China’s ambitious development in AI in the coming years will be unfettered by the growing ethical, privacy and antitrust concerns occupying the West.
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While the United States still leads the pack in AI, recent concerns about civil liberties could slow it down relative to other tech heavyweights, namely China. The public demands for transparency and privacy aren’t going away anytime soon. Furthermore, as AI becomes more powerful, differential privacy — the ability to extract personal information without identifying its source — will become more difficult to preserve.
In time, the concept of privacy may change in China and the West as the costs and benefits of information technology become more apparent. Until then, the rules and ethical considerations surrounding data privacy and artificial intelligence will remain fronts in what has become a war of technological innovation as China pushes innovation to try to match and surpass the United States.
