Ex-Google CEO Eric Schmidt is sounding the alarm about the implications of China pulling ahead of the U.S. in artificial intelligence research and development. Speaking on a Bipartisan Policy Center webcast on Tuesday, he said the U.S. lacks a long-term plan to win the AI race, and lacks government funding for the basic research the U.S. will need to stay ahead of the Chinese.
“China is on its way to surpass us in many, many ways, and they’re cleverly run in a way that’s different from the way we would ever want to run,” says Schmidt, who is currently chair of the U.S. Department of Defense’s Defense Innovation Advisory Board. “We need to take them seriously. . . they’re going to end up with a bigger economy, more R&D investments, better quality research, wider applications of technology, and a stronger computing infrastructure.”
The Chinese model is a vision of high-tech authoritarianism.”
Schmidt points out that, from a purely strategic point of view, China’s form of government lends itself to large, single-minded, top-down initiatives.
“The Chinese model is . . . a vision of high-tech authoritarianism which is incompatible with the way America works,” Schmidt says. “I’m not saluting it, I’m not endorsing it in any way, but I’m telling you to take it seriously . . . it has benefits from the standpoint of the strategic execution.”
A world where China controls AI and trade might not be a very pretty place to live, Schmidt says. “How would you like it if the majority of all the things that you use during our . . . pandemic here were Chinese controlled rather than the U.S.?” he asked.