Video: Opinion | China Is Worried About A.I. Too

"I think the biggest anxiety right now in China is an anxiety around falling behind on technology. So I think in the U.S. there's a lot of worries about job displacement, of A.I. being a net negative force in society. In China there are some of those concerns, and I can come back to that. But I think right now the fear among individuals and companies and workers is that they're not keeping pace with A.I., that they're not using it enough and they're not savvy enough with this new technology so that they won't be competitive enough in the labor marketplace."

"And it's interesting, this anxiety at the individual level kind of mirrors China's anxiety at the national level. When ChatGPT first came out, there was a lot of anxiety in China among China's A.I. industry and among policymakers in Beijing, worried that China was also falling behind, that they were not making the most of this new transformative technology."

"So it's interesting to see this kind of mirroring where it's not about how do I keep out this technology from my life; it's about how do I bring it in even more and integrate it and give myself that edge in a very, very crowded marketplace. But it is a very Silicon Valley tech and tech-adjacent attitude."

China’s public mood around AI centers on the risk of falling behind on technology. In the United States, major worries focus on job displacement and AI becoming a net negative force in society. In China, some of those concerns exist, but the dominant fear is that workers and companies are not using AI enough or are not skilled enough to remain competitive in the labor market. This individual-level anxiety mirrors national-level anxiety. When ChatGPT emerged, anxiety spread among China’s AI industry and policymakers in Beijing about not maximizing transformative technology. The response emphasizes bringing AI in, integrating it, and gaining an edge in a crowded marketplace.

Read at www.nytimes.com