Looking at the differences in AI development paths between China and the United States from the perspective of industrial layout
Author：Eve Cole
Update Time：2024-11-14 10:04:08
Artificial intelligence (AI), as an important force driving a new round of technological revolution and industrial transformation, has received widespread attention from countries around the world, including China and the United States. However, due to different national conditions, each country has its own focus on developing the AI industry. Correspondingly, the different development strategies and paths of various countries also shape different future pictures for the AI industry and even society in each country. Take China and the United States as an example. What China and the United States have in common is that they both attach great importance to the development of AI for a long time. China issued the "New Generation Artificial Intelligence Development Plan" as early as 2017, planning the "three-step" development goals of the AI industry. The United States, on the other hand, has profound technological accumulation. After releasing AI plans such as smart cities and urban brains in 2013, it elevated the development of AI to a national strategy in 2016 and introduced a series of policies and initiatives. However, there are also significant differences in the development of the AI industry between the two countries. The United States has a certain first-mover advantage. It has been deeply involved in basic research, core technologies, talent training, etc. for a long time, and it is still in a leading position. In terms of industrial collaboration and innovation environment, the United States also has a good foundation, which allows it to make full use of its strong corporate strength and market regulation mechanisms to quickly expand its AI layout and create a deep and complete AI innovation ecosystem. At the same time, technology financing represented by venture capital has also effectively filled the huge funding gap caused by the increase in the amount of AI large model training calculations, and has played an important role in promoting the development of AI start-ups. In contrast, China is a latecomer to the AI industry. Generally speaking, if latecomers want to catch up, they cannot completely follow the existing logic. Instead, they must try their best to leverage their latecomer advantages such as lower trial and error costs through R&D cooperation, talent exchanges, etc., and more actively look for breakthrough points. Therefore, in order to accelerate the development and application of AI technology, China pays more attention to the guidance and support role of the government. From the central to local governments, my country has accelerated the construction of an AI industry ecology to the maximum extent and created the best environment for industry development by setting up special funds, providing preferential policies, and encouraging enterprises to participate in research and development. Chinese companies have also made full use of their strengths and avoided weaknesses. Although they are relatively backward in basic research and other aspects, Chinese companies have demonstrated strong capabilities in integrating the AI industry chain and actively promoted AI technology by leveraging their advantages in various fields such as e-commerce, finance, and urban management. Combined with practical scenarios, it shortens the cycle of scientific research transformation and technology implementation. In addition, the Chinese market is huge and users are generally receptive to new technologies, which has become a booster for the accelerated development of China’s AI industry. Today, China and the United States have each achieved phased results in the field of AI, but the differences between the two countries in their future AI development paths and positioning are gradually becoming more concrete. Take the construction of data centers that provide the computing power required for AI as an example. Large American technology companies focus on maximizing computing efficiency and improving service quality, and will concentrate their computing power and data centers in areas with superior technical and market conditions. Regions, such as California close to Silicon Valley and Northern Virginia close to the political center, therefore the cluster effect of the entire AI industry is very obvious. Judging from the results, this approach is very helpful for large companies to fully mobilize market factors, consolidate their monopoly position in innovative technology, and run faster and faster. At the same time, it will inevitably strengthen the industrial and regional imbalances in AI development, making the winner The problem of one-size-fits-all is getting worse. China has longer-term and more comprehensive considerations in the development and layout of the AI industry. China not only hopes to catch up in all aspects of technological development, but also sees the deployment of AI as an opportunity to coordinate regional economic development. For example, on the one hand, China will set up pilot zones and development pilot zones for artificial intelligence innovation and application in some economically developed areas to promote the comprehensive development of industry, academia and research; on the other hand, China is also optimizing data through national projects such as "Eastern Numbers and Westward Counting" The center’s construction layout will promote coordinated linkage between the east and west. This is based on respecting the market and fully taking into account my country's actual economic development and natural resource layout. It is not only conducive to the long-term and healthy development of my country's AI industry, but also achieves the broadest benefits. As the saying goes, "If you want to learn poetry, you have to work on poetry." The development path China has adopted is, firstly, based on comprehensive consideration of layout planning, and secondly, other scientific research and industrial achievements have given China more choices. Ultra-high voltage power transmission that efficiently supplies and allocates electricity to data centers, long-distance and low-latency data transmission technology, vast mountains and rivers provide a large number of natural cold source locations, and infrastructure capabilities to build cave-type data centers... China's achievements in the field of science and technology Forward-looking layout and collaborative capabilities are important supports for China’s AI development path. In short, the path of the AI industry in the United States can be understood as maximizing concentrated advantages and striving to continuously achieve breakthroughs in basic research and other fields; China pays more attention to industrial collaboration and balances electric energy while ensuring basic indicators such as computing power scale and latency. Utilizing various factors such as efficiency, computing power quality and stability, we aim to improve quality and efficiency and develop high-quality new industries. Today, the gap between China and the United States in computing power, algorithms and other dimensions is constantly narrowing. As of 2023, the total scale of global computing power infrastructure will reach 910EFLOPS, with the United States and China ranking the top two in terms of computing power infrastructure scale, accounting for 32% and 26% of the global computing power respectively. Facts have proven that China’s series of methods for developing AI are effective and in line with the interests of the long-term development of my country’s AI industry. In the future, our country will continue to leverage its advantages in government leadership and industrial collaboration to further promote the development of the AI industry. Regardless of whether China or the United States, their AI development needs to give full play to the regulatory role of the market, requires good policy incentives and industrial environment, and also requires continuous cultivation and attraction of talents and promotion of innovation. This is the basic law for achieving efficient development of the AI industry. To achieve high-quality development of China's AI industry, we must persist in learning from each other's strengths and overcome a series of shortcomings in basic research, cutting-edge scientific research, and innovation ecology. The development and widespread application of artificial intelligence have profoundly affected human social structure and social governance. In this field, China and the United States should not only compete, but also actively cooperate to better grasp the unprecedented opportunities and cope with the challenges brought by this disruptive technology. It is hoped that U.S. industrial policy leaders will realize the positive prospects of Sino-U.S. AI industry cooperation and make joint efforts for human development.
