When AlphaGo computer defeated Lee Se-dol at the mind-bendingly complex game of Go in 2016, many people hailed it as a demonstration of the power of human ingenuity and artificial intelligence.
The significance of the match was certainly not lost on Chinese officials, who include some of the most enthusiastic players of the 3,000-year-old game of strategy. But they viewed the triumph of Google DeepMind’s AI team over the 18-times world champion in a different light: as a sign of their country’s technological vulnerability. Some described it as China’s “Sputnik moment”.
No one could accuse the Chinese leadership of failing to respond to the AI challenge. As a Financial Times series has shown, China is pouring money into AI research and pioneering its deployment in many areas. In some, such as the mass use of AI-enabled facial- and voice-recognition technology, it now leads the world, sometimes with disturbing implications for privacy.