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中国正确认识了AI，但我们正确认识了中国吗？

中国创新的洞察

4 min.

June 2019

中国的习主席决心将人工智能应用于中国人民的日常生活，并努力实现由创新带来的全面可观的经济和社会效益。迄今为止，一切进展顺利。

通过面部识别系统，中国游客只需微笑就可以付款，这套系统还可以用来保障机场的安全。像杭州这样的城市由一个“城市大脑”管理，车险只需一张照片和一个电话就能解决。人工智能（AI）用于精简客流，并预测人们犯罪的可能性。这种系统覆盖了几乎100%的关键公共区域，同时也引出了公民权利和隐私方面的重要问题。但总的来说，中国社会已经接受了这些新技术。

这一进步也许是中国从模仿者向创新者进化的最明显的例子。AI正是中国将源于西方的创新发展壮大的光辉典范。阿里巴巴和华为等巨头不仅通过这一创新继续成长，许多年轻的中国企业家也准备带着自己的新想法进军全球市场。

去年十月，习主席在中共中央政治局的一次全体学习会议上专门讨论了AI，将AI视为一项核心政策。在这次会议上，习主席在行政命令中发布了三项重要公告：

AI对确保下一次工业转型具有国家战略重要性
AI对于赢得全球科技竞赛至关重要
开发现有的应用程序已不再足够。中国必须进一步进行基础设施投资，从而占据AI科技制高点。

中国的AI雄心不足为奇。鉴于经济增长放缓和资源成本增加，确实有必要升级产业。此外，在当今两极分化的地缘政治环境下，越来越需要减少对其他国家核心技术的依赖。在百度、阿里巴巴、腾讯和中国平安的成功基础上，并在众多新兴科技企业（如码隆科技，该公司最近被Fast Company评为中国最具创新性的公司）的支持下，中国成为AI领头羊将巩固其作为科技强国的地位。

至关重要的是，Al淘金热将由企业家来推动，而中国不缺乏企业家。企业家可以利用中国的规模（对训练深度学习机器至关重要）、丰富的人才资源和对实验的热情，为AI技术寻找可行的商业模式。

尽管美国公司仍然在核心技术上占有优势，但这种优势可能会比预期消失得更快。中国的AI在2016年初腾飞发展。从提到“深度学习”并被引用至少一次的期刊文章上，即可见中国的AI已经超过了美国，并把欧洲、印度、日本和韩国远远甩在后面。

中国走在正确的AI道路上，但挑战依然存在。中国政府用政策鼓励了AI技术的实施，但也引发了机会主义企业家和投资者的激增，想要利用地方政府的信息不对称来获利。中国人也越来越意识到数据隐私的重要性，这可能会影响到AI从大规模可用数据中获得快速发展的机会。

AI的真正价值不在于零售和消费，而在于应用，如智能城市、工厂和其他产业。在中国，大多数基于应用的AI企业仍处于起步阶段，迫切需要引入AI技术的平台标准才能真正腾飞。

但毫无疑问，AI是中国未来经济发展的核心方向。AI无关乎政治，而是关乎建立一个有竞争力的经济体。

Mark Greeven教授、George Yip、Wei Wei是《先驱、隐形冠军、变革者和弱势者：从中国创新者身上吸取的经验教训》（麻省理工学院出版社，2019年）的作者。

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