Executive summary 1. Artificial intelligence (AI) is already delivering wide societal benefits, from medical advances[footnote 1] to mitigating climate change.[footnote 2] For example, an AI technology developed by DeepMind, a UK-based business, can now predict the structure of almost every protein known to science.[footnote 3] This breakthrough will accelerate scientific research and the development of life-saving medicines – it has already helped scientists to make huge progress in combating malaria, antibiotic resistance, and plastic waste. 2. The UK Science and Technology Framework[footnote 4] sets out government’s strategic vision and identifies AI as one of 5 critical technologies. The framework notes … Continue reading Artificial intelligence – the opportunity and the challenge

China bans Micron’s products from key infrastructure over security risk FT reports China said that US chipmaker Micron Technology’s products posed “serious network security risks” as it banned operators of key infrastructure from buying them, in its first big measure against an American semiconductor group. The Cyberspace Administration of China on Sunday announced that the company, which is the biggest US maker of memory chips, “posed significant security risks to China’s critical information infrastructure supply chain”. As a result, it ordered “critical national infrastructure operators” to stop purchasing products from Idaho-based Micron. The move follows a seven-week investigation into Micron … Continue reading China bans Micron’s products from key infrastructure over security risk

The Times are reporting a warning from top educators on the dangers they see emanating from AI. Such warnings are becoming frequent from others including Harari in the Economist, Elon Musk and even Sam Altman head of OpenAI. This got me thinking about an attempt to capture the current state of fear and doom from AI. Here is version 1. The evolving position on AI There are broadly views from three groups covered here: Some deeper review will come later on Harari, and the Musk, Altman et al group. Nature of broad risks I see being identified, although Fear of … Continue reading AI ‘is clear and present danger to education’ – The Times

Two recent videos to audiences of industry and investors https://youtu.be/z4jGmKUc6Aw https://youtu.be/hkeohWt6rGA Sniippets from the Annual letter. We need to look past the current core value proposition which aligns with the defence industry in US and Europe. The bold comment is my emphasis and is telling when we look at Silicon Valley. The broader moral and philosophical questions raised by the role our software is playing in the defense and intelligence sectors are significant. We acknowledge that the participation of private corporations, whose leadership is unelected and therefore not directly beholden to the public, raises important questions regarding the appropriate means … Continue reading Palantir CEO Alex Karp on Responsible AI | REAIM 2023

NYT A brave new world. A new crop of chatbots powered by artificial intelligence has ignited a scramble to determine whether the technology could upend the economics of the internet, turning today’s powerhouses into has-beens and creating the industry’s next giants. Here are the bots to know: ChatGPT. ChatGPT, the artificial intelligence language model from a research lab, OpenAI, has been making headlines since November for its ability to respond to complex questions, write poetry, generate code, plan vacations and translate languages. GPT-4, the latest version introduced in mid-March, can even respond to images (and ace the Uniform Bar Exam). … Continue reading A New Generation of Chatbots

The hot topic on AI is an internal Google memo which highlights the authors belief that Open Source will beat the Google development model. I will leave the discussion on what is good for Google to those better qualified, I am more interested in what is good for AI and creating a step change in economic productivity thus GDP. I discussed here yesterday: The lens through which AI ought to be viewed is in this context; step changes to how economic growth is generated over the coming decades. Any early understandings could produce a future trajectory beyond imagination and certainly … Continue reading Is Open Source a legitimate method to achieve “Diffusion Surplus” from AI

Definition of the ‘diffusion deficit’, why it matters for productivity and how technology leadership is explained Citation: Jeffrey Ding (2023): The diffusion deficit in scientific and technological power: re-assessing China’s rise. Original documenton Routledge Review of International Political Economy DOI: 10.1080/09692290.2023.2173633 Mirrored on this blog Podcast https://Chinatalk.media ChinaTalk Deep coverage of China, technology, and US-China relations. We feature original analysis and reporting, interviews with leading thinkers and annotated translations of key Chinese-language sources.- Over 24,000 subscribers INTRODUCTION: Technology, productivity and country leadership ChinaTalk is my latest goto podcast. Despite the name, the current themes are more related to an introspective … Continue reading The diffusion deficit in scientific and technological power