Global Economy / China rapidly catching up with U.S. in AI

By Naoki Ogawa / Yomiuri Shimbun Staff WrtiterChina is rapidly coming to the fore as a major player in the field of artificial intelligence (see below). Utilizing three strengths -- abundant research and development budgets, competent people in the field and massive accessible data, or big data -- the opportunity is nearing for the country to overtake the United States. Will China become the dominant power of the AI era? On Nov. 15, 2017, the Chinese government fully kicked off a gigantic project aimed at the development of the AI industry. According to Chinese media, a new organization created to lead the initiative is joined by multiple government institutions, including the Science and Technology Ministry as well as IT giants such as search engine company Baidu Inc., e-commerce firm Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and social networking giant Tencent Holdings Ltd., in an "all-China" effort involving both the public and private sectors.