Every Wednesday and Friday, TechNode's Briefing newsletter delivers a roundup of the most important news in China tech, straight to your inbox. Kai-Fu Lee, former president of Google China and now CEO of Sinovation Ventures, announced on Monday that he's building a new AI company called Project AI 2.0 that will focus on developing ChatGPT-like apps, as well as an ecosystem for AI-powered productivity tools. Lee shared his thoughts on the latest AI trends, including the concepts of AI 1.0 and 2.0 on March 14, at Sinovation Ventures' headquarters in Beijing. He said he considers ChatGPT to be a major breakthrough in deep learning, driving AI into the 2.0 era. Why it matters: As a renowned AI expert and venture capitalist, Lee said he sees AI as providing an opportunity to reconstruct almost all existing applications, just as Microsoft redesigned Microsoft Office into Copilot, giving Word, Excel, and other mainstream productivity tools AI and generative capabilities.

What do Noam Chomsky, living legend of linguistics, Kai-Fu Lee, perhaps the most famous AI researcher in all of China, and Yejin Choi, the 2022 MacArthur Fellowship winner who was profiled earlier this week in The New York Times Magazine--and more than a dozen other scientists, economists, researchers, and elected officials--all have in common? They are all worried about the near-term future of AI. They are all worried about different things. Each spoke last week at December 23's AGI Debate (co-organized by Montreal.AI's Vince Boucher and myself). No summary can capture all that was said (though Tiernan Ray's 8,000 word account at ZDNet comes close), but here are a few of the many concerns that were raised: Noam Chomsky, who led off the night, was worried about whether the current approach to artificial intelligence would ever tell us anything about the thing that he cares about most: what makes the human mind what it is?

Anyone who has followed the ascent of Chinese businesses in recent years is aware that they have outpaced their Western competitors in terms of the fervour with which they have thrown themselves into initiatives using artificial intelligence. Although it's true that companies like Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Apple are also seen as necessary players in the "AI game," it doesn't seem unreasonable to anticipate that they will be dethroned in the upcoming years. A glance at the actions of the three major Chinese digital firms, Baidu, Alibaba, and Tencent, provides evidence for this. We cannot overlook the reality that these firms are in charge of the second-largest economy in the world, despite the fact that they have not yet made big moves toward Western markets, making their brands even less well-known at home. The most well-known use of Baidu is as the Chinese version of Google.

The founder of Humans for AI delivers a straightforward and structured way to think about trust and ethics in AI, and offers practical guidelines for organizations developing or using artificial intelligence solutions.

A fascinating and revealing account of espionage for the digital age, Spies, Lies, and Algorithms is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand the reality of spying today. Listen to our Book Bite summary, read by author Amy B. Zegart, in the Next Big Idea App From an engineer and futurist comes an impassioned account of technological stagnation since the 1970s, and an imaginative blueprint for a richer, more abundant future. Listen to our Book Bite summary, read by author J. Storrs Hall, in the Next Big Idea App A bold exploration and call to arms over the widening gap between AI, automation, and big data--and our ability to deal with its effects.

In 20 years, AI will be able to measure and improve human health as well as help us have more happy moments. The magic of AI rests in its uncanny ability to optimize a given goal in a specific way for each person. AI trains "neural networks" on huge amounts of labeled data; then they use what they've "learned" to mathematically pick out and recognize incredibly subtle patterns within other mountains of data, to maximize the given goal. What if we could use the magic of AI to make us healthy or happy? This is quite doable in the next twenty years, and one of the key points I explore in my new book, AI 2041.

Numerous books provide in-depth examinations of artificial intelligence's core concepts, technical processes, and applications. This list covers books written by eminent computer scientists and practitioners with deep ties to the artificial intelligence business. So, whether you're a researcher, an engineer, or a business professional working in the AI/ML space, you're sure to find a few new titles to add to your reading list! A leading artificial intelligence (AI) researcher and entrepreneur debunks the illusion that superintelligence is just a few clicks away and argues that this myth impedes innovation and distorts our capacity to make the critical next jump. According to futurists, AI will soon surpass the capabilities of the most gifted human mind.

When we think of artificial intelligence, many of us jump to visions of the future from science fiction--hellscapes like The Matrix, Black Mirror, and The Terminator. But that isn't necessarily the way things will turn out. Two leading experts in the technology think there's more cause for optimism than pessimism, even though there will be speed bumps along the way. Kai-Fu Lee is the former head of Microsoft Research in Asia, and Google in China. He's now the chairman and CEO of Sinovation Ventures, a venture capital firm with nearly $3 billion in assets; roughly 70 percent of its investments are AI-related.

Kai-Fu Lee is a Taiwanese computer scientist based in Beijing. After earning his Ph.D. in computer science from Carnegie Mellon, he worked at Apple and Microsoft before becoming president of Google China, a position he held from 2005 to 2009. Chen Qiufan is a renowned Chinese science fiction writer and the author of the novel The Waste Tide. Listen to the audio version--read by Lee himself--in the Next Big Idea App. As AI and other technologies disrupt the world, we all must familiarize ourselves with the opportunities they pose and the challenges they may create.

Some of the worst sectarian clashes since Lebanon's 15-year civil war (1975-1990) broke out in Beirut this week between supporters of Hezbollah and Amal, both Shiite political parties, and Christian, far-right Lebanese Forces. Shiite protesters were rallying against the state probe into the Beirut port blast, which occurred last year. They say authorities were singling out Shiite politicians for questioning and blame. In this video, watch Ian Bremmer's conversation with Lebanese journalist and author Kim Ghattas on GZW talking about the future of Lebanese politics and sectarianism in the county after the after the blast. It was originally published on August 19, 2020.