Recently, the biggest topics in the global IT industry are generative artificial intelligence (AI) and ‘Chat GPT’. For now, the U.S. is ahead. Open AI, the company that created Chat GPT, is a U.S. company, and Microsoft (MS) and Google, which lead the field, are all U.S. companies. In addition, the U.S. is far ahead in its ability to manufacture parts and equipment to run Chat GPT. Nvidia is a company that has developed AI chips that run Chat GPT. There are no companies in China that can compare with NVIDIA.In addition, as the U.S. is waging a semiconductor war with China, it is expected that it will take a long time for China to achieve semiconductor independence.Experts say, “China’s ability to manufacture equipment and parts is 10 to 15 years behind global leaders.” As a result, the U.S. is overwhelming China right now. However, China’s potential is also formidable.China has the world’s largest Internet population, so it may someday overtake the U.S. due to its vast data and technology companies boasting tremendous speed. China currently has a population of about 1.4 billion. It ranks second in the world after India. However, the Internet user population is larger than India. It is the world’s largest Internet country.
Already, almost everyone uses the super app WeChat to solve almost everything. In this process, abundant data is accumulating. In other words, there is a huge amount of data that can be used to improve AI. This is an unrivaled competitiveness that no country on Earth can match.Reporting CCTV, video information across the country: Controversial, but China’s lack of significant respect for personal privacy is also a big advantage in data accumulation. For example, there are CCTVs all over China. The video data produced by this CCTV is a huge report of information. If this is applied to Chat GPT, China is expected to have tremendous competitiveness. Chinese IT companies are very fast. This is because internal competition is so fierce that you cannot survive if you fall behind in speed. The theft of intellectual property rights for speed is acceptable. It is widely believed in the industry that China is the fastest in the IT industry on Earth. Due to these factors, China is likely to overtake the U.S. But there is a fatal weakness. It is Communist interference. Even now, the Communist Party is censoring the Internet. The same would be true of Chat GPT. Can Chinese chatbots, for example, answer sensitive questions about Xi Jinping?On the contrary, the Chinese Communist Party may invest heavily in generative AI to drive the rapid development of this area.The authoritarian dictatorship of the Chinese Communist Party is expected to be a double-edged sword in generative AI.
KS CHOI
US ASIA JOURNAL
