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AI Superpowers: China, Silicon Valley, and the New World Order Kindle Edition

4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 3,537 ratings

THE NEW YORK TIMES, USA TODAY, AND WALL STREET JOURNAL BESTSELLER

"Kai-Fu Lee believes China will be the next tech-innovation superpower and in
AI Superpowers: China, Silicon Valley, and the New World Order, he explains why. Taiwan-born Lee is perfectly positioned for the task."—New York Magazine

In this thought-provoking book, Lee argues powerfully that because of the unprecedented developments in AI, dramatic changes will be happening much sooner than many of us expected. Indeed, as the US-Sino AI competition begins to heat up, Lee urges the US and China to both accept and to embrace the great responsibilities that come with significant technological power.

Most experts already say that AI will have a devastating impact on blue-collar jobs. But Lee predicts that Chinese and American AI will have a strong impact on white-collar jobs as well. Is universal basic income the solution? In Lee’s opinion, probably not. But he provides a clear description of which jobs will be affected and how soon, which jobs can be enhanced with AI, and most importantly, how we can provide solutions to some of the most profound changes in the future of human history.
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A New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today Bestseller! Featured on CBS 60 Minutes Kai-Fu Lee named a Wired Icon, as part of Wired Magazine's 25th Anniversary Feature Publishers Weekly Fall 2018 Top 10 in Business & Economics Featured in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, Wired, Financial Times, Bloomberg Businessweek, Business Insider, Forbes, and more. "After thirty years of pioneering work in artificial intelligence at Google China, Microsoft, Apple and other companies, Lee says he’s figured out the blueprint for humans to thrive in the coming decade of massive technological disruption: 'Let us choose to let machines be machines, and let humans be humans.'"―Forbes "Provocative."―Fortune "Kai-Fu Lee believes China will be the next tech-innovation superpower and in his new (and first) book, AI Superpowers: China, Silicon Valley, and the New World Order, he explains why. Taiwan-born Lee is perfectly positioned for the task."―New York Magazine "Both a provocative and readable distillation of the conventional wisdom on AI supremacy, as well as a challenge to it."―Financial Times "AI Superpowers: China, Silicon Valley, and the New World Order, by Kai-Fu Lee, about the ways that artificial intelligence is reshaping the world and the economic upheaval new technology will generate. We need to start thinking now about how to address these gigantic changes."―Senator Mark Warner, when asked about the best book he's read all year, Politico “Kai-Fu Lee's smart analysis on human-AI coexistence is clear-eyed and a must-read. We must look deep within ourselves for the values and wisdom to guide AI's development.” ―Satya Nadella, CEO, Microsoft “In his brilliant book, Kai-Fu Lee applies his superpowers to predicting the disruptive shifts that will define the AI-powered future and proposes a revolutionary social contract that forges a new synergy between AI and the human heart.” ―Marc Benioff, Chairman & CEO Salesforce “AI is surpassing human intelligence in more and more domains, transforming the planet. Kai-Fu Lee has been at the epicentre of the AI revolution for thirty years and has now written the definitive guide.” ―Erik Brynjolfsson, professor, MIT, bestselling co-author of The Second Machine Age and Machine, Platform, Crowd “Kai-Fu Lee is at the forefront of the coming AI revolution, helping us transcend the limitations of thought, reach, and vision. This seminal book on AI is a must read for anyone serious about understanding the future of our species.” ―Peter Diamandis, Executive Founder, Singularity University; bestselling author of Abundance and BOLD. “Truly one of the wisest and most surprising takes on AI. Kai-Fu Lee connects it with humans in a logical yet inspiring way. You’ll find this book illuminating and exciting in equal measure.” ―Chris Anderson, Head of TED “In this riveting page-turner, one of the founding fathers of China’s AI industry tells the inside story of China’a rise as an AI superpower, and shares his inspiring recipe for us flourishing rather than floundering with AI.” ―Prof. Max Tegmark, professor, MIT and bestselling author of Life 3.0: Being ―

About the Author

KAI-FU LEE is a venture capitalist, former CEO of Google China, and ranked by Forbes as #1 among the leaders of China's AI revolution, a graduate of Columbia University and received his doctorate from Carnegie Mellon. He is chairman and CEO of Sinovation Ventures.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0795DNWCF
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Harper Business; 1st edition (25 September 2018)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 3.2 MB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 275 pages
  • Page numbers source ISBN ‏ : ‎ 132854639X
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 3,537 ratings

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Kai-Fu Lee
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Dr. Kai-Fu Lee is the Chairman and CEO of Sinovation Ventures (www.sinovationventures.com/) and President of Sinovation Venture’s Artificial Intelligence Institute. Sinovation Ventures, managing US$2 billion investment funds, is a leading venture capital firm focusing on developing the next generation of Chinese high-tech companies. Prior to founding Sinovation in 2009, Dr. Lee was the President of Google China. Previously, he held executive positions at Microsoft, SGI, and Apple. Dr. Lee received his Bachelor degree from Computer Science from Columbia University, Ph.D. from Carnegie Mellon University, as well as Honorary Doctorate Degrees from both Carnegie Mellon and the City University of Hong Kong. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), Times 100 in 2013, WIRED 25 Icons , Asian Business Leader 2018 by Asia House, and followed by over 50 million audience on social media.

In the field of artificial intelligence, Dr. Lee built one of the first game playing programs to defeat a world champion (1988, Othello), as well as the world’s first large-vocabulary, speaker-independent continuous speech recognition system. Dr. Lee founded Microsoft Research China, which was named as the hottest research lab by MIT Technology Review. Later renamed Microsoft Research Asia, this institute trained the great majority of AI leaders in China, including CTOs or AI heads at Baidu, Tencent, Alibaba, Lenovo, Huawei, and Haier. While with Apple, Dr. Lee led AI projects in speech and natural language, which have been featured on Good Morning America on ABC Television and the front page of Wall Street Journal. He has authored 10 U.S. patents, and more than 100 journal and conference papers. Altogether, Dr. Lee has been in artificial intelligence research, development, and investment for more than 30 years. His New York Time and Wall Street Journal bestselling book AI Superpowers (aisuperpowers.com) discusses US-China co-leadership in the age of AI as well as the greater societal impacts brought upon by the AI technology revolution.

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Artificial intelligence is more human than we think
4 out of 5 stars
Artificial intelligence is more human than we think
Picked this up to learn about AI. Ended up learning far more than that.Despite the never-ending scrolling and surfing, we do online, some books just make you feel like you've been living under a rock. This is one of those. Dr Lee shows the potential of AI while explaining how we must adapt in order to co-exist with AI."Never has the potential for human flourishing been higher, or the stakes of failure greater"#lockdownread
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Top reviews from Australia

  • Reviewed in Australia on 6 July 2024
    Verified Purchase
    I would recommend this book to those who are wondering about the role of AI and how it may shape our world
  • Reviewed in Australia on 4 July 2021
    Verified Purchase
    There are very few cross-cultural interpreters who are able to explain the East to the West and vice versa. Kai-Fu Lee is one of them. This book is very valuable for that reason. He knows both sides- he ‘gets’ it. I only became anxious once when he described his conversion experience. However, he successfully avoided a plunge into sentimentality, recovered his cool, and rounded off the book with some sensible opinions of the future of AI. Overall, a very helpful book for peering into the future.
  • Reviewed in Australia on 18 March 2021
    Verified Purchase
    Kai-Fu Lee has penned an absolute gem of a book! He makes a thoughtful and evidence-based argument, successfully, in my view, that China is going to win the AI race. This argument is the crux of this book, and he looks at several facets and provides excellent reasoning and examples to make his point.
    According to Kai-Fu, China will win the AI race due to the following reasons:

    1. Access to an enormous volume of quality data (growth expected to surpass 10x that of the USA and Europe combined)
    2. A cutthroat entrepreneurial environment, where only the best of best can survive - akin to gladiators in a coliseum
    3. Increasing access to highly skilled AI experts
    4. Government sponsorship at the highest levels wanting to make China the leader in this space

    Data is the fuel driving development of the AI landscape. The more quality data you can feed a model, the better it gets. The extraordinary adoption of "super-apps", such as WeChat and Alipay, has resulted in skyrocketing data volumes in China. These super apps are vertically integrated (app within an app without downloading separate apps) and a "one-stop-shop" for anything you need. The secret ingredient in these apps is native mobile payments making it easy for people to adopt these apps. You can only imagine the quality of data you can extract from such a platform.

    Kai-Fu acknowledges that traditionally China has been a "copycat" but warns in the same vein that it's no longer the case due to its gladiator-like entrepreneurial ecosystem. This attribution is what intrigued me the most while reading the book. Kai-Fu explains how this ecosystem has evolved from a bunch of copycats to innovators - Tiktok came from China, and we don't have a super-app like WeChat in the West. He calls the entrepreneurs gladiators because that's precisely how they operate in China. Silicon Valley entrepreneurs are typically mission-driven, but Chinese entrepreneurs are money-driven and will do whatever it takes to win. You can't survive in China if you don't have a business model that can scale. This hunger has driven the development of apps/platforms and business models catering to billions of people's needs.

    He makes a good case for why American firms do not survive in China - they won't customise platforms to suit the local population's needs and are very slow to move. Google, Uber, Amazon have all left China. When you have businesses like Tencent, Alibaba, Baidu and Bytedance with valuations that eclipse some Western companies, it's hard to ignore that might and power they wheel around the globe.

    When it comes to AI talent, he agrees that the USA and Canada have a great pool. Still, he also highlights that there is enormous collaboration within the AI community, and the amount of research papers published by Chinese scientists has increased significantly. Furthermore, universities are running AI degrees for students, and that population is increasing.

    Finally, the most important factor - support from government or the "Party". The government has developed a specific AI strategy and is throwing money at it like there is no tomorrow. New zones are being created to host AI startups, labs etc. There is absolutely no shortage of incentives for businesses to give it a go. He argues that the government is happy for people to flourish in the "private sector".

    This strength that he highlights is also the most significant risk for China to win this AI war. Since this book came out, a few things have changed. The government has put Jack Ma under house arrest (not officially but I can't see another way to look at it). They have stopped the IPO of Ant Financial and recently started clamping down on Tencent too.

    The bottom line is that no one company/individual is more significant than the Party, and they will be put back in line if they try anything foolish. This approach, where the Party will conflict with communist values vs. capitalism, is where the west will excel in the long term.

    Overall, it's a fascinating read and I would highly recommend this book to anyone trying to understand China's rise in the AI domain.
    One person found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in Australia on 21 February 2019
    Verified Purchase
    This book is very different to say a book out of the US. Paints a different picture.
    China will probably win the race.
    Chinese have no qualms about ripping off and replicating other technology’s then using it as there own.

    Chinese government is 100% behind AI development they will all so be willing to roll things out quicker then the west (like self driving vehicles drones medical AI just to mention a few) and sort out problems as they arise.

    China will have more AI engines then the west. China really has only gotten into it since early 2000’s and already three of the seven giant companies like Google and Facebook are Chinese Alibaba, Tencent and Baidu, like me you have heard of Alibaba as it more then likely pops up on your phone but what about the other two and they are two of the largest techno companies in the world?

    The book finishes on a positive note with what’s to come and some good ideas on what we can do with the changing world we will face.

    Side note: 🤪 like that?
    AI will in the not so distant future will BE, so I think we need to know what is coming and have some understanding so as not to fear it but if at all possible take advantage of it.
    2 people found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in Australia on 5 February 2019
    Verified Purchase
    A personal and humanistic view of a word we could build if we use Artificial Intelligence as as a tool, an extension of our human capabilities. Ki-Fu Lee expressed with amazing clarity what could we expect of a future were artificial intelligence is inevitable part of our lives and his concerns on how this powerful tool can become against what define us as humans.
    This book represents a life time of hard work, contributions and dedication to humanity. A must read.
    2 people found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in Australia on 20 March 2020
    Verified Purchase
    I really enjoyed this book. It keeps the reader engaged and does not go into in-depth technical information, but clearly conveys the big picture of what his view of AI now and in the future.
  • Reviewed in Australia on 22 April 2020
    Picked this up to learn about AI. Ended up learning far more than that.
    Despite the never-ending scrolling and surfing, we do online, some books just make you feel like you've been living under a rock. This is one of those. Dr Lee shows the potential of AI while explaining how we must adapt in order to co-exist with AI.

    "Never has the potential for human flourishing been higher, or the stakes of failure greater"

    #lockdownread
    Customer image
    4.0 out of 5 stars
    Artificial intelligence is more human than we think

    Reviewed in Australia on 22 April 2020
    Picked this up to learn about AI. Ended up learning far more than that.
    Despite the never-ending scrolling and surfing, we do online, some books just make you feel like you've been living under a rock. This is one of those. Dr Lee shows the potential of AI while explaining how we must adapt in order to co-exist with AI.

    "Never has the potential for human flourishing been higher, or the stakes of failure greater"

    #lockdownread
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Top reviews from other countries

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  • Luis Antonio
    5.0 out of 5 stars Genial
    Reviewed in Mexico on 16 February 2022
    Verified Purchase
    Da una visión muy amplia del la historia y contexto de la IA en China y su comparativo contra los Estados Unidos. Es un libro esencial para aquellos que buscan desmitificar la IA y empezar a conocer todas las aristas del tema, incluyendo el laboral y humano. Una joya¡!
  • Amazon Customer
    5.0 out of 5 stars AI Race among nations
    Reviewed in India on 14 February 2025
    Verified Purchase
    A book to be read by everyone to know what it is all about AI race among nations.
  • AGM
    5.0 out of 5 stars Inspirador
    Reviewed in Spain on 29 January 2025
    Verified Purchase
    Un buen libro para entender la revolución tecnolñogica que representa la Inteligencia Artificial.Además de una gran cantidad de datos contiene ideas, lo que es más importante.
  • Klaus
    2.0 out of 5 stars Kwaliteit boek
    Reviewed in the Netherlands on 8 July 2024
    Verified Purchase
    Het boek wordt verkocht als nieuw maar is duidelijk tweedehands, gebruikerssporen, beschadigingen en een parfum lucht.
  • Luc
    5.0 out of 5 stars Only fools never change their minds
    Reviewed in France on 18 August 2023
    Verified Purchase
    Kai-Fu Lee spends the first half of his book to explain the differences between Tech leaders and entrepreneurs in the US and in China, and why the latter will win the AI war.
    And then in the second half he explains why all these ambitions to prevail are worthless, and how AI should just be a tool serving a humanity having completely changed its values from material success to « love and be loved ».
    All of this is based on the author’s personal life and that is what makes it convincing.

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