China and the golden age of artificial intelligence

Five years ago, management consulting firm McKinsey predicted that by 2020 China would face a huge mismatch of labour – a surplus of around 22 million workers at the lower end of the market and a shortfall of 24 million workers with tertiary education. Technology advances have meant that China’s challenge has become a global one as new economic forces reshape businesses and labour forces.
Nowhere is this more apparent than in the field of artificial intelligence (AI), which is critical for the economies of the future given that competition for skilled professionals is so intense. 
Highly sought-after researchers can choose to work anywhere in the world and many choose the US. To attract the best talent, some major Chinese companies have set up dedicated AI research units in the US, such as Tencent’s in Seattle. 
While the US is easily the leader in terms of the number of AI companies – with around three times as many as China – China has more AI professionals. 
About 30 per cent of the 20,000 most important AI documents produced globally between 2005 and 2015 were written by Chinese authors. 
Indeed, Google’s famous AI program, AlphaGo, which beat the world’s top Go players, was first conceived by a Chinese scientist.
In recognition of its importance, the Chinese government has included AI in China’s 13th Five-Year Plan. To take this further, the Chinese Academy of Engineering wants an “Artificial Intelligence 2.0 Plan” which would support innovation across a broad range of areas such as unmanned systems, cyber security and social governance.
At a recent IT summit in Shenzhen, Chinese executives forecast that the next few decades would be a golden age for the AI industry as the way business is done is being revolutionised. 
Already we can see the shape of the future as AI is being used for image and voice recognition, self-driving cars, logistics, finance and marketing. It is also transforming industries such as manufacturing and construction – Sinovation Ventures CEO Lee Kai-Fu predicts that within ten years, 50 per cent of all manual work will be replaced by AI.
In Thailand, AI is one of the government’s target industries with good incentives being provided by the Board of Investment. 
The private sector is also actively adopting AI, with industries such as auto manufacturing, electronics, finance and health care leading the way. However, Thailand too will face a talent shortage and it is good to see universities such as Kasetsart, Chulalongkong, Mahidol, and King Mongkut’s University of Technology, Thonburi – as well as companies such as PTT – very active in this area. 
Meanwhile banks are supporting innovative start-ups. All parties need to work together to ensure Thailand doesn’t miss out on this trend.