Sci-fi visions become reality in China’s AI use

The influential sci-fi writer, whose stories have been adapted into movies such as “Bladerunner,” “Minority Report” and “Total Recall”, wrote about AI or artificial intelligence with great conviction and style.
In “Minority Report”, Tom Cruise plays a policeman able to predict criminal acts before they occur and intervene to prevent them. Cruise’s character relies on the advice of “pre-cogs” – individuals who have the psychic or precognitive ability to see events in the future.
Today in China, none of this seems far-fetched as Big Data is collected to anticipate future behaviour and AI is used by China’s police force to identify and arrest criminals.
Sixteen cities, municipalities and provinces are using a lightning-fast facial recognition system that draws on 170 million surveillance cameras nationwide. Over the past two years the system has reportedly led to the arrest of more than 2,000 people. 
Two weeks ago, facial recognition technology was used to locate and arrest a wanted man attending a pop concert in Nanchang city. Cameras identified him at the venue’s entrance and he was arrested after sitting down among 60,000 other concert-goers.
China’s police have also been testing sunglasses with built-in facial recognition to catch suspects and those travelling under false identities.
In Thailand, while companies are certainly embracing AI to improve their businesses, a comprehensive surveillance system that would allow what China is doing remains a dream – for better or worse. Bangkok residents are long accustomed to surveillance cameras that point the wrong way or are down for maintenance!
More prosaic uses of facial recognition and other elements of AI are also becoming widespread in China. Banks, for example, are using it to enhance their customer service. 
The most extreme case is state-owned China Construction Bank (one of the world’s biggest banks) which this month opened an automated branch in Shanghai equipped with facial-scanning software, a virtual reality room, a hologram machine, talking robots and touch screens for paying utility bills. While the branch still has a few human staff and guards on hand, walking into the place must feel like being on a movie set.
Banking AI probably wouldn’t make for a movie as exciting as the crime fighting of Minority Report”, but it may turn out to have a greater impact on people’s day-to-day lives – further evidence that today’s sci-fi is indeed tomorrow’s reality.

For more columns in this series, visit www.bangkokbank.com