The day before the opening of the 2022 World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) in Shanghai (September 1), the United States announced that Nvidia and AMD, two major chip factories, will restrict the export of many AI chips to China in stages before September 2023 , on the grounds that it avoids the use of chips for Chinese military purposes.
Washington’s gift was well timed, and the goal was precise and ruthless. Nvidia revealed that the above restrictions mainly affect the “deep learning” AI chips of the A100 and H100AI. An AMD spokesman said that the “graphics processing unit” (GPU) series of products that perform AI operations will be banned from exporting to China. Industry insiders pointed out that without the above chips from Nvidia and AMD, it would be difficult for China to effectively perform image and speech recognition, as well as other advanced computing. “Image recognition and speech technology are commonly used for commercial purposes, such as voice query and photo processing of smartphones. At the same time, they can also be transferred to military purposes, such as searching for strike targets, reconnaissance of military facilities, satellite imagery, and filtering digital communication to gather intelligence, etc.”
The 3-day WAIC has come to a successful conclusion, however, the Western media ignores this technology industry event. According to the information of the conference, there are more than 500 guests from Chinese and foreign scientific and technological circles this time, including four winners of the Turing Award (the award was established in 1966, known as the Nobel Prize in computer science), the Nobel Prize, the Fields Medal (1936 The Mathematical Award established in 1999) and the Marr Award (established in 1987, one of the highest honors in computer vision research, selected every two years) has one winner each, more than 80 domestic and foreign academicians, and more than 20 university presidents. The forum covers four major fields of technological innovation, industrial application, rule of law ethics and ecological construction, involving more than 30 professional directions, including AI+metaverse, brain-computer interface and other current global hot topics of artificial intelligence. The total number of online viewers exceeded 638 million.
However, “Voice of America” quoted an unnamed American AI expert as saying, “China used to hold similar forums and always invited a large number of top international scholars to participate in the grand event, but since former US President Trump launched the US and China After the tech war, many international scholars, especially in the United States, declined to attend to avoid getting into trouble.” If the situation is true, the United States is using its coercive power to suppress and threaten academic exchanges, and its behavior is worthless.
The China Institute of Science and Technology Information released the “2021 Global Artificial Intelligence Innovation Index Report” on September 1. The report divides 46 countries in the world into four echelons, of which only the United States and China are ranked first. The report said China was aggressively closing the distance with the United States on the overall score. As of September 2021, China has a total of 880 artificial intelligence companies, an increase of 7% over the same period last year, ranking second in the world, but related companies have received a total of 46.2 billion US dollars in investment, and the average investment is the highest in the world.
“Nihon Keizai Shimbun” reported in August this year that China’s AI research will reverse the United States. According to a Stanford University report, since 2012, the number of AI papers in China has surpassed that of the United States, and the number of citations reflecting the quality of research is also in 2020. Beyond the United States, the offensive and defensive war between the United States and China over “AI dominance” will be further intensified.
However, the United States maintains its traditional advantages in AI scientific research talents and education – a 2017 study showed that the size of the AI talent pool in the United States is seven times that of China. In addition, the United States has an ecosystem composed of scientific institutions, government projects, and technology companies, which is difficult for other countries to replicate. Another major boost is that the United States can hinder China’s AI technology development in terms of chip technology. Industry estimates, This can make the Chinese mind at least three to five years.
I think the more headache should be in the US corporate world. After the announcement of the new ban, the stock prices of Nvidia and AMD fell immediately. This is a normal reaction. The United States has abandoned the world’s largest chip buyer. Do you want everyone to do business? How do American chips work?