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3.95 AVERAGE
3.95 AVERAGE
A wonderful and insightful read albeit only from china's point of view.
The first 2/3 of the book was a great overview, covering both tech and culture. Then the was a hard personal pivot and at that point , it became far less interesting.
Kai-Fu Lee's perspective is eye-opening, after 4 decades of his life dedicated to optimizing technologies and maximizing his impact in development and education, he is brought to the point of true meaning and understanding...
After great detail of how China embarked the AI train and pursued to optimize this with every step taken and a comparison in parallel with the US potential and development, one can draw their own conclusion about each country's trajectory to what we may call success. However, in the final chapters on the book, Kai-Fu Lee beautifully describes what he has understood as success for human life and what we all should seek to achieve. For some it might be surprising, for some it may come as a reassurance, nevertheless we must all learn from his experience and pursue this goal for a better future.
After great detail of how China embarked the AI train and pursued to optimize this with every step taken and a comparison in parallel with the US potential and development, one can draw their own conclusion about each country's trajectory to what we may call success. However, in the final chapters on the book, Kai-Fu Lee beautifully describes what he has understood as success for human life and what we all should seek to achieve. For some it might be surprising, for some it may come as a reassurance, nevertheless we must all learn from his experience and pursue this goal for a better future.
this felt like one of those books that should've been a long essay with one main point: Deep learning is an innovative technology that is now being applied to many different contexts, America is better at the former, already achieved goals, and China at the latter, leading us to the next era of Chinese superpowerness. I enjoyed reading the brief histories of tech start ups in China but many parts of the book felt redundant. I ended up skimming much of the second half of the book.
Kai-Fu Lee has undoubtably written an important contribution to the fairly new conversations regarding the role artificial intelligence is likely to have on jobs and culture in the years to come. Most informative is his rich understanding of China’s development as a source of technological innovation. While most Americans think of China as a mere competitor, Lee provides a deeper perspective on China’s development within the tech space, and artificial intelligence more specifically. Lee is at his best when dissecting his four waves of AI revolutions (internet, business, perception, and autonomous) and the relative balance of innovation and potential between the U.S. and China therein. As is typical of most popular treatments of tech issues, the narrative runs a bit thin when Lee tries to relate some of his personal epiphanies and when it comes to some of his prescriptions regarding his predictions. To be fair, the personal trials and growth Lee details are significant and genuine. It is just that these latter parts of the book lack the depth of insight many readers come to nonfictions works about technology for in the first place. There minor issues aside, “AI Superpowers” is a fantastic primer on how tech and global political issues are likely to mix in the years to come.
Very good book to be read immediately as it deals with current affairs of technological development. I have to admit that my knowledge about Chinese VC scene and their level of development was rather limited, this book filled the gaps and made me think about shifting technological power balance. Very well written, easy read.
Great distillation of state of AI; unconvincing prescription
I really, really enjoyed the overview of AI and fantastic description of the Chinese approach to technology - seriously illuminating. I also really was touched by the author’s soul-searching and reawakening, and could even relate to it myself.
I was unconvinced, though, by the “what do we do about this?” answers. They felt a little pat, and contrived, and given the author’s academic connections, I expected a lot more rigor. I actually think a human approach based on love MAY be an answer to the AI conundrum, but I didn’t see much more than a (genuine) hope that that work to support the argument.
I really, really enjoyed the overview of AI and fantastic description of the Chinese approach to technology - seriously illuminating. I also really was touched by the author’s soul-searching and reawakening, and could even relate to it myself.
I was unconvinced, though, by the “what do we do about this?” answers. They felt a little pat, and contrived, and given the author’s academic connections, I expected a lot more rigor. I actually think a human approach based on love MAY be an answer to the AI conundrum, but I didn’t see much more than a (genuine) hope that that work to support the argument.
I was hoping for an insightful read about the balance between the US and China and the current global state of AI, but instead the book basically evolved from cover letter to personal memoir, with a clear bias towards China throughout. Maybe I would have liked this more if I was previously familiar with Kai-Fu Lee, but I found "AI Superpowers" too heavy on the author bragging and not heavy enough on actual substance.
informative
inspiring
Probably more like 3.5 stars. Some great parts and some fluff