LI MIN/CHINA DAILY
In the race to become the leader in artificial intelligence, China and the United States are way ahead of the rest of the world. What does that mean for the other countries? Will these two global technology giants soak up the AI economic dividend all for themselves?
The answer is "no". There is a huge opportunity for smaller, agile economies in Asia－to borrow from Isaac Newton－to stand on the shoulders of the two giants in order to reap the benefits of AI application in their own industries.
Of course, it's right to recognize the supremacy of the US and China. The AI research infrastructure they have built has translated into an unassailable advantage over other competing countries in Europe, North America and Asia. This is due to a number of factors: the depth of their capital markets, the richness of their skills bases, the dominant position of their cash-rich technology companies, and the data generation capacity of their vast populations.