Shulou(Shulou.com)06/02 Report--

Kaifu Lee: European artificial Intelligence is hopeless

Https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/c4PIJ0jcbx6GEjUs2QV7jA

Produced by big data Digest

Compiled by M.Y.Love, Zhang Chi, Jiang Baoshang

In the eyes of the world, the development of artificial intelligence in Europe is very strong, although it is not as strong as China and the United States, but in the first three numbers, we may also see the shadow of Europe.

But Kaifu Lee, a former Apple and Microsoft executive, former president of Google China, a prominent venture capitalist and artificial intelligence expert, said Europe did not even qualify for the AI bronze medal.

In an interview, he cited the following reasons for Europe's inability to compete in the top three:

O there is no venture capital entrepreneur ecosystem

O never set up any successful consumer Internet company

O never set up a social media company or a large mobile app company

O Local enterprises cannot compete with Google, Facebook and so on.

Please enjoy the specific content of the interview!

Q: although you are optimistic about the great potential of the United States and China in artificial intelligence, you have not shared your views on Europe. What do you think of the potential of artificial intelligence in Europe?

A: I don't think about Europe because I don't think Europe even has a chance to participate in the so-called "bronze medal" in this artificial intelligence competition.

Apart from a strong research tradition, Europe does not have other success factors of the United States or China. If you list the five reasons why Silicon Valley is leading the trend and the five reasons why China is in the lead, you will find that Europe can only meet half of the conditions of Silicon Valley.

In addition, there is no ecosystem of venture capital entrepreneurs in Europe. European entrepreneurs are far less innovative than American entrepreneurs and less tenacious than Chinese entrepreneurs. European entrepreneurs lack experience in dealing with these types of software and AI problems.

There are many excellent hardware and telecom companies in Europe, as well as some very good companies. But it has never actually established any successful consumer Internet companies, social media companies or large mobile app companies. Therefore, Europe has no experience in dealing with big data or large AI companies.

The only exception is Google DeepMind, but now this is an American company. It has been acquired by Alphabet.

Q: compared with the United States and China, what is missing in Europe?

A: the United States takes the lead because it has a strong strength in both research and implementation, has the best ecosystem of venture capital entrepreneurs in the world, and has business giants such as Google, Facebook and Amazon, ensuring a huge lead.

There have been 40 or 50 years of interdisciplinary cooperation in the United States: the semiconductor industry, the PC industry, the software industry, the Internet industry, the social media industry, and the mobile industry are all cooperating to help each other. Now all the resources are helping the AI industry. Silicon Valley continues to maintain these fine traditions.

China is strong because it has a huge market, everyone speaks Chinese, has the same history and culture, and has a large population. In China, the fact that data is easy to aggregate creates a profitable business model, because if it operates in one city, it can operate in a hundred big cities; if it applies to the demographics of one place, then it applies to demographics everywhere.

In addition, market size has a greater advantage in AI because it requires a lot of data; the more data, the better. In addition, China has established an entrepreneurial ecosystem in which venture capital and entrepreneurs help each other promote each other's rapid economic growth faster than the United States.

Although China is lagging behind in many ways, it has also brought some "good luck", which enables China to leap directly into the mobile world, skip credit card payments into mobile payments, and now skip shopping in shopping malls and enter online retail. Wait. The legacy of an industry is hard to get rid of because it brings bad habits and burdens that are hard to change.

China has established its own business model and formed many unique giant companies. China's business model is actually more indestructible than the American business model; in China, the culture of winner-takes-all, the pursuit of excellence, work ethic and speed make it harder for emerging tech giants to be eliminated. All this has combined to create a whole new way of creating technology giants.

Finally, China has the advantage of the government: building infrastructure, providing investment, and setting a nationwide direction.

Q: how do you think proposals for European regulatory measures such as data protection, action against technology monopolies and the innovation sandbox, one of the top judging competitions in the global security industry, will help Europe develop its AI rules?

A: this is a very academic argument. In order for Europe to really compete, we have to start all over again-go to Europe to delete everyone's mobile phone and Internet information, and start all over again. But unfortunately, we can't get rid of history or people's habits.

Google, Amazon and Facebook are widely used in Europe, and even if they don't like some of them, they still like their software in general.

Google is powerful enough to know exactly who typed in what and searched for what. I don't think more powerful will be achieved by anonymizing data and creating larger aggregations. No one can prove it. But in fact, Google and Facebook already have access to your information, which gives them huge benefits. So if you get rid of this ability-how will the new company compete? If you leave Facebook and Google in Europe, but then promote a third company in a new way, they don't have any data.

Google and Facebook basically have money printing presses, so I don't believe that new companies under European regulation will be better monetized. I believe it will protect people better, but I really don't believe it can be more profitable. So I think the only way for Europe to succeed is to eliminate Google, Facebook and Amazon.

"the only way for Europe to succeed is to outcompete Google, Facebook and Amazon in the competition."

But it is naive to achieve Europe's rise by limiting the power of these tech giants. It's almost impossible because Europe lags far behind and people don't give up the benefits of Google because it's what they like. This is a capitalist world.

Q: how do you think European startups want to blaze a path with global technology giants from the United States and China?

A: if you want to experiment, find some really underdeveloped countries, where there is nothing. Then try your idea, or use the infrastructure that fits the local customs to build something completely different.

Google did not beat Microsoft by building a better operating system. But now Microsoft has just replaced its Edge browser with Google browser Chromium. Microsoft has lost to Google in the browser war. "We will build better technology to beat Microsoft's dominant browser and its monopoly," Google said. Instead, Google went through an "independent" process of building a search engine, then monetizing advertising, then seizing mobile, acquiring Android, making Android the default standard, and then figuring out how to monetize maps, search services and Android stores. Finally, Google's browser also runs better.

Microsoft's influence is being replaced by Google, which is very enlightening; this is how you beat a giant with another giant. Of course, the competition is not over, and now Microsoft is turning to cloud computing. But I really don't believe that monopolists can never be challenged.

I admire European idealism and I think the effort to protect people's privacy is great. But my advice is to create a whole new application and focus on developing it. It can be done, you just need to use idealism to find the next paradigm shift and apply your innovation there.

Q: how does China's attitude towards data privacy affect innovation in the technology industry?

A: Chinese companies are not much different from American companies: they aggregate data, create closed-loop systems and use AI to maximize their profits, just like Google,Facebook and Amazon.

The Chinese government has its own data protection law, which restricts companies from selling data to each other rather than protecting personal data privacy. The focus is on cases of illegal data transfer between Facebook-Cambridge Analytica.

China's technical laws are often very practical. They tend to let things be carried out first, and then correct them when they go wrong. When the government sees things go wrong, it acts quickly and corrects them.

The government found a large number of frauds based on the fact that some people bought data from others, then sent false advertisements and sent fake orders on credit cards. So this is a big problem that the government wants to stop. In addition, it also blocks Cambridge Analytica-type cases, but this is not the original motivation.

In China, there are not many cases in which individuals feel that their privacy has been improperly used by technology giants. All these technology companies, whether in the United States or China, must consider the issue of reputation so as not to cause public discontent, as is the case with Facebook. But Google is doing quite well, and Chinese companies are doing very well, so there are not many complaints or major data leaks.

I think the Chinese government will continue to pay attention to consumers and whether they are hurt or not. If they hadn't been hurt, then I don't think there would be a new law. In this sense, China and the United States are more similar to each other than Europe.

Related reports:

Https://sifted.eu/articles/interview-kaifu-lee-artificial-intelligence/

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