How to cope with an AI-powered world for China

China should prepare for an artificial intelligence-driven world by focusing on education, evaluation and chip advancements.

Industry experts and scholars, speaking at an event hosted by Zhihu, China's Quora-like information-sharing platform, emphasized the need to prepare for an AI-powered transformation, which could bring both opportunities and challenges.

With the emergence of generative AI tools and data collection, such as ChatGPT and dozens of Chinese AI models, AI's intelligence level is likely to surpass that of humans.

Future workers must be able to work more efficiently with AI assistance while excelling in areas where human uniqueness is unrivaled by AI, such as critical thinking, innovation capabilities, and a lifelong learning mindset, according to Liu Pengfei, an associate professor at Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

According to Liu, "GPTs" are particularly prone to replacing or challenging highly-paid jobs.

He advocated for rethinking and redesigning educational systems to nurture talent capable of adapting to and leading the AI era with a sense of lifelong learning.

An AI-powered world

OpenAI, a leading AI model developer, has adapted AI computing skills to solve at least 20 percent of the superintelligence alignment problem.

The establishment of evaluation systems is another critical part of guaranteeing the healthy growth of AI technology, according to Ge Jiayue, AI product evaluation head of the Shanghai Artificial Intelligence Laboratory.

The Shanghai AI lab has built a large model evaluation system called OpenCompass, which has over 400,000 evaluation questions or benchmarks.

Chinese developers can better analyze the possibilities and limitations of AI technology by objectively evaluating and standardizing it, as well as knowing the differences and gaps between it and leading tools such as GPT4.

It also encourages its appropriate implementation and continual innovation with a correct or forward-looking orientation.

Another important aspect of preparing for the AI-driven future is technological innovation, particularly in the chip business.

Ji Yue, founder of Xingyun, a Chinese AI startup, said that the chip industry must continue to innovate to fulfill the high computing power and memory capacity requirements of AI models, lowering the cost of AI technology and promoting its widespread deployment.

When US firms like NVIDIA limit and control computing capacity, it makes sense and creates an opportunity for the Chinese semiconductor business.