Formulating Values for AI is Hard When Humans Do Not Agree: How we embed human values into AI code will be one of the most important forces shaping our century. Yet China and the west prioritise different things in algorithms; how far values differ were highlighted during an AI ethics seminar in London this month [paywall].
China’s AI Dream
Intro: China’s AI Dream: Chinese companies often lag behind their American peers in quality and diversity of data, but are particularly strong in the depth of data on each person. What this means is that many aspects of a Chinese citizen’s daily life are captured in digital form, and can then be used to either optimize AI-powered products. Digital and o2o apps aren't the only source of data, with facial recognition through CCTV helping the “data-tization” of China’s public spaces. In 2014, China had one university - Tsinghua - ranked in the top-15 for AI. By last year, it had four. The article includes interactive tools such as some of WeChat's sources of data.
5 Ways Digital Payments are Most Disruptive in Ecommerce: Just 10% of Chinese use cash, 12% use bank transfers and 20% use cards for ecommerce purchases - two-thirds of Japanese and three quarters of South Koreans use cards. China has the highest penetration of eWallets such as Alipay and WeChat Pay for online shopping globally.
What Are Click Farms? A Shadowy Internet Industry is Booming in China: One third of all clicks on China's internet are from click farms or bots, as businesses and KOLs of every shape and size pay companies to boost their rankings and sales. Last year, Chinese state media CCTV reported that 90% of views generated by many popular shows on video sites are fake. As algorithms and regulations get tougher, many fakers have shifted from automated bots to human click farms which are harder to detect and regulate, albeit more expensive.
