Tag: China

NIO EP9 Claims to be World’s Fastest Autonomous Electric Super Car

In Season 3 Episode 6 of the Grand Tour, I saw some aerial photography of one of China's largest/megalopolis cities and was introduced to the NIO EP9. The NIO EP9 is faster than most gasoline-powered supercars and cheaper than half of them. I am impressed and a bit concerned about how the USA will compete with China.

Jump to the link and be sure to watch the Circuit of America’s (the first US Formula 1 race track in decades) video to see how NIO has as combined AI with electric car technology to produce the world's fastest cryotocyber.

To paraphrase a well-known science fiction author:

“The future is here, it’s just all in China.”

NIO EP9. Image © NIO.
NIO EP9. Image © NIO.

The security implications of China’s AI Strategy

Understanding China's AI Strategy by Gregory C. Allen

In the second half of 2018, I traveled to China on four separate trips to attend major diplomatic, military, and private-sector conferences focusing on Artificial Intelligence (AI). During these trips, I participated in a series of meetings with high-ranking Chinese officials in China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, leaders of China’s military AI research organizations, government think tank experts, and corporate executives at Chinese AI companies. From these discussions – as well as my ongoing work analyzing China’s AI industry, policies, reports, and programs – I have arrived at a number of key judgments about Chinese leadership’s views, strategies, and prospects for AI as it applies to China’s economy and national security. Of course, China’s leadership in this area is a large population with diversity in its views, and any effort to generalize is inherently presumptuous and essentially guaranteed to oversimplify. However, the distance is large between prevailing views in American commentary on China’s AI efforts and what I have come to believe are the facts. I hope by stating my takeaways directly, this report will advance the assessment of this issue and be of benefit to the wider U.S. policymaking community.

Gregory C. Allen at the Center for a New American Security has produced a report with analysis and insights into China's AI strategy with national and cyber-security implications for the commercial, government, and military sectors.

Social Ranking

Is Big Tech Merging With Big Brother? Kinda Looks Like It by David Samuels

A friend of mine, who runs a large television production company in the car-mad city of Los Angeles, recently noticed that his intern, an aspiring filmmaker from the People’s Republic of China, was walking to work.

When he offered to arrange a swifter mode of transportation, she declined. When he asked why she explained that she “needed the steps” on her Fitbit to sign in to her social media accounts. If she fell below the right number of steps, it would lower her health and fitness rating, which is part of her social rating, which is monitored by the government. A low social rating could prevent her from working or travelling abroad.

Have you seen the Black Mirror episode, Nose Dive?