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lemmy - Link to source

China is building a different type of AI

Compasses, not maps: China is building a different type of AI - Asia Times

Every few months, another Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) breakthrough makes global headlines. A Chinese AI model closes in on American rivals, a
Jan Krikke (Asia Times)
#technology
in reply to ☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆

onlinepersona
lemmy - Link to source
onlinepersona
• •

I don't see how they are different. Their uses, yes, but the fundamentals look the same, don't they? Everything still is broken down into quanta, discrete steps. They haven't invented a new AI or a chip that goes along with it that "flows".

Not sure what to make of this article...

in reply to onlinepersona

chicken
lemmy - Link to source
chicken
• •

I'm pretty sure the article itself is generated. This sort of refusal to commit to saying anything concrete is a hallmark of AI generated articles. The closest it comes to saying how AI is being used differently and it hedges with an "imagine this" sort of statement without references:

Now imagine AI in a different role. Instead of answering questions, it adjusts traffic lights as congestion builds. It balances electricity across a grid as demand shifts. It predicts equipment failures before they occur, reroutes freight around disruptions or continuously updates a digital model of an entire city as millions of people move through it.
in reply to onlinepersona

mistermodal
lemmy - Link to source
mistermodal
• •

You don't see the difference between an AI that can design + 3D print rocket engines, or manage robotic arms on an assembly line, & Grok? I'm not big on the I Ching unless novelists are using it, I think the OP article buries the lede on the AI race (the only one who wants to race is the US, & its losing)

The real battle is between primarily proprietary US models & the state-corralled primarily open source Chinese scene

in reply to mistermodal

onlinepersona
lemmy - Link to source
onlinepersona
• •
That isn't the difference the author is describing. They are talking about discrete vs continuous and bring it up a number of times. That is a fundamental difference in operation. Nowhere does it state how this is achieved. A neural network? LLM? Some advanced stochastic model? What?
in reply to onlinepersona

mistermodal
lemmy - Link to source
mistermodal
• •

Right the article sucks. Anyone who tries to make this about ideals rather than meticulous management of the quant & datacenter firms by the CPC is a bonehead. If you want good writing from Asia Times check this guy out. I met him on twitter and thought he was just a horny insane old man but he's actually quite intelligent!

asiatimes.com/author/han-feizi…


Han Feizi, Author at Asia Times

Han Feizi (Asia Times)
This entry was edited (2 weeks ago)
in reply to mistermodal

SineSwiper
lemmy - Link to source
SineSwiper
• •

Open source local LLMs will win the day, as the tech becomes more and more compressible. But, now AI data centers are f'ing up the supply that would have accelerated that process.

Frankly, it says more about the fragile PC supply chain than anything else, especially memory and other specialized electronic manufacturing processes.

in reply to onlinepersona

☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆
lemmy - Link to source
☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆
• •

Not really, China has been experimenting with a number of different approaches using analog neural circuits

LLMs are just one branch of a much wider field of AI research, and analog circuits that deal with flows instead of discrete values tend to be more efficient for modelling dynamic systems such as traffic flows.


Bridging Function Approximation and Device Physics via Negative Differential Resistance Networks

Achieving fully analog neural computation requires hardware that can natively implement both linear and nonlinear operations with high efficiency. While analogue matrix-vector multiplication has advanced via compute-in…
ar5iv
in reply to ☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆

onlinepersona
lemmy - Link to source
onlinepersona
• •

Honestly, the article is crap. It doesn't mention any of this. Thanks for linking it.

I remember reading about analog neural circuits somewhere but wasn't aware this was what the author was referring to. He just went around in circles describing how they were used.

in reply to onlinepersona

☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆
lemmy - Link to source
☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆
• •
I thought it was interesting conceptually even if light on details. In the west, most application for AI has been in the realm for content generation like making images, documents, writing code. Meanwhile, in China AI systems are used for stuff like monitoring traffic systems, maintaining high speed rail networks, and other types of dynamic systems management. I haven't really heard much about AI being applied in this way in western countries, and it seems like a far more practical use to me.
in reply to ☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆

SineSwiper
lemmy - Link to source
SineSwiper
• •
Flock, Palantir, and all of the use of AI for invasive surveillance? You hadn't heard of those?
in reply to ☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆

t3rmit3
lemmy - Link to source
t3rmit3
• •
tl;dr China is using AI for social control on a massive scale.
in reply to t3rmit3

☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆
lemmy - Link to source
☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆
• •
yeah that's not what the article actually says, but I can see how westerners living under oppressive regimes might start projecting
in reply to ☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆

t3rmit3
lemmy - Link to source
t3rmit3
• •
It's exactly what it says, but people living under any superpower's sphere of cultural influence (Western, Eastern, or otherwise) are clearly prone to see their government's actions as good and non-authoritarian.
in reply to t3rmit3

☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆
lemmy - Link to source
☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆
• •
managing traffic and rail systems isn't social control on a massive scale lmfao
in reply to ☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆

queermunist she/her
lemmy - Link to source
queermunist she/her
• •
It kind of is, but that doesn't make it bad? Like, traffic has a massive scale, and controlling it means controlling at least that aspect of society and all of the downstream societal effects. That's... good? The state should be controlling some aspects of society on a massive scale, because the state's scale is massive.
This entry was edited (2 weeks ago)
in reply to queermunist she/her

☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆
lemmy - Link to source
☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆
• •
I'd see this sort of use as more facilitating efficient operation of traffic, but I agree some measure of control by the state is also necessary, and is not inherently a negative thing.
in reply to ☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆

queermunist she/her
lemmy - Link to source
queermunist she/her
• •

Right, but efficient operation of traffic has downstream effects on all of society. One idea I've had is if monitoring traffic allowed for the state to mandate that every work place had their quitting times staggered out, so, factory A closes at 5:25 and factory B closes at 5:35 and factory C closes at 5:45 etc etc. That way, there don't need to be traffic jams, because society is organized in a rational way according to everyone's needs.

Social control on a massive scale (good)

This entry was edited (2 weeks ago)
in reply to t3rmit3

ghost_laptop
lemmy - Link to source
ghost_laptop
• •
gringos describe their country while projecting unto china callenge (impossible)
in reply to ghost_laptop

t3rmit3
lemmy - Link to source
t3rmit3
• •

You think that "China bad" == " good" because you are too trapped in a Statist mindset to think of anything else.

Staties describe bad thing inherent to all states while thinking their state is different challenge (impossible)

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