Is China beating the US in AI development?

China is gradually showing its ability to compete at a high level in the development of artificial intelligence (AI) technology.

“The race for global leadership in AI is pushing [forward]. In the 80's (sic), the market was dominated by the US. And recently, China has become very present too,” Carlos Moedas, European Commissioner for Research Science and Innovation, posted on Twitter.

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China has been leading the US in patents with the general keyword "artificial intelligence" since 2013. Statistics from CB Insights show that China had 641 patents last year, while the US only had 130. The difference in number has grown rapidly from 76 in 2013 to 511 last year.

“In 2017, over 530 video surveillance patents and over 900 facial recognition patents were published in China. This continues to show China's commitment to Artificial Intelligence,” as Internet of Things expert Kyle Ellicott tweeted.

Screenshot from Twitter

On the other hand, the US has been leading China in the past five years in patents under the more specific term of "machine learning".

“As one AI researcher told me, it doesn’t matter whether a Chinese or an American makes a specific advance because any new knowledge can be built upon by other scientists,” wrote Tim Culpan, a Bloomberg columnist who writes about technology in Asia.

“What matters more is the goal and the implementation of technologies that are being developed. It comes down to who is using AI for the greater good, and who is using it for ill.”

Screenshot from Twitter

But Culpan also admitted that China's enormous population - which is roughly four times larger than that of the US - can be a great data source for feeding the machine-learning algorithms, thus breeding better AI products.

As seen by many, China is making progress in AI implementations to improve people’s everyday lives.

“From airports to jaywalking, facial recognition is a part of everyday life in China,” wrote Iain Brown, data scientist SAS Software, in a tweet.

Screenshot from Twitter

Wall after wall

The US has been very active in blocking Chinese tech companies from entering its market recently.

Huawei's Mate 10 smartphone has an AI chip in it that allows it to offer a smarter camera.

But the company's cooperation with AT&T to sell the phone in the US hit a wall.

Huawei's response to this incident was emotional, demonstrated when its mobile device manager made an off-script speech at this year's Consumer Electronic Show (CES) in Las Vegas.

Many believe the US government is behind this move.

As noted by another Bloomberg columnist, Nisha Gopalan, the US Committee on Foreign Investment rejected Broadcom's takeover of Qualcomm because it was worried the deal would benefit Huawei.

And Huawei is not the only target. "The panel also nixed Ant Financial Services Group's bid for MoneyGram International Inc. because the Chinese state had a tiny holding in Jack Ma's company," Gopalan wrote in her article.

Data and chart from Bloomberg

The Americans will have to broaden the definition of "what constitutes national security" to cope with China's rise, she added.

But buying US companies is not the only way China obtains AI technology.

China has a "national team" of companies that are determined to develop their own AI tech.

Baidu is making cars run autonomously; Alibaba is building smart cities in China; Tencent is pouring money into providing an AI boost for hospitals, and iFlyTek's voice translation gadget works well with English.

And, more importantly, they are doing it with or without the US tech - and they don't want to lag behind any country in the world.

A high school athletic director in Maryland has been accused of using artificial intelligence to impersonate a principal on an audio recording that included racist and antisemitic comments, authorities said Thursday.

Authorities said the case appears to be among the first of its kind in the country and called for new laws to guard against the technology. Experts also warned that artificial intelligence is becoming increasingly powerful, while the ability to detect it may lag behind without more resources.

Dazhon Darien faked the voice of Pikesville High School's principal in response to conversations the men had about Darien's poor work performance and whether his contract would be renewed, Baltimore County police said.

Concerns included allegations that Darien paid his roommate $1,900 in school funds under the false pretense of coaching the girls soccer team, police said.

Darien forged an audio clip in which it sounded as if the principal was frustrated with Black students and their test-taking abilities, police wrote in charging documents. They said the recording also purported to capture the principal disparaging Jewish individuals and two teachers.

The audio clip quickly spread on social media and had “profound repercussions,” the court documents stated, with the principal being placed on leave. The recording put the principal and his family at “significant risk,” while police officers provided security at his house, according to authorities.

The recording also triggered a wave of hate-filled messages on social media and an inundation of phone calls to the school, police said. Activities were disrupted for a time, and some staff felt unsafe.

“Teachers have expressed fears that recording devices could have been planted in various places in the school,” the charging documents stated.

Darien, 31, faces charges that include theft, disrupting school activities, stalking and retaliating against a witness, according to court documents.

Scott Shellenberger, the Baltimore County state's attorney, said the case appears to be one of the first of its kind nationwide involving artificial intelligence that his office was able to find. He said Maryland's Legislature may need to update state laws to catch up with the nefarious possibilities of the new technology.

For example, the charge of disrupting school activities “only carries a 6-month sentence,” Shellenberger said.

“But we also need to take a broader look at how this technology can be used and abused to harm other people,” the prosecutor said.

Baltimore County detectives had asked experts to analyze the recording made by Darien, according to the charges against him.

A professor from the University of Colorado-Denver told police that it “contained traces of AI-generated content with human editing after the fact, which added background noises for realism,” court records stated.

A second opinion from a professor at the University of California-Berkley told police that “multiple recordings were spliced together,” according to the records.

A Baltimore County detective found that Darien had used Large Language Models, such as OpenAI and Bingchat, which can "tell users what steps to take to create synthetic media," court documents stated.

Online court records for Darien show that he posted $5,000 bond on Thursday. The records did not list an attorney who might be able to speak on his behalf.

Darien was arrested Wednesday evening before he was to board a plane at Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport, Baltimore County Police Chief Robert McCullough said. Darien was stopped because of how he had packaged his firearm for the flight, leading officers to learn he had a warrant for his arrest, according to McCullough.

McCullough said authorities had entered the warrant for Darien's arrest into the system on Wednesday night with plans to serve it Thursday morning. The chief said he didn't know why Darien was catching a flight to Houston and did not suggest that he was trying to escape.

The Baltimore County school system is recommending Darien's termination, superintendent Myriam Rogers said Thursday.

Meanwhile, artificial intelligence is becoming increasingly powerful and yet “very easy to use,” said Siwei Lyu, director of a media forensics lab at the University at Buffalo.

“You can basically upload any subject’s voice up to this platform,” Lyu told The Associated Press on Thursday. “And then you can give it text and you can start creating voices of that person.”

A recording of someone talking for a minute or two can be gleaned from social media and used to recreate someone’s voice, Lyu said, noting that it’s not always perfect.

Lyu’s research focuses on identifying AI-generated voices and images. He said the models are becoming more powerful, while detection methods are trying to catch up.

“It’s kind of like a perpetual cat-and-mouse game,” Lyu said. “But if I project the speed of development based on today’s situation, detection will lag behind because we have less resources and are not getting as much attention as the generative side.”

This undated photo shows the The Pikesville High School sign on the school property. Baltimore County Police Chief Robert McCullough and other local officials speak at a news conference in Towson, Maryland, on Thursday, April 25, 2024. The officials discussed the arrest of a high school athletic director on charges that he used artificial intelligence to impersonate a principal on an audio recording that included racist and antisemitic comments. (Lloyd Fox/The Baltimore Sun via AP)

Baltimore County Police Chief Robert McCullough and other local officials speak at a news conference in Towson, Maryland, on Thursday April 25, 2024. The officials discussed the arrest of a high school athletic director on charges that he used artificial intelligence to impersonate a principal on an audio recording that included racist and antisemitic comments. (Kim Hairston/The Baltimore Sun via AP)