Deciphering China’s AI Dream

The report is organized in four parts: (1) Context - I place China’s AI strategy in the context of its past science and technology plans, as well as other countries’ AI plans; (2) Components - I relate the key features of China’s AI strategy to the drivers of AI development (e.g. data, talented scientists); (3) Capabilities - I assess China’s current AI capabilities by constructing a novel index to measure a country’s AI potential; (4) Consequences - I highlight the potential implications of China’s AI dream for issues of AI safety, national security, economic development, and social governance. In each of these four parts, I dispel a common misconception about China’s approach to AI (Table 1). Then, using the deconstruction of these myths as a starting point, I derive my own findings. What follows is a summary of the key findings in each section.