Chinese Can Lead the AI Development as They Have Less Concern on Privacy
#WithChinaCharacterisitcs
While the negotiation between China and the US is going to an interim agreement, the wrestling in technology between the countries continued. China dove deep in developing artificial intelligence (AI) technology, aiming to become the leading role in the field. As the development of AI requires supports of big data, monitoring can be indispensable. Chinese AI technology has entered the school campuses, and students wear headbands for monitoring. These acts undoubtedly brought out the privacy controversy but media from the US believed that Chinese are more willing to sacrifice their privacy in order to grab advantages in the wrestling.
China's determination in promoting the developing of advanced technologies seems to be in the forefront, and the measures are becoming more and more invasive. In addition of electronic payments which connects personal bank accounts, big data and AI have entered the campus.
According to the article from the Wall Street Journal, many students at Jinhua Xiaoshun Primary School were monitored for their concentrations during the lessons by putting on AI headbands. A teacher from the school pointed out that the technology seemed to have placed psychological hints to students, as they feel like they are under supervision and feel that it is necessary to read aloud and be concentrated.
The article also mentioned that from kindergartens to universities, there are surveillance cameras filming students everywhere in the campuses. They scan the situation of students raising their hands or whispering with others; there are facial recognition robots recording student attendance and asking children questions in the classroom. Moreover, there are Bluetooth bracelets recording student's heart rate, and the time of staying in the library or playground.
Although AI and big data may help to improve students' performances and protect their safety, it will inevitably lead to questions about students privacy. The article quoted critics that there are similarities between China's implementation of technologies in schools and the Chinese government's implementations of similar technologies to monitor people to maintain social stability.
However, these measures may let China gaining advantages in the wrestling between itself and the US. The article noted that China can access to the sample pool of about 200 million students easily, thus forming a huge data storage, which is essential for the development of advanced technologies and important for China to become the leading role in AI technology.
Compared to China, Americans put more emphasis on civil liberties, making a huge difficulty in implementing the face recognition technology to the campus. But in China, artificial intelligence technology often goes into schools without the formal consent of parents.
Hai Bo Min, the CEO of Hi-Bingo, a startup technology firm based in Beijing, said that in terms of privacy, China's regulatory approach and public attitude are relatively tolerant than the western countries. Their AI robots have entered near 4000 kindergartens in China, and 30% of the schools did not inform the parents, but the data can help educators and relevant government departments in making better decisions.
"Tiger Mothers" from China seem to place more priority and concern on children's education. A mother of a grade sixth student from the Jinhua Xiaoshun Primary School said that as long as it helps to improve the qualities of technologies and products, she would not mind providing the data of her children for research purposes. "Chinese people are more willing to make sacrifices."