The Sequence Chat: The One Area in Which China can Dominate the US in the AI Race
Might come as a surprise.
In a recent dinner conversation with AI technologists the topic of the US-China AI wars came up. One of te participants asked me if there was a specific area in which China had a unique edge over The US. After thinking about it, I answered that I believe robotics could be that area but that the edge had little to do with technology itself. This triggered a spirited debate enough that it motivated me to use that argument as the core topic of today’s essay. In that sense, today we are going to dive into the US-China race in robotics, examining the strengths and weaknesses of both nations, and how China's supply chain dominance could potentially tilt the scales in its favor.
We are entering the golden era in robotics and embodied AI. New generations are going to grow with robots as part of their daily lives. Building robots expands beyond technology and includes complicated supply chain and manucturing in which China has built a unique expertise for decades. Is that a unique edge to dominate the robotics race?