"I am not pessimistic about the development of Chinese artificial intelligence, I should just say a little 'anxious'. On April 12, Zheng Yongnian, a professor at the University of Chinese Hong Kong (Shenzhen) and dean of the Qianhai Institute of International Affairs, said in an interview with Nanfang Daily, Nanfang + and other media during the AI &Society Artificial Intelligence + Social Development High-end Seminar that although China still has a gap compared with the United States in AI competition, it is still the most competitive compared to other countries, and it is entirely possible to surpass the United States after adjusting its competitive strategy.
In recent years, the rapid development of artificial intelligence technology will not only have a significant impact on the industry, economy and society, but also affect the competition pattern of international relations, and even pose new challenges to social governance. How can individuals deal with the anxiety and even panic brought about by the "menacing" of new technologies, and how can they improve education, improve themselves, and give full play to the potential of talents?
Professor Zheng Yongnian mentioned that the most important thing is talent cultivation and creativity, especially emphasizing the cultivation of "people" first, and then the cultivation of "talents".
On April 12, Zheng Yongnian gave a keynote speech at the AI &Society Artificial Intelligence + Social Development High-end Seminar.
01
China is the most competitive in developing AI, so don't be pessimistic
On the afternoon of April 12, at the Qianhai DreamWorks in Shenzhen, Zheng Yongnian gave a speech of about 20 minutes on "The Competition of Artificial Intelligence between China and the United States and Its Future".
He said that the development direction of artificial intelligence between China and the United States should not be a "gap", but a "differentiation". The United States adopts an attitude of "building cars" and then "building brakes" for the emergence and development of new technologies, while China will consider "building brakes" before "building cars", and has advantages in supervision such as face recognition.
He believes that China has great potential for the development of artificial intelligence, first, the world's largest Internet companies are still evenly divided between China and the United States, second, China's development in information regulation far exceeds that of the United States, and second, China's talent pool is very good, and many American companies have talent support from China.
"The U.S. model is to first 'build a car' and then 'build brakes', if artificial intelligence does not have the ability to supervise, will it not be able to stop the car in the future?" He told reporters that in the development model of artificial intelligence, the United States adopts a development-oriented model, and China adopts a regulation-oriented model; the United States pursues competitiveness, and China guarantees security. China has a good side in terms of regulatory technology, technical facilities, and talents.
He stressed: "Don't underestimate regulation, since we can 'build brakes', we can also build faster cars, so development and regulatory safety can coexist, which I believe very much! ”
"In the area of artificial intelligence, if we (China) are pessimistic, then other countries are desperate, because it is difficult for small countries to develop artificial intelligence. Large models require a lot of investment, and the average country cannot afford to invest in it. ”
He called for giving young people more space and resources, and changing the logic of defining talents by "hats" such as degrees and published papers. Cities such as Shenzhen and Guangzhou can make better use of Hong Kong's advantages in gathering international talents and give full play to its advantages in technology transformation.
In his speech that day, Zheng Yongnian also mentioned a term that many people are unfamiliar with: "neo-Faustian civilization".
In March, he explained the concept in his article "The New Faustian Civilization and Its 'Clash of Civilizations,'" which was proposed by columnist Ross Douthat in an article in The New York Times, and whose economic and technological basis is the Internet and artificial intelligence in a "narrow strip from Houston to San Francisco."
This time, Zheng Yongnian put forward a new observation at the end of his speech: "China's 'new Faustian civilization' is rising in the Pearl River Delta and Yangtze River Delta regions, and we must seize the opportunity of the times to achieve Chinese-style modernization and high-quality development." ”
02
In the era of AI, people have to make original things
With the rapid development of artificial intelligence, some people's "AI anxiety" has also increased. Will people's jobs be replaced by AI, and how can we improve ourselves and better adapt to the needs of the AI era?
Zheng Yongnian said in response to a reporter's question that artificial intelligence can learn the knowledge that humans need to learn for many years in a few seconds and minutes, and it is accelerating its development, and it can even produce content and meet emotional needs, but at present, AI still can't do "from 0 to 1", and can only do "from 1 to 10" based on existing things, so people must pay attention to making original things.
He emphasized: "If we don't change our 'traditional indoctrination' educational philosophy and model, and don't do original knowledge production, it is possible for us to be more mentally retarded than artificial intelligence." ”
As for how to cultivate more creative talents, Zheng Yongnian had first-hand experience more than 30 years ago.
In 1990, at the age of 28, Zheng Yongnian was admitted to the James Madison Scholarship of Princeton University in the United States, and entered the Department of Political Science of the same year to study for a doctorate.
At that time, he found that the basic knowledge of Chinese students was much richer than that of their American counterparts, but they lacked creativity, and Americans often felt that ready-made knowledge was not important.
"America is a creation-oriented mindset. Professors in the West are the class that specialize in creating areas of knowledge, while many of our professors are classes that specialize in disseminating areas of knowledge. He told reporters.
In the article "What is the reason for the existence of universities in the era of ChatGPT?", published in February this year, Zheng Yongnian specifically discussed that the concept of English Professor, from Western culture, first means a profession, not only a profession that imparts knowledge, but also a professional knowledge creator. In China, people often use the Tang Dynasty poet Han Yu to say, "Ancient scholars must have teachers." Teacher, so preaching, teaching, and solving doubts" to define professors.
In this article, he points out that education cannot keep pace with the development of technological innovation, which has been repeatedly reminded by many top researchers in recent years. ChatGPT can provide people with the "summum" of human knowledge in the shortest possible time. Educational over-emphasis on revision leads to rote memorization and stifles students' imagination and creativity. Because children lose the space and time for self-exploration, they cannot discover their true interests, and they will also lose the motivation and curiosity to learn.
03
Cultivate "people" first, and then cultivate "talents"
In Zheng Yongnian's view, the education needed in the era of artificial intelligence must not be an education that has not changed much in hundreds of years.
In one of his essays entitled "Reconstructing China's Educational Order", Zheng Yongnian reminded that people often talk about talents, but the foundation of talents is "people". To a large extent, the ultimate goal of the current educational order is not to cultivate "people", but to cultivate "talents", skipping the stage of cultivating "people" and rushing directly to the stage of "talents".
What's more serious is that this "talent" is not decided and chosen by the students themselves, but by parents, kindergarten teachers, primary school teachers, middle school class teachers, university professors, and so on. Chinese students don't have many opportunities to find their own interests – those that are truly their own.
In the era of artificial intelligence, if we continue to mass-produce talents, but if we lose diversity, talents will lose their individuality, and originality will become impossible. In order to produce more "from 0 to 1" originality, it is necessary to encourage more individuals to pursue their interests.
"Every parent wants their children to become talents, but 'talents' are composed of 'people' and 'talents', and we must first cultivate 'people' and then cultivate 'talents'. Zheng Yongnian said that some parents want their children to become Jackie Chan, and their children begin to learn knowledge from the kindergarten stage, but in fact, some are "useless" knowledge, and China's basic education system needs to be reformed.
He said that the education systems of the United States and Japan have been changing, and China's education system should also have institutional reforms, otherwise, parents and children will be more anxious, and the whole society will lose its way.
Extended reading:
The seminar on "Entrepreneurial Ecology in the Era of Large Models" was held in Shenzhen, Zheng Yongnian: No Open, No AI
[Writing] Southern + reporter Ma Fang
Photo courtesy of the interviewee
【Author】 Ma Fang
[Source] Southern Press Media Group Southern + client