Weblog with daily updates of the news on a frugal, fair and beautiful China, from the perspective of internet entrepreneur, new media advisor and president of the China Speakers Bureau Fons Tuinstra
Showing posts with label Winston Wenyan Ma. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Winston Wenyan Ma. Show all posts
China’s developers have been avid users of OpenAI’s ChatGPT, and the company’s ban of usage in China might come as a short-time shock, says innovation expert Winston Main the Guardian. But in the long run, it will help those China-based competitors as they are forced – and likely successful, in developing alternatives, he adds.
The Guardian:
One consequence of OpenAI’s decision may be that it accelerates the development of Chinese AI companies, which are in tight competition with their US rivals, as well as each other. China is estimated to have at least 130 large language models, accounting for 40% of the world’s total and second only to the US. But while US companies such as OpenAI have been at the cutting edge of generative AI, Chinese companies have been engaged in a price war that some analysts have speculated may harm their profit margins and their ability to innovate. Still, Winston Ma, a professor at New York University who writes about Chinese technology, said OpenAI’s departure from China comes “at a time when Chinese big tech players are closing on performance gap with OpenAI and are offering these Chinese LLM models essentially free”.
“OpenAI’s departure is a short-term shock to the China market, but it may provide a long-term opportunity for Chinese domestic LLM models to be put to the real test,” said Ma. Until now, Chinese companies have focused on the commercialisation of large language models rather than advancing the models themselves, he added.
US sanctions on China make it harder for Chinese companies to develop large-scale AI systems because they lack access to finance and computing power, says Winston Ma, adjunct professor of law at the New York University School of Law. But they will focus on AI applications and their commercialization rather than developing the big systems, he tells CNBC.
The world was in awe when Nvidia emerged as a giant in the stock markets, but the AI industry is still waiting for a real shake-out as it is still lacking a real killer app, says Winston Ma, adjunct professor at the NYU School of Law, in a comment at Forbes.
Forbes:
The market is betting on a much bigger story than generative AI itself: Maybe the AI boom will be the key critical catalyst for the ultimate digital transformation of all industries and economies, explains Winston Ma, adjunct professor at the NYU School of Law. “Then the demand for Nvidia chips will explode exponentially. The jury is still out because the market is searching for AI killer apps. 2024-2025 would be the years of AI implementation. The real test for Nvidia has just begun.”
China is pumping billions of US dollars to safeguard the essential supply of semiconductors, now into a third state-back fund, says Winston Ma adjunct professor of law at NYU School of Law at CNBC.
Winston Ma is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers’ request form.
Are you looking for more innovation experts at the China Speakers Bureau? Do check out this list.
Winston Ma, an investor, attorney, author, and adjunct professor in the global digital economy, discusses at a Miami conference who can follow as leaders in AI for Arab News. He believes also countries like Saudi Arabia can follow those two leaders, although it does mean a lot of targeted investments.
China’s industrial policy towards data and Artificial Intelligence (AI) is changing, writes Winston Ma, adjunct professor at the New York University at Europeansting.com. “The fresh approach could be a model for developing economies to follow — but the nature of AI innovation and expansion means they also risk being left behind.”
Winston Ma:
Now the Generative AI boom in 2023 is further driving Chinese companies — in about every sector — to invest heavily in research and development of the latest digital technologies. They are rushing to learn how new digital technologies, also including the internet of things, blockchain, cloud computing and data analytics (dubbed “iABCD”) can be integrated into their businesses to unlock value from non-traditional angles.
This powerful trend is real and accelerating. In early January, China’s 17 government departments and ministries issued a three-year “Data Element X” action plan, one month after the “Data X” concept was introduced. The action plan will promote “high-level application of data”, highlighting “high quality” data supply, data circulation, data analytics and data security.
For example, enterprise leaders use data and metrics to assess performance, identify gaps and update plans. In almost all companies, this is historical data about what has already happened, and leaders may get away with that (the figurative equivalent of driving forward with your eyes fixed on the rearview mirror) when the world is stable and business conditions are certain.
But today’s tumultuous post-pandemic world is riven with macroeconomic, geopolitical and technology disruptions. In addition to the need for more real-time data, the businesses further need the predictive capabilities of AI that can help them anticipate and shape the future. As such, the new data capabilities of businesses and industries will result in more profound transformation than from the mere addition of internet.
In short, the main task of “Data X” is to activate the data market, enabling data to realize its full value. This happens at a time when data is created at an increasing pace. In addition to the data creation by the existing digital economy, in August 2022, the number of connected “things” (mobile IoT devices) exceeded that of connected “people” for the first time in China. More data will be created by “things” in the future than “humans”.
In the ongoing tech war between China and the US, China has been building up an advantage in spending vastly on the development of supercomputers, says innovation expert Winston Ma in IBTimes.
IBTimes:
While it is unclear how far China has advanced in its goal, Winston Ma, adjunct professor at NYU’s Law School on sovereign wealth funds and author of “The Digital War – How China’s Tech Power Shapes the Future of AI, Blockchain and Cyberspace,” told IBT that the Chinese government has consistently increased R&D spending on supercomputers “in pursuit of major breakthroughs.”
“In the new digital economy where the computing power fuels all activities like the oil of the past, supercomputer is at the frontier of U.S.-China tech rivalry, because to out-compete is to out-compute,” Ma noted…
[Ma said] Beijing’s supercomputing power will “significantly help China to develop AI/machine learning capabilities.” With AI’s ability to learn from large datasets paired with massive computer power, Beijing may find it easier to tackle some of its most difficult economic, scientific and military challenges.
It’s complicated, says Winston Ma, Adjunct Professor of Law at NYU and Author of “The Digital War” about the new US export restrictions on chips for China, and it is potentially a lose-lose situation, he tells at Bloomberg.
He discusses the implications of the US-China rivalry for AI, 5G, and the future of the internet.
China’s National People’s Congress (NPC) will this week approve a significant reform of its financial institutions. Financial analyst Winston Ma looks at the background of this sweeping shift, according to Reuters.
Reuters:
Under the new set-up, the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission (CBIRC) will be abolished, with its responsibilities moved to the new administration along with certain functions of the central bank and securities regulator.
As part of the wider government revamp, staff numbers at central level state institutions will be cut by 5%.
“The overhaul of financial regulation framework reflects the new focus on ‘dual circulation’ – both domestic and global circulation of the economy – and ‘uniform national markets’,” said Winston Ma, an adjunct professor at New York University law school.
“Going forward, different financing markets – equity, debt, and insurance – are set to be regulated in a more holistic way, and at the same time financial markets regulation and industry policy-making are more integrated than before,” he said.
The legislature will vote on the institutional reform plan on Friday.
In China, things are even more connected than people, writes Winston Ma, Adjunct Professor, NYU School of Law, in Europeansting.com, in a thorough overview of the possibilities and challenges of the Internet of Things. Are we ready for the future?
Winston Ma:
In China, the internet of things (IoT) has proliferated to the degree that there are now more connected things than connected people.
As the era of connected things has expanded into industrial applications and emerging technologies advance, several problems still need to be solved, including its rollout at scale.
Societal challenges, such as the infrastructure gap, personal data protection and e-waste, must be tackled head-on in the new era of connected things.
In August 2022, the number of connected “things” (mobile devices) exceeded the number of connected “people” for the first time in China.
According to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), there were 1.698 billion devices connected to the internet of things (IoT) in China’s mobile network, surpassing figures for mobile phone users. That trend is accelerating.
In just a few months, 52.3% of all connectivity in China was represented by “things” (1.845 billion) by the end of 2022 (see Figure 1). Therefore, China will see more IoT-driven digital transformation in the coming years…
Are we ready for the future:
In summary, the next decade will see the merging of the physical, digital and biological worlds in ways that create considerable promise and potential peril.
Hundreds of billions, if not trillions, of new digital infrastructure, will be needed and implemented. The transformation of industries will far exceed the consumer internet boom we witnessed last decade and the e-waste issue may be amplified.
Finally, are we ready with sufficient data regulation, privacy protection and AI ethics for the new Internet of Everything?
Two hundred Chinese companies listed in the US thought they would get a pass when the PCAOB accepted late last year the auditing process for those companies. But financial analyst Winston Ma warns there are still significant uncertainties for those firms, as the SEC still indicates on its website those companies are still in danger of being delisted, he tells CNBC.
Tech entrepreneur Winston Ma explains how tech is shaping the competition between China and the US, where China is likely to play the key part, despite the current leading role of the US.
A tech war is raging between China and the US, but financial analyst and innovation expert Winston Ma sees enough synergy between both countries to allow investments in tech to go forward, he tells at the Ben Grahan IX annual conference.
Financial analyst Winston Ma discusses the progress of the plan to delist Chinese companies from US stock markets on CNBC. It’s mostly China that has to comply with the US demands for transparency, he says about this work in progress.
Financial analyst Winston Ma looks at Tesla village Panzhiga as an example of how China’s rural areas moved upward on the road of digitalization for the World Economic Forum. Tesla’s and domestic EV cars are becoming a symbol of success in those areas.
Winston Ma:
The evolution of Tesla village Panzhiga is another giant step forward for the digital transformation of China’s rural economy, from the earlier years of “Taobao villages”.
In recent years, the mobile internet and digital technologies have had a profound impact on China’s rural economy. There are many villages with a majority of farmers working on Alibaba’s shopping site Taobao – earning them the name of “Taobao villages”.
A Taobao village is defined by Alibaba as “a village in which over 10% of households run online stores and village e-commerce revenues exceed RMB 10 million (roughly $1.6 million) per year”. According to Alibaba’s data, there are more than 1,000 Taobao villages in China.
Of course, “Tesla villages” – or “EV villages”, as Chinese electric vehicle brands are quickly catching up and competing with Tesla head-to-head – are still few and far between. The snazzy, high-end electric cars are often associated with environmentally-conscious urban elites, but this will soon change.
In June 2022, China announced a broad campaign in which 26 automakers will create incentives for people in rural China to buy electric vehicles (EVs). Car manufacturers will be encouraged to work on sales incentive programmes, in collaboration with e-commerce platforms, to generate offline car sales in rural areas and lower-tier cities.
To put all these into context, China views the EV development as strategically important to transform its automobile industry. First of all, car ownership in big cities in China already reached a saturation point and thus needs a breakthrough.
Secondly, China vowed to reach “carbon neutrality by 2060”, and consequently, it has declared that by 2035 all new car sales in China must be either full EVs or hybrids (collectively known as new energy vehicles). As such, the rural area is an under-explored market with great potential.
