中国有大量的廉价劳动力优势，为什么还如此痴迷于AI试图超越美国 [美国媒体]

Why is China so obsessed with AI (artificial intelligence) that it’s trying to surpass the US in AI technology? Although, China has an advantage due to its abundant cheap labor and human workforce.

中国有大量的廉价劳动力优势，为什么还如此痴迷于AI试图超越美国



Hongda Jiang
Answered 7h ago
Multiple answers (including that of Mr. Denlinger) have already addressed the strategic importance of AI, seems like the erroneous assumptions about “abundant cheap labor” has not been thoroughly addressed so far.
Reliance on cheap labor is precisely what the PRC must avoid to advance its next stage of development, for a few reasons.
Others have cheaper labor. Plenty of other countries ALREADY have cheaper labor costs than the PRC - Indonesia, India, Vietnam, just to name a few. The PRC’s current advantage is NOT just cheap labor, but a combination of flexibility, scale, excellent infrastructure, & a vast local market that keeps TOTAL costs of production down.
China’s workforce is shrinking. China’s population growth phase has pretty much ended. China’s population will start to shrink within 10 years, and it’s total workforce is already shrinking due to aging.
China must move up the value chain. EVEN IF the PRC still had “abundant cheap labor”, that advantage would shrink continuously as automation becomes cheaper. Therefore, in order to continue growing & maintaining competitiveness, the PRC would need to upgrade its industries in any case.

很多答案都说明了Ai的战略重要性，但是“大量的廉价劳动力”这个错误的假设还没有得到解答。
要想进一步发展，中国就必须避免依赖廉价劳动力，原因如下。
其他国家拥有更加廉价的劳动力。好多其他国家的劳动力成本已经比中国低，比如印尼，印度，越南等等。中国目前的优势不是廉价劳动力，而是弹性，规模，极好的基建以及巨大的本土市场，所以总的生产成本保持在低位。
中国劳动力在减少。中国的人口增长阶段基本已经结束。十年内中国人口将开始下降，而由于老龄化总的劳动力数量已经下降。
中国必须往价值链上端攀爬。即使中国依然拥有大量的廉价劳动力，随着自动化变得廉价，这个优势也会持续减小。因此，为了继续增长和保持竞争力，中国必须升级自己的产业。



Luc De Mestre, PhD Computer Science, Université De Caen Basse-Normandie (2006)
Answered Mar 12
Everybody know that AI is the next big thing. Because AI unlock the automation of millions of jobs.
Up to 375 million jobs may be automated by 2030. 375 million jobs may be automated by 2030, study suggests
More than 500 millions of jobs worldwide will be automatized in the next 20 or 30 years.

大家都知道AI是下一颗重磅炸弹。因为AI将让工作变成自动化。
到2030年，或许会有3.75亿个就业岗位变成自动化。未来20到30年将有超过5亿个工作自动化。

Konstantinos Konstantinides, EE, Ph.D.
Answered Mar 12
The question shows a misunderstanding of what AI is about. It is not about creating human robots to replace humans. AI is a whole family of tools to improve the process of making decisions. For example, IBM’s “Watson” is being used to scan medical literature and then help doctors decide on the best treatment for cancer patients. AI can help us make better and more efficient processors, better cars, more energy-efficient homes, etc. That’s why it is important to all countries, regardless of the availability of cheap work force. By the way, that work force is getting more expensive every day.



Joseph Wang, studied at Ph.D Astronomy UT Austin, Physics MIT
Answered Mon
Because the Chinese government has looked a few years in the future. Chinese labour is no longer cheap, and it’s about to disappear.
The Chinese population is about to get very old, very quickly. China’s economy in the past was helped by lots of young people ready to get factory jobs. But because of the one child policy, that source of labour is fast disappearing.
So in order to make sure that the Chinese economy keeps running once everyone gets old, the government is encouraging a lot of development of AI and robots as well as moving the factories to Africa and Southeast Asia.

因为中国政府看到了未来。中国劳动力不再廉价，而且即将消失。
中国人口将变得老龄化。中国以前的经济发展是因为年轻人去工厂里上班。但是因为一胎政策，劳动力来源在快速消失。
所以为了确保中国经济继续运行，政府必须鼓励AI和机器人的发展，并且将工厂搬到非洲和东南亚。
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