China to be a world tech leader with its blockchain, AI development

China was once regarded as an imitator of technology is not taking strides to lead the world in new technical areas like blockchain and artificial intelligence. These technologies are regarded as critical for future development.  Though the China-US trade war is affecting China’s economy it will continue to push domestic technology sector. In the soon to be held East Tech West technology conference in Guagzhou, China the topics that will be discussed are future of block-chain, AI, smartphones and financial technologies. While both US and China are investing heavily into artificial intelligence or AI, the latter has already drawn up plans to become the world leader in artificial intelligence by 2030 with the aim of making the industry worth $147 billion. China has also rolled out several uses of AI into areas like facial recognition technology on an extensive scale.

But US has a lead in AI due to better research and development in the field. Author of Tech Titans of China Rebecca Fannnin says that China is implementing AI technology very fast in the field of facial recognition, speed recognition, smart cities, self-driving vehicles and medical diagnosis. Though US leads in R&D China is catching up fast in implementation along with startups like Face++, Sensetime and iFlytek. Even if China cannot match capabilities of US when it comes to technology it will soon be a leading power in Ai and other technologies concluded a recent report by Council on Foreign Relations.

China is home to the biggest fintech firms in the world like Alibaba’s Ant Financial that runs Alipay mobile payments app followed by WeChat Pay owned by Tencent. Three of the world’s top 5 smartphone manufacturers are based in China. It has also thrown its power behind blockchain as President Xi Jinping urged China to seize the opportunity offered by this technology that can be used in several industries like finance, healthcare and education.

About: Akash Gokhe