AI Superpowers is an odd combination of tech history, economics treatise, and personal memoir. Like the eclectic topics, the book is a mixed bag, but was probably worth reading.
Economics Treatise: Nothing he pointed out about potential jobs loss was unreasonable, but economics don’t seem to be Mr. Lee’s strong point, and I didn’t finish the book convinced that AI would be more important than other innovations in the past. Furthermore, all the economic studies he pointed out were about the number of jobs that could be automated, not the number that would. Having spent the last 5 years working both with AI and low-skill jobs, I see a multi-decade gap between those two words. Really, nothing in this book goes beyond what Thomas Piketty’s R>G thesis would suggest.
Tech History: I get it, China is a tech superpower, with some innate advantages over the US. Kai Fu Lee had a concise explanation of the reasons why this came to be, and while I’m less optimistic about China’s abilities in the future, don’t disagree with anything he said, and appreciated his frameworks around the 4 waves of AI.
Personal Memoir: I was a bit surprised by this aspect of the book, and ‘all you need is love’ is certainly a surprising economic call to arms. I appreciate that he found enlightenment, but didn’t find this section compelling.