Science award signals inroads on ‘deep blue’

Nation aims for breakthroughs in fields related to computer science, information technology

In a milestone for China’s artificial intelligence efforts, a team of scientists from Huazhong University of Science and Technology was named co-champion of this year’s prestigious Graph Challenge, a global computing competition that involves machine learning, high performance computing and visual analytics.

It was the first time that Chinese scientists were awarded the top prize since the competition’s launch in 2017.

The event was hosted last month by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Amazon, all of which are in the United States. The other co-champion was a US-based team.

The Chinese team’s solution to solving an extremely esoteric reasoning task during the competition will accelerate the efficiency and application of artificial intelligence, according to a statement released on Aug 16 by the university, which is in Wuhan, the capital of Hubei province.

In a speech addressing China’s top scientists and engineers in May, President Xi Jinping urged the Chinese scientific community to break new ground in four strategic frontiers, one of which is “deep blue”.

Deep blue refers to fields related to computer science and information technology, such as cyberspace security, artificial intelligence and quantum computing, according to the Ministry of Science and Technology.

Over the past decade, 521,264 patent applications related to AI technology were submitted worldwide, of which China contributed 389,571, or 74.7 percent, according to Tsinghua University’s 2020 Report on Artificial Intelligence Development, which was released in April.

Also in the past decade, natural language processing, machine learning, information retrieval and recommendation, and computer vision — the enabling of computers and systems to interpret and understand digital images — were the most influential AI technologies worldwide, the report said. In the next decade, AI will likely see major developments in fields such as enhanced learning, knowledge graphing and smart robotics.

China is among global front-runners in terms of publishing scientific papers for more than 10 AI-related fields, including natural language processing, AI chip technology, machine learning, and information retrieval and recommendation.

China’s strongest AI fields are multimedia and the internet of things, in which it ranks first in the world in terms of academic output.

However, its later decisive entry into World War II contributed to the establishment of US hegemony, which was to dominate for the remainder of the 20th century.

A revival of US isolationism was already apparent in the election victory of Biden’s predecessor Donald Trump, who appealed to an America First mentality. His single fouryear term saw Washington retreat from its commitments on climate change and abandon a historic international agreement on Iran’s nuclear program.

Trump may have gone, but a number of voters and their increasingly vociferous political spokesmen continue to promote negative isolationist views on climate, race and immigration.

Biden is not a natural isolationist, although he has yet to clarify the role he wants the US to play in the postAfghanistan world. However, Trump or one of his ideological successors could well emerge as the front-runner in the next election in three years.

Perhaps by that time Biden or his ideological successor will have evolved a strategy for positive US engagement with the rest of the world that will depend more on global dialogue and less on unilateral military muscle.

Among the challenges is the persistence of fundamentalist terrorist groups of the kind whose attack on the US in 2001 led to the ill-considered intervention in Afghanistan.

The day after the September 11 attacks that year, the United Nations Security Council declared that international terrorism was a threat to international peace and security and pledged a determination to combat it by all means. Perhaps subsequent events were an example of the US belief that it could go it alone.

If a humbled US has now indeed turned a new page, then Biden’s first test may well come at the 26th UN Climate Change Conference, or COP26, which will be held in Glasgow in November, when world leaders will gather to confront the most existential threat we all share — climate change.

It is a challenge that, by definition, has to be resolved globally. Greenhouse gases do not respect international borders.

National self-interest may best be served by acknowledging the problems faced by other global partners in an increasingly globalized world. It is an area in which isolationism simply will not work.

Perhaps (by the next election) Biden or his ideological successor will have evolved a strategy for positive US engagement with the rest of the world that will depend more on global dialogue and less on unilateral military muscle.