HOW CHINA BECAME AHEAD OF THE US IN TECHNOLOGY

• Chinese consumers use cashless ways to make purchases instead of debit cards. They are adopting payment via QR codes and phones at an increasingly fast pace. For this reason, mobile payment transactions have increased. In 2012 the transactions amounted to £24m per year, and by 2016 this number went up to £9.8trillion per year.
• The cashless payment system makes it easier for Chinese consumers to sell their products online and earn extra income.
• Mobile phone payments have also given China an advantage in AI as they access more raw data than any other country. According to the Black Peak Group, more data translates into a competitive edge for the use of AI.

• Chinese companies are experimenting with AI in bold ways. The world's first AI park was unveiled in Beijing by search engine giant Baidu. An affiliate of Alibaba is using AI to expand its business, improve services to customers, anticipate issues, and detect fraud.
• With the help of the Chinese government, car manufacturers such as Nio are selling cars with AI systems to Chinese consumers. These cars have an in-car intelligent AI system called Nomi that performs tasks such as playing songs and answering questions through user recognition.
• According to MarketWatch, Chinese AI firms received more venture funding than U.S. companies in the first quarter of 2018, giving China an advantage.
• China uses AI in the defense and intelligence industries and is not reluctant to use AI for social and political control. It uses AI-driven facial recognition to catch jaywalkers and also uses an AI-driven credit score that factors in social behaviors.
• China came up with the first qualified robotic doctor, the first passenger drone, and the first operational drone delivery program.

• The Chinese government is doing more than talking about AI. The government made public that it wanted to be a world leader in AI technologies by 2030. It is expected to invest more than $30 billion in AI and related technologies in state-owned firms.
• The city of Beijing is committed to spending $2 billion in developing an AI industrial park. Tianjin plans to invest $16 billion in the local AI industry. It is estimated that one Chinese firm will spend $5 billion in developing AI technologies and businesses.
• The government of China outfitted a 6-mile road with 5G cell towers that they use to test wireless communication between autonomous vehicles and their surroundings as a way to help motorists navigate.

HOW CHINA USES THE INTERNET THAT THE US DOES NOT

• China established three internet courts in Hangzhou, Beijing, and Guangzhou. These courts try cases related to the Internet. They are located in areas with a flourishing internet industry. Internet courts rely on blockchain to deliver justice in a wide range of cases.
• According to the provisions of Supreme People's Court, internet courts handle cases such as contractual online disputes in shopping and financial loans, online copyright disputes, disputes over domain names, internet-related public lawsuits, and administrative litigation.

• Tens of millions of Chinese people speak little-to-no standard Mandarin which is China's formal language. Instead, they communicate in one or more of the country's dialects, of which there are thousands.
• There are apps such as the AI-powered iFlytek Voice Input keyboard app, which allows users to transcribe vocal recordings and dictate messages that appear in text. These apps can process many dialects and are often used for communication with those who can not speak Mandarin. These apps are also used to save these dialects.