Kai-Fu Lee: AI Superpowers - China and Silicon Valley | Lex Fridman Podcast #27

The following is a conversation with Kai-Fu Lee. He's the chairman and CEO of Sinovation Ventures that manages a $2 billion dual currency investment fund with a focus on developing the next generation of Chinese high-tech companies. He's the former president of Google China, and the founder of what is now called Microsoft Research Asia, an institute that trained many of the artificial intelligence leaders in China, including CTOs or AI execs at Baidu, Tencent, Alibaba, Lenovo, and Huawei. He was named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time Magazine. He's the author of seven best-selling books in Chinese, and most recently, the New York Times best-seller called AI Superpowers: China, Silicon Valley, and the New World Order. He has unparalleled experience in working across major tech companies and governments on applications of AI, and so he has a unique perspective on global innovation and the future of AI that I think is important to listen to and think about. This is the Artificial Intelligence podcast. If you enjoy it, subscribe on YouTube and iTunes, support it on Patreon, or simply connect with me on Twitter @lexfridman. And now, here's my conversation with Kai-Fu Lee. I immigrated from Russia to US when I was 13. You immigrated to US at about the same age. The Russian people, the American people, the Chinese people each have a certain soul, a spirit that permeates throughout the generations.

Mm-hmm.

So maybe it's a little bit of a poetic question, but could you, uh, describe your sense of what defines the Chinese soul?

I think the Chinese soul of people today, right, we're talking about, people who have had, um, centuries of burden because of the poverty that the country has gone through, and suddenly shined with hope of prosperity in the past 40 years as China opened up and embraced market economy. And, um, undoubtedly, there are two sets of pressures on the people, that of the tradition, um, that of, um, facing, uh, difficult situations, and that of hope of wanting to be the first to become successful and wealthy, so that, that's a very strong, uh, hunger and a strong desire and strong work ethic that drives China forward.

And is there roots to not just this generation but before, that's- that's deeper than just the new economic developments? Is there something that's unique to China that you could speak to that's in the people?

Yeah. Well, the Chinese, um, tradition is about excellence, dedication, and results, and the Chinese exams and, uh, study subjects in schools have traditionally, uh, started from memorizing 10,000 characters. Not an easy task to start with. And further by memorizing his- historic, um, philosophers, literature, poetry. So it really is the- probably the strongest rote learning mechanism created to make sure people had good memory and remembered things extremely well. Um, that, I think at the same time, uh, suppresses the breakthrough innovation, um, and also enhances the speed execution, get results, and that, I think characterizes the historic basis of, uh, China.