Artificial intelligence rebuilds the international order

Google translation:

Artificial intelligence rebuilds the international order

https://www.zaobao.com.sg/forum/views/story20250128-5798201

2025-01-28

The author Bai Shipan is a visiting professor at the National University of Singapore and Nanyang Technological University, and a director of the Singapore Blockchain Association

Liu Hongjie is a digital economy research consultant at Stanford University HAI and the founder of Digital Civilization Intelligent Education

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In the field of AI, interdisciplinary cooperation and innovation in many aspects such as institutions, economics, finance, governance, and social sciences will become increasingly important, and more interdisciplinary experts and scholars will invest in the discussion and practice of related issues. In the face of the continuous emergence of super technologies, strengthening global dialogue and collaboration has become an urgent human event.

At present, artificial intelligence (AI) is developing rapidly around the world, and its influence is comparable to another wave of globalization. Since the launch of ChatGPT, the iteration speed and social influence of AI have accelerated unprecedentedly.  Nowadays, achieving AI with the same intelligence as humans or surpassing humans, and general artificial intelligence (AGI) that can perform all intelligent behaviors that humans have, is not only a technical issue, but also related to social governance, business paradigms, industrial division of labor, production efficiency, financial and economic boundaries, and the deep reshaping of the competition and cooperation relationship between humans and robots, and between countries. In this process, the far-reaching impact brought about by the development of AGI is comparable to another globalization reconstruction in human history.

Digital economy puts forward new requirements for governance

The evolution of the digital economy in the past few decades has fundamentally changed the way information is disseminated and value is transferred, and the mode of interpersonal interaction has thus broken through the boundaries of traditional society. Although many countries have conducted many studies on the digital economy, the actual impact at the social level is often still underestimated. Taking the long-standing statistical method of gross domestic product (GDP) as an example, the value enhancement brought by the digital economy is often difficult to fully measure. At the same time, people's communication and information acquisition have long transcended national boundaries, and global connectivity and collaboration are unprecedented.  This places higher demands on the governance of the digital economy and the virtual world. Governments, public sectors and academic organizations of various countries also urgently need to continuously evolve and innovate in systems and rules.

The massive data resources and the amazing capabilities released by information technology have enabled large global technology companies to rapidly accumulate transnational and dominant competitive power. The rise of AI has further magnified this advantage. With the continued expansion of technology giants in R&D and capital, the global industrial structure, production division, supply chain layout and business paradigm are undergoing redefinition. In the past few years, the ability of large technology companies in knowledge creation has rapidly surpassed other types of research institutions, and the capital power they possess has made corporate mergers and acquisitions replace listings as the main exit channel for innovative companies, further enhancing the competitiveness of technology giants.

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Looking back at modern history, leading institutions or social organizations often have the advantage of defining new paradigms and rules, and thus dominate the social structure and industrial division of labor. Today, in an era where AI has become a key driving force, this effect will only become more prominent.

It is not only traditional factors that can determine a country's competitiveness

As AI gradually becomes a new measure of national competitiveness, computational intelligence is also increasingly becoming a new productivity of knowledge creation, and is expected to become an important engine for the next stage of scientific and technological progress. It can be foreseen that in the future, innovation from 0 to 1 will rely more on the "combination" of "human intelligence" and "computational intelligence" to create together. Innovation from 0 to 1 refers to the use of unprecedented new technologies and new methods to create new things and new values ​​from scratch. Therefore, the standard for measuring a country's competitiveness will not be limited to population, land, economic size or traditional scientific and technological strength. The penetration and application of computational intelligence and digital economy will also become an important pillar for measuring national strength and influence.

The accelerated expansion of AI around the world will inevitably promote the redistribution of economy and capital.  The intelligent world reorders production factors, strengthens the position of computing power in productivity, and builds a new production relationship with "intelligent creation" as the core. The reshaping of the economic structure will also affect the evolution of social distribution and the financial system. In recent years, the problem of uneven distribution has become increasingly prominent, and people are also worried about the replacement of labor by machines. It can be seen that in the field of AI, interdisciplinary cooperation and innovation in many aspects such as institutions, economics, finance, governance, and social sciences will become increasingly important, and more interdisciplinary experts and scholars will invest in the discussion and practice of related issues.

The urgency of global communication and cooperation

The importance of AI has become a global consensus. The discussion on whether this technology has exceeded the control of humans is still insufficient in the context of international competition. Some recent academic studies have shown that without restricting the development of AI, digital intelligence will definitely surpass biological or human intelligence. What we should pay more attention to is that robots have also begun to learn by themselves and have their own perception and cognition capabilities.  In this way, human beings may fall into a situation of "we don’t know what we don’t know".

Some people warn that the threat posed by the development of weapons using AI is no less than that of nuclear weapons. Therefore, the balance between the "security" and "development" of AI has gone beyond individual countries, and should be treated with caution from the perspective of all mankind. In the face of the continuous emergence of super technologies, strengthening global dialogue and cooperation is an urgent human event. It is not only the common responsibility of governments, enterprises and scientific research institutions around the world, but also requires the extensive participation and concerted efforts of the whole society to ensure that technology benefits mankind under the premise of safety and control.

Looking forward to 2025, we look forward to more breakthroughs in AI and digital technology, and we also hope that the global society can actively explore in terms of institutional design, technology supervision, public policy and international cooperation, and jointly cultivate a more inclusive and sustainable future. Only through broader and deeper global communication and collaboration can mankind truly seize the opportunities brought by AI and transform them into common welfare that benefits all parts of the world.

 The author, Bai Shipan, is a visiting professor at the National University of Singapore and Nanyang Technological University, and a director of the Singapore Blockchain Association

Liu Hongjie is a digital economy research consultant at Stanford University HAI and the founder of Digital Civilization smart education