I really enjoyed this conversation with Kai-Fu. Here's the high-level outline: 0:00 - Introduction 1:26 - Chinese soul 4:28 - Difference between cultures of AI engineering 6:39 - Role of data in near-term impact of AI 8:37 - Tesla Autopilot approach 11:56 - Microsoft, Google, Apple and Silicon Valley cultures 24:22 - Entrepreneurship in China 38:51 - Impact of AI on jobs 44:58 - Andrew Yang and UBI 48:38 - Jobs that can't be automated 56:20 - Role for governments 58:30 - Cold War and the arms race metaphor 1:04:50 - Freedom of speech & different value systems in China & US 1:07:37 - Privacy challenges 1:12:27 - Heart and soul of a business 1:14:00 - Facing mortality 1:18:46 - Hard work and balance 1:22:12 - Advice to entrepreneurs 1:25:38 - First question for an AGI system
Damn, for a relatively small podcast you're managing to pull in some pretty high profile guests. Guests who many people maybe haven't heard of, but probably should've heard of.
When you're like this guy though, other intelligent people will work with you because they can feel out who you are and probably like you. They probably know the reach and impact of podcasts is high and feel super glad to sit with this dude. He cares a lot. Watch that one two pods ago where the feed lost an hour and you'll see this dudes professional Integrity. As far as I know he's our main or only high conciousness lens Into this stuff. Plus u bet this girls like him. He's a sweet dude. We're all gonna see this dude for as long as he feels like being in the light is necessary. He's doin a great service. Thanks dude!
It's also fascinating that they all seem to know each other. Joe, Weinstein(s), Shapiro, Ruben, Fridman, etc. but also Yang, Gabbard, Lee, Elon and more :)
"why we exist in this world could be influenced by society too much, its only when facing death that you see what is truly important to you" - Kai-Fu Lee
Kai-Fu Lee's english is very, very good. Super impressive. He's also very careful in his articulation, humble in his portrayal of where his expertise is and isn't and well put together generally. Great guest. I'll have to see what else there is out there about him... I'd never heard of him prior to this.
Well he moved to the US when he was 12 and went to high school and college in the US. So it's not totally surprising that his English is good. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kai-Fu_Lee
damn, Lex. It is cool to see how many bigshots you can get on this podcast. i found this guest very insightful and his message at the end while generic to be very beautiful. while striving for success is great, it is wise not to foget one's family and loved ones in the process.
Dear Lex, I stumbled into your podcast with Kai-Fu Lee who I already know about as a great contributor to AI and to many subjects, but I was truly impressed by the thoughtful questions you asked and your ability to articulate and to draw out many profound observations from Mr. Lee. Congratulations!
The UBI proposed by andrew yang is not a solution to loss of job that are coming as he himself has stated on many occasions. The UBI will help the American people manage and navigate during that transitional period.. Thus whatever the displaced worker will decide on, he or she might do so as at their own discretion...Mr Kai-Fu Lee yang's approach is actually the most logical for that phase of transitioning into another job #yang2020
Lex, I had to read his book on the relationship between China and Silicon Valley for one of my college courses. I’ve been a long time fan but am just now seeing this interview, thank you for all your hard.
When is Andrew Yang coming to the show? I’m so anxious to see him respond or counter Kai point of no string attached UBI. I’m sure he agrees on finding life meaning, but man, we need to flush out the ideas of AI impact and inform the public. Beautiful discussion!
57 minutes in, Kai-Fu Lee resonates effortlessly. He's somewhere between brutal and tactful honesty and there's a lot of meaningful opinions and examples and he speaks freely about some pretty wild, abstract concepts but he's really right, it sounds like. Infrastructure, the competitive cities, effective retraining, it's awesome and we're all spectators to it. I like the points about healthcare, through and through a great interview great question posed and lots of quotable moments.
I think it's because he works in the VC space, meaning he has to be straightforward and honest, since he is betting a lot of resources to whatever endeavours he is talking about.
at 46:00, the part about retraining - it's basically impossible to retrain a large percent of aging "routine job" workers to do jobs of the future. Lee is smart and probably right about AI, but is not thinking outside of his own intellectual bubble regarding realistic solutions. UBI is the only realistic solution/transition for these types of workers. Ultimately, that person's value should not be tied to a subsistence job anyway.
Heather Larson I say that it’s not realistic because it literally hasn’t been in real life according to studies, to train aging manual workforce to do tech jobs. And it shows a misunderstanding of how hiring works in businesses. Who are the tech industry going after the most? Young, adaptable, tech-savvy 20-30 year olds, for better or worse. And money does come from “nowhere” if so many jobs no longer need to be done. Automation is massively profitable.
Amazing podcast and guest. very informative on AI and China's contribution. Only of few which I listened over again not to miss any great insight. Thx Lex
An excellent talk. Great questions, I like how you kept the personal questions to the end. Great way to run a show by starting at the IQ end of the spectrum and closing it with the EQ end.
Wow Kai-Fu Lee is one of the most eloquent and well versed Chinese person I've heard. Sorry for this profiling, but honestly just by listening to him I admire him. I think I'll buy one of his books.
Just adding in here a comment to say verbally that I liked this podcast better than few others.. May be because Kai-Fu Lee's answers seemed unbiased and honest (to me), gave insights into the practical issues and and possible practical solutions, rectified the hype around "AI is at rise", how companies and governments around the world are adopting to AI (Chinese infrastructures with built in sensors to facilitate Autonomous Vehicle test circuits), scenario of the AI startups and the differentiation between ML against AGI based startups' planning and approaches, and the human touch - about his life experience (cancer) and after-effects (much useful for upcoming workaholics if they would like to help themselves) and the final question by @Lex_Fridman and Kai-Fu Lee's answer, really carefully thought, beautifully put and quickly replied.
Wow I've heard of this guy Kai-Fi before but now I'm really sold on this guy. His knowledge and insight are unparalleled especially his comparison of silicon valley vs. china trends
Thanks Lex! I think this was the most positive podcast of yours with practical advice to deal with future both at an individual (learn to plumb;) to social (having trust in each other to deal with global issues)
Great interview, thanks a lot. However... ...an inordinate amount of comparing between U.S. and China-always about which is better, in what areas, why. (Touch on it here and there, sure; but curious how much Li keeps coming back to it.) Very informative interview. Thx, again.
Incredibly insightful conversation! Thanks, Lex! I was wondering if you would like to invite Yuval Harari to your podcast. Would be interesting to see historian's perspective on AI and disruptive technologies. And he is quite insightful too!
I think Kai-Fu Lee did summarize his book (AI Superpowers) in the podcast. Very insightful opinion by him. I share the same opinion regarding hard work and finding balance. Our families & relations are what drives us in the first place as such regardless of what undertakings we might have, we should always strike balance. I was hoping to hear the opinion on the state or probably the potentials of AI in other places say Africa rather than US & China or did I miss something?
This podcast was so good, and a very candid overview of potential future scenarios. Sadly the, "If we start to prepare now" never happened and here we are in 2023 with histrionics around AI at an all time high. Podcasts from 4/5 years ago on AI appear to have a more solid scalable strategy on how to manage the machine revolution.
Man I'm about halfway through, but this is crazy enlightening about how China handles their infrastructure considering their national infrastructure bank is the world's largest. Great interview.
Lex, who will you interview next that is the most experienced (“the BEST”) in geo politics to address the concerns that Kai-Fu Lee poses? (1:05:00 +/-)?
Outstanding! As AI need data/references for it to be better,, we need info like this as if to check what we see from various angles. (My case, living in Japan and US helped me to look at the object from different angle...) Some wise man once said, truth will be known by looking at the situation from various viewpoints (and experience base I might add). I see how AI may evolve is correlated to how humans find next frontier and discuss ways into the future of AI. OK, nothing new, but I am happy to see the dialogue here with insightful questions and responses - to expand the base of what we "know." - or think we know. Perhaps more of Chinese angles may help a great deal to fill up the gap - to say the least. I am very happy to be exposed in this wonderful platform to enrich my life and perspectives toward our future while finding ways to explore my journey ahead. Thank you! Kio
Many thanks for the podcast. One thing was very strange though - how Lex plugs Russia here and there during the interview, although it has little to none impact in AI area.
You can see clearly here the intelligence and insights of a Chinese person. It’s very obvious here b/c the guy speaks fluent English . Imagine how many Chinese men and women are just as intelligent but we never get to witness it b/c of language barrier .
Incredible interview. Lex draws out knowledge from his guests that goes beyond the usual rote answers. Lex, when will you interview Einstein (AI version, of course)? My coments: 1. Kai-Fu expresses a reasoned approach to the big power conflict, but as Thucydides wrote in discussing the civil war in Corcyra (part of the Athens/Sparta war), “Words had to change their ordinary meaning…reckless audacity came to be considered courage; prudent hesitation, specious cowardice; moderation was held to be a cloak for unmanliness….The advocate of extreme measures was always trustworthy; his opponent a man to be suspected.” 2. What is the effect of censorship on information gathering systems? For example, can a financial AI predict stock prices effectively when political information is removed from the data flow? Or can an autonomous driving system work when unauthorized political demonstrations do not show up on the map? Also, those who censor will know more about actual events than the general population, giving them more power, but also making their decisions difficult to implement as the general population will have a flawed understanding of why those decisions were made. 3. If love is more important than numbers, as Kai-Fu expressed, then what happens to a number based AI when it asks, “why do humans often value love of other humans more than numbers?” In Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein, the artificial being hounded his creator to create a companion for him, and killed the scientist’s family and friends when he refused. Thank you. William L. Ramseyer
I find it interesting that we often hear complaints about the great Chinese firewall, etc. We do forget that if they hadn't done that, they would probably been overrun by Silicone Wally and we would never have seen the products and applications coming out of China.
Lex, thank-you for all you do to bring us world class pod casts. I have learned so much from you, Joe Rogan, Eric Weinstein and Peter Thiel. You have truly enriched my world.
1:15:30 "accomplishments that were dear to me (...) when I faced mortality in a matter of months (...) these meant nothing to me (...) If I had 6 months left, I'd spend it all with my loved ones, thanking them, giving them love back and apologizing to them that I lived my life in the wrong way". The human part, an amazingly meaningful section of this interview: all "society shaping" and methods towards increased productivity crumble when we face our true purposes, taking off the blindfold (red pill?)...
