--- title: Kai-Fu Lee: U.S. Is Catching Up With China in AI description: The U.S. has started to catch up to China on the adoption of Artificial Intelligence technology, says AI expert Kai-Fu Lee. canonical: https://time.com/collections/time-100-talks/5851734/kai-fu-lee-ai-us-catching-up-to-china/ article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2020-06-17T09:28:01.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T11:54:18.273Z article:section: Collection Item og:title: U.S. Is Catching Up With China in AI, Pioneer Kai-Fu Lee Says og:description: Lee—the chairman and CEO of Sinovation Ventures—spoke at a TIME100 Talks focusing on the Asia-Pacific region og:url: https://time.com/collections/time-100-talks/5851734/kai-fu-lee-ai-us-catching-up-to-china/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta806c06b289b8a25/698a0f5ee76ad26bc9637c70/kai-fu-lee-time-100-talks.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: U.S. Is Catching Up With China in AI, Pioneer Kai-Fu Lee Says og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: U.S. Is Catching Up With China in AI, Pioneer Kai-Fu Lee Says twitter:description: Lee—the chairman and CEO of Sinovation Ventures—spoke at a TIME100 Talks focusing on the Asia-Pacific region twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta806c06b289b8a25/698a0f5ee76ad26bc9637c70/kai-fu-lee-time-100-talks.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Jun 17, 2020 # The U.S. Is Catching Up With China in AI Adoption, Kai-Fu Lee Says > Sponsored content. 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Terms and conditions apply. * Savings buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Savings Account. * No ATM fees from Ally Bank at Allpoint and Moneypass ATMs plus we reimburse for fees charged by other ATM owners nationwide up to $10 per statement cycle. * Early direct deposit offers eligible direct deposits up to two days sooner. * Spending buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Spending Account. by [Amy Gunia](https://time.com/author/amy-gunia/) ## Amy Gunia Gunia was a reporter for TIME based in Hong Kong.  Kai-Fu Lee discussed the role of AI as the world recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic at the TIME100 Talks on Wednesday, June 17, 2020. Kai-Fu Lee discussed the role of AI as the world recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic at the TIME100 Talks on Wednesday, June 17, 2020. TIME The U.S. has started to catch up to China on the adoption of Artificial Intelligence technology, says [AI expert Kai-Fu Lee.](https://time.com/5574154/kai-fu-lee-time-100-summit/) When Lee—the chairman and CEO of Sinovation Ventures—wrote his book [_AI Superpowers_](https://time.com/5501056/artificial-intelligence-protect-workers/) in 2018, he argued that China was faster in implementing and monetizing AI technology. But the U.S. has started to close the gap on adopting and using AI day-to-day Lee said at Wednesday’s TIME100 Talks event. “China was way ahead in things like mobile payments, food delivery, robotics for delivery, things like that, but we also saw recently, in the U.S., very quickly peoples’ habits were forming about ordering food from home, about use of robotics in various places, in using more mobile technologies, mobile payments,” said Lee, [who has been at the forefront of AI innovation](https://time100.time.com/2013/04/18/time-100/slide/kai-fu-lee/) for over three decades at Apple, Microsoft, Google and today as an investor in Chinese tech startups. The Chinese Communist Party has placed a huge focus in recent years on [technological advancement to drive its economic growth](https://time.com/5518339/china-ai-farm-artificial-intelligence-cybersecurity/). President Xi Jinping’s Made in China 2025 plan aims to ensure that China dominates AI as well and several other high-tech industries, and in 2018 China’s State Council issued the Next Generation Artificial Intelligence Development Plan to establish China as the “premier global AI innovation center” by 2030. Lee said Chinese AI research also advanced, with China now producing almost the same percentage of top papers as the U.S. “I think both the U.S. and China have made up for their weaknesses and are now charging forward,” Lee says, “I think that’s a tremendous benefit to both Chinese and American consumers.” In response to a question by TIME International Editor [Dan Stewart](https://time.com/author/dan-stewart/) on how the AI community is dealing with racial biases that might be embedded in the data that drives AI, Lee said it’s important for engineers to be trained to ensure their products don’t have bias, and for tools to be built to alert developers if data sets are biased or imbalanced. Wednesday’s event also featured Bollywood star [Ayushmann Khurrana](https://time.com/5853628/ayushmann-khuarrana-time100talks/), tennis star [Naomi Osaka](https://time.com/5851730/naomi-osaka-speaks-out-sports-justice/), former U.N. Secretary General [Ban Ki-moon](https://time.com/5851263/north-korea-de-facto-nuclear-state-ban-ki-moon/) and a performance by K-pop group [Monsta X](https://time.com/5851736/monsta-x-black-lives-matter-time100-talks/). Lee also said that [the coronavirus pandemic](https://time.com/5820118/coronavirus-questions-answered/) is likely to speed up the adoption of AI because the data that’s feeding AI is increasing. “[We are working from home](https://time.com/5778203/coronavirus-work-from-home-china/). We are online. We are contributing to the process of digitization. So a lot of the people who used to go to work and still not fully digitized—that is meetings, taking notes on paper—now it is becoming all digitized and all that content becomes training data for AI,” he says. Lee said he expects the “next big frontier” for AI to be healthcare. “A lot of money is being pumped into [AI healthcare](https://time.com/5709346/artificial-intelligence-health/).” He says that as a result of the virus, many jobs that require contact with lots of people—like healthcare workers and restaurant servers—are likely to be replaced. “We’re seeing a very rapid replacement of those jobs by [robots](https://time.com/5825860/coronavirus-robot/), currently for our safety,” Lee says. “When I was quarantined in Beijing when I returned to Beijing, all my food and e-commerce and packages were delivered by robot to my doorstep.” That, says Lee, is not something that will go away. “After the pandemic, we won’t go back to the way it was,” he says. _This article is part of_ [#TIME100Talks: Finding Hope](https://time.com/collection/time-100-talks/)_, a special series featuring leaders across different fields_ _encouraging action toward a better world._ _Want more?_ [_Sign up_](https://cloud.newsletters.time.com/TIME-Talks-opt-in/?source=article-t100-footer) _for access to more virtual events, including live conversations with influential newsmakers._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/time-100-talks/5851734/kai-fu-lee-ai-us-catching-up-to-china/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/time-100-talks/5851734/kai-fu-lee-ai-us-catching-up-to-china/"},"headline":"U.S. Is Catching Up With China in AI, Pioneer Kai-Fu Lee Says","datePublished":"2020-06-17T09:28:01.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T11:54:18.273Z","description":"The U.S. has started to catch up to China on the adoption of Artificial Intelligence technology, says AI expert Kai-Fu Lee.","url":"https://time.com/collections/time-100-talks/5851734/kai-fu-lee-ai-us-catching-up-to-china/","keywords":["TIME100 Talks","Tech","video","overnight"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta806c06b289b8a25/698a0f5ee76ad26bc9637c70/kai-fu-lee-time-100-talks.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Amy Gunia","jobTitle":"Gunia was a reporter for TIME based in Hong Kong.","url":"https://time.com/author/amy-gunia/"}],"creator":"Amy Gunia","articleSection":"Collection Item","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta806c06b289b8a25/698a0f5ee76ad26bc9637c70/kai-fu-lee-time-100-talks.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/time-100-talks/","name":"TIME 100 Talks"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/time-100-talks/5851734/kai-fu-lee-ai-us-catching-up-to-china/","name":"U.S. Is Catching Up With China in AI, Pioneer Kai-Fu Lee Says"}}]}] ```