Ex-Google boss Eric Schmidt: US 'dropped the ball' on innovation

[Klaralven]

In the battle for tech supremacy between the US and China, America has "dropped the ball" in funding for basic research, according to former Google chief executive Eric Schmidt.

And that's one of the key reasons why China has been able to catch up.

Dr Schmidt, who is currently the Chair of the US Department of Defense's innovation board, said he thinks the US is still ahead of China in tech innovation, for now.

But that the gap is narrowing fast.

"There's a real focus in China around invention and new AI techniques," he told the BBC's Talking Business Asia programme. "In the race for publishing papers China has now caught up."

China displaced the US as the world's top research publisher in science and engineering in 2018, according to data from the World Economic Forum.

That's significant because it shows how much China is focusing on research and development in comparison to the US.

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-54100001

The US will never stay ahead of China. China has a bigger population, and therefore more really smart people. Really smart Chinese go into science and technology instead of into law and finance.

But the biggest advantage is that Chinese researchers can read Chinese and English, while American researchers typically read only English (except for those who come from China, and that is being stopped). Therefore Chinese researchers can access the global scientific literature published by native speakers and researchers who use English as their second language, as well as the large and increasing Chinese language scientific literature.

Bigger Than You Thought: China’s Contribution to Scientific Publications and Its Impact on the Global Economy

Abstract
China’s advance to the forefront of scientific research is one of the 21st century’s most
surprising developments, with implications for a world where knowledge is arguably
“the one ring that rules them all.” This paper provides new estimates of China’s
contribution to global science that far exceed estimates based on the proportion of
papers with Chinese addresses in databases of international journals. Address-based
measures ignore articles written by Chinese researchers with non-Chinese addresses and
articles in Chinese language journals not indexed in those databases. Taking account of
these contributions, we attribute 36 percent of 2016 global scientific articles to China.
Taking account of increased citations to Chinese-addressed articles relative to the
global average as well, we attribute 37 percent of global citations to scientific articles
published in 2013 to China. With shares of articles and citations more than twice its
share of global population or GDP, China has achieved a comparative advantage in
knowledge that has implications for the division of labor and trade among countries and
for the direction of research and of technological and economic development worldwide.

https://economics.harvard.edu/files/economics/files/bigger_than_you_thought_chinas_contribution_journal_china_and_world_economy_xie-freeman_jan2019.pdf

[LakeVermilion]

1. Half of our population...

thinks that science/research is just fake news.

[Klaralven]

2. History shows that scientists will leave hostile societies and go to where science is valued

For example, from central Europe in the '30s to the United States.

[Blue_true]

5. Bingo.

We have to deal with Wee-Bobs that crawl off a tractor in some rural backwater, wins a seat to Congress because his or her state’s legislature has made voting by anyone but haters and bumpkins almost impossible, then that idiot comes to Washington and gums up the works with nonsense.

[kimbutgar]

3. We defunded education, charged the smartest high tuition rates giving them debt for the rest of

Their lives. We are a fallen nation and I don’t think we’re coming back until we destroy the conservatives/ repukes in November and move forward. Reinstate the fairness doctrine and raise the tax rates on the mega millionaires and billionaires. And put back in media ownership rules. it will be hard work but we can claw back our country and reinstate “ for the people”.

[brush]

4. We are also at a disadvantage because racism suppresses...

POC human potential. Our society cripples itself as it doesn't nurture Latinx, African American, Native American and even Asian American human resources as it should. What a waste, especially since we're competing with a human population 4 times as large.

And India, with also a much bigger population, will get into the game.

[Blue_true]

7. I don't see India getting "into the game" the way you envision.

I took me a while to notice it as a technologist in corporate America, but Indian and Chinese technologists don’t have a natural interaction. In fact, if you closely examine the technical staff in companies, you will see that the Asian technologist contingent is either mostly Chinese or mostly Indian, almost never did I see a remotely equal mix. The two countries harbor a historic hatred for each other and fought a fairly recent full fledged war, there was a more recent skirmish where Chinese soldiers killed 11 Indian soldiers, some with there bare hands or bludgeoning with rocks. In all my career in corporate America, I saw only one case where a male or female that was either Indian or Chinese associated with the opposite sex of the other nation. Long story short, if China can prevent India from getting high level technical expertise from research papers, it will, the two countries are mortal enemies and their respective technologists seem to mirror that antipathy, even when they live in the USA and are gaining US citizenship.

[brush]

9. Who's talking about them associating with each other?

I anticipate India with it's huge population will get into the tech game on its own and compete against the US and China, not working with China.

And you ignored the whole point of my post...how the US wastes the human potential of its POC population with its racism.

[Blue_true]

10. I doubt that, China dislikes India and will likely do anything to trip it up.

India represents more of a threat to China than we do. That on top of the hostility between the two countries and their populations.

I agree that the USA has historically wasted POC talent, particularly African American talent for a century and a half.

[hunter]

6. Stuff that needs funding...

"Open source" generic medicines, unencumbered by patent licensing fees which are mostly used for advertising, not further research.

A national internet infrastructure available to all.

A free educational infrastructure.

Organic agriculture systems.

Replacement of "factory farm" meat and dairy. It's hell on the workers, not to mention the animals.

Banning fossil fuels without economic disruption.Clean, foolproof nuclear power plants could be built powered by the "waste" we've been accumulating starting with the Manhattan Project. There's more enough depleted uranium, plutonium, mine tailings, and used light water nuclear fuel stockpiled to power this nation for a century or more, including transportation.

We could also be paying people to experiment with lifestyles having a very small environmental footprint. We could scientifically judge the success of these experiments in terms of "happiness" as in the Constitutional "pursuit of happiness." Happy lifestyles having low environmental footprints would likely spread which might make a few billionaires sad.

[malaise]

8. When ignorance & superstition replace science

and there is a clear assault on reason, this is the logical result.
When those who do the hard work are insulted and bullied by the assholes this happens.
When the children of the rich can buy their way into Ivy League universities, this is to be expected.
Money and power have corrupted everything

[Buckeye_Democrat]

11. Yep.

You nailed it!

[malaise]

13. Add to that the reality that the person running the Education Department

had to correct herself after saying childs for children and there is cause for concern.

[Act_of_Reparation]

12. No shit.

Academics have been screaming about the funding situation for the past twenty years. Nobody outside the profession thought it was particularly important. Until they did.