Issue 2, 2024 

Artificial Intelligence, More Than Just Technological Change

Contents

▍Overseas

08　Artificial Intelligence as the Infrastructure for Content Production  Chen Hui　　Wang Ruxi

▍Feature

Imagine a Social Order with a Higher Human Inspiration

Zhao Gang

▍Cover Story　AI: Beyond the Technological Revolution

Intelligent Revolution or "Scale" Revolution?—The Evolution of Artificial Intelligence Technology and Industry from a Historical Perspective  Li Yin

The commercialization of AI technologies is set to significantly impact human societies. How will these impacts manifest and how should nations adjust their socioeconomic systems to adapt to and harness AI technologies？General-purpose AI technologies may usher the IT industry into an era of mass production, akin to the transformation of industrial production by large-scale manufacturing technologies in the 20th century. AI technologies are poised to reshape the IT industry into a capital-intensive sector relying on economies of scale. Drawing parallels with the multiple transformations in manufacturing technology since the Industrial Revolution, the article proposes a three-stage theory of industrial technological development to understand the impact of the AI technology revolution.

Artificial Intelligence Should Not Become Capital's "One-Man Show"  Zheng Ge

"Satellite Zones": The Geopolitical Logic of Data Center Expansion   Ho YinFai

The AI revolution has governments and global capital recognizing the strategic importance of data storage and computation. Investments in digital governance and cloud services drive global data center expansion. U.S. internet giants position themselves to facilitate data center deployment and manage worldwide data operations. However, data autonomy and localization emerge as critical aspects of national security and development. Data centers' substantial energy reliance introduces conflicts between digital advancement, economic structures, and environmental sustainability. This paper focuses on internet companies' data centers, exploring their roles in data flow and information dissemination. It also examines geopolitical relations' influence on China's data center industry development.

The Unfinished Knowledge Production Revolution and What the Law Can Do   Hu Ling

This paper provides a framework for understanding AI's economic and social functions and its demands on the legal system from an organizational and knowledge production perspective. Historically, the legal system as a superstructure has always served the claims of the economic base by legitimizing various potentially valuable resources and transforming them into factors of production that can be widely used by the capitalist mode of production. This process is continuing to happen in the age of AI, and new rules of various kinds are needed to adapt to changes in specific modes of production and to promote productivity progress.

▍Focus

Unexpected Economic Transformation: The Russia-Ukraine Conflict and Russia’s Re-industrialization   Xu Poling

▍Special Issue: Racing on a New Lane

New Machines that Change the World?—The Prospects for Global Competition in New Energy Vehicles   Feng Kaidong　　Chen Junting

Electric vehicles are crucial nowadays due to its importance in global competition. As the automotive industry is crucial for economic growth and employment, developed economies won't quit easily. The second half of last century saw global automotive wars and trade tensions between America and Japan. China now leads in electric vehicles and batteries due to its strong automotive foundation and government policies. Multinational auto-makers face difficulties in electrification transitions, and developed countries have implemented protective industrial policies, posing challenges for Chinese companies. China should explore emerging markets in developing countries in a new way, especially promoting local industrialization to improve inhabitants' income and make electric vehicles affordable.

How State-owned Auto Companies Face Disruptive Technological Revolutions: The Case of SAIC

Fan Wen, Gao Bai

The "Venture Capital Developmental" Government and the Rise of New Energy Vehicles in Hefei

Zhu Lan, Gao Bai, Huang Mai

▍Global South

What Does India Want in the "Global South"?

Lu Guangsheng, Nie Jiao

China and India have seen their historical relations with “Global South” evolve from a budding phase during the Cold War, through a silent period post-Cold War to the Russia-Ukraine conflict, to a renewed focus since the conflict. Their perceptions of the "Global South" differ markedly; China aims for a non-Western structure, avoiding anti-Western stances, while India seeks to integrate into the Western-centric order. India's competition with China for "Global South" leadership is moving towards "de-Sinicization", potentially having negative impacts on "Global South". As "Global South" countries prioritize strategic autonomy, collaborative and collective leadership between China and India emerges as a viable solution for them.

South-South Convergence: How Africa Becomes the Next Asia

Liu Haifang

▍Overseas Ethnography

Chinese Medical Aid Teams in Africa: Navigating the Neoliberal Health Quagmire

Qi Tengfei, Gao Liangmin

▍Observation·Society

"Fandomization": The Logic of Group Organization and Behavior in the Mobile Internet Era

Jin Fangting

“Fandomification” refers to the phenomenon that some online communities or groups begin to behave in a similar way to those of the celebrity fandoms. The long and complex interactions between the fandom communities and platforms, allow the fandom communities touch the maximum activity boundaries in the social platform fields. Once such set of action strategies formed in practice is refined into an action logic, and then adopted by other non-celebrity fan communities, it would be easy to form the so-called "fandomification" effect, which means to mimic the behaviors of the celebrity fandom communities.

▍Academic Review

The Intrinsic Characteristics of Economic Knowledge Production—Also on Where Chinese Economics is Heading

Lu Di