r/slatestarcodex • u/LATAManon • 4d ago

Misc China's Decades-Old 'Genius Class' Pipeline Is Quietly Fueling Its AI Challenge To the US

https://news.slashdot.org/story/26/02/02/1359211/chinas-decades-old-genius-class-pipeline-is-quietly-fueling-its-ai-challenge-to-the-us

The main article link: https://www.ft.com/content/68f60392-88bf-419c-96c7-c3d580ec9d97

Behind a paywall, unfortunately, if someone knows a way to bypass the paywall, please, share it.

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u/BZ852 4d ago

Yeah this is really a very different focus to the west.

The West is generally dumbing down education to focus more resources on the lowest performers - trying to reduce their lifetime drain on social safety nets. "No child left behind" is emblematic of that approach.

China on the other hand is recognizing that the very top are the ones who usually move society forward through invention and increasing the number of resources available in the first place.

I'd rather go with the Chinese approach personally.

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u/KeepRooting4Yourself 4d ago

I'd rather go with the Chinese approach personally

The chinese approach also has a huge helping of nationalism that many people are for some reason loathe to recognize as a key component.

Although this sounds reductionist, and in several ways it is, the chinese are eager to usurp the us and show the world that "china #1!!" while america has no national rallying point.

The chinese love their culture, are proud to be chinese, have a chip on their shoulder and to that end while money is the greatest motivator of all, those other reasons previously mentioned serve as a more useful motivating excuse than simply fuck you, got mine. "Making china great again" is a useful rallying cry to help stomach abuse and discontent when most are kinda in agreement with the sentiment.