Opinion | China is pushing hard to overtake Silicon Valley and win the biotech race, and gain control of the world’s biological data
- Eleonore Pauwels says the world should pay attention, as China achieves dominance in AI and biotech. Bio-intelligence is more than mapping genomes: whoever controls the resources may influence the well-being of entire populations
China is fast becoming the next AI-DNA powerhouse, threatening Silicon Valley’s long-standing global edge in bio-intelligence. As other countries form alliances with the two giants, the world will be divided into rival tech blocs. This new geopolitical order – depicted in Kai-fu Lee’s latest book, AI Superpowers – will not be shaped by US President Donald Trump’s trade wars, but by competition to control the artificial intelligence and biotech industries.
Equipped with AI programs that can decode the genetic profiles of entire populations and ecosystems, forms of “cybercolonisation” are increasingly likely, along with potentially massive shifts in geopolitical power. In fact, China and Silicon Valley seem poised for a race to control our biological data.
AI is increasingly used to map and measure our biological functions. Many corporate AI platforms are already privy to our online behaviour, relationships, health and emotional states – but, increasingly, they will also acquire baseline information about our vital signs, organs and genomes.
Our cellphones can analyse shifting speech patterns to diagnose Parkinson’s disease. A company in China relies on wireless sensors to analyse workers’ brainwaves and monitor their emotional health. IBM Frontiers Institute is developing intelligent implants and nanobots to go inside the body for exploratory imagery and to report on blood-sugar levels.