阅读理解
That the US stock market dropped sharply immediately after
the US government put forward the proposal on Tuesday to tighten the control on
exports of various artificial intelligence technologies indicates what the
market thinks of the move.
Multi-national corporations have led the way in the profound
compressing(压缩)
of time and space that has flattened and changed the world over the last couple
of decades, and the overwhelming majority of international technological
transfers have been conducted among multi-national companies in pursuit of
profits.
Thus the proposal the US government put forward on Tuesday
to tighten the control to "avoid negatively impacting US leadership in the
science, technology, engineering and manufacturing sector" is being viewed
not only as a brake on the US economy but also as a barrier to maintaining that
leadership since it will reduce cooperation with the rest of the world and
shrink the market for US companies preventing them from investing research and
development.
The bigger its market, the more profits a technology company
can earn, and the more money it then has to invest in developing even more
advanced technologies. This is as true for US companies as it is for others.
Behind the proposal is the narrow-mindedness of policymakers
in the US administration, who choose to ignore the fact that the United States
would not have become the world leader in science and technology if it had kept
its doors closed.
If such controls are intended to contain China's
development, they will certainly fail.
It is true that China has a lot to do to catch up with the
US and other developed countries. Yet it has made great steps forward by
opening its doors and cooperating with other economies.
As it opens its door wider, it will have even more
opportunities to cooperate with other countries in science and technology.
The de-materialization of economic activities — with economic output and income generation increasingly reliant on information rather than inputs of raw materials — only increases the need for cooperative agreements and a cross-disciplinary approach to increase the capabilities of AI and advance its application.
By trying to enforce and exploit an invented-here ideal that
is untenable, the US will undoubtedly lose the leadership in science and
technology gradually to which it has become accustomed, and prevent the
progress of both humans and machines.