Google Builds China Workforce to Develop Artificial Intelligence

Date: 05-09-2017
Source: The Wall Street Journal

Alphabet  unit is seeking engineers to fill jobs related to AI, cloud computing in country seen as having certain advantages over U.S.

Alphabet Inc.’s Google is ramping up its presence in China, hiring engineers to specialize in one of technology’s hottest corners: artificial intelligence.

The Silicon Valley behemoth has recently posted at least four AI-related jobs on its career site in Beijing, including a technical lead to develop a team to work on natural language processing, data compression and other machine learning technologies. Two of the jobs are related to machine learning in Google’s cloud-computing operation.

Elon Musk says AI could lead to third world war

Date: 05-09-2017
Source: The Guardian

North Korea ‘low on our list of concerns’ says Tesla boss following Putin’s statement that whoever leads in AI will rule world

What does he see in there? Is it the future? Is it the true nature of reality itself? No one knows. (It is a Hyperloop test track.)

Elon Musk has said again that artificial intelligence could be humanity’s greatest existential threat, this time by starting a third world war.

The prospect clearly weighs heavily on Musk’s mind, since the SpaceX, Tesla and Boring Company chief tweeted at 2.33am Los Angeles time about how AI could led to the end of the world – without the need for the singularity.

His fears were prompted by a statement from Vladimir Putin that “artificial intelligence is the future, not only for Russia, but for all humankind … It comes with colossal opportunities, but also threats that are difficult to predict. Whoever becomes the leader in this sphere will become the ruler of the world.”

Financial Globalization 2.0

Hans-Helmut Kotz

Hans-Helmut Kotz, a former member of the executive board of Deutsche Bundesbank, is Program Director of the SAFE Policy Center at the Goethe University in Frankfurt and a resident fellow at the Center for European Studies at Harvard University.

Susan Lund

Susan Lund is a partner of McKinsey & Company and a leader at the McKinsey Global Institute.

SEP 5, 2017, Project Syndicate

WASHINGTON, DC – In the decade since the financial crisis began in August 2007, the contours of global finance have shifted dramatically. The total value of cross-border capital flows has shrunk by 65% over the last ten years, a decline that reflects, in particular, the sharp reduction in international banking activities.

The question for us is what figures like these can tell us about the health of global finance today. Are they evidence that “financial globalization” – the international movement of capital – has lurched into reverse? And if it has, would that be such a bad thing?

The current retrenchment reflects greater risk aversion and awareness since the bubble began to burst in late 2007. But, according to new research from the McKinsey Global Institute, what is emerging is a more resilient version of global financial integration.

How Much Does Trump Matter?

Joseph S. Nye

Joseph S. Nye, Jr., a former US assistant secretary of defense and chairman of the US National Intelligence Council, is University Professor at Harvard University. He is the author of Is the American Century Over?

SEP 5, 2017 Project Syndicate

CAMBRIDGE – The United States has never had a president like Donald Trump. With a narcissistic personality and a short attention span, and lacking experience in world affairs, he tends to project slogans rather than strategy in foreign policy. Some presidents, like Richard Nixon, had similar personal insecurities and social biases, but Nixon had a strategic view of foreign policy. Others, such as Lyndon Johnson, were highly egotistical, but also had great political skill in working with Congress and other leaders.

Will future historians look back at Trump’s presidency as a temporary aberration or a major turning point in America’s role in the world? Journalists tend to focus too heavily on leaders’ personalities, because it makes good copy. In contrast, social scientists tend to offer broad structural theories about economic growth and geographic location that make history seem inevitable.

Weak Pay Raises in Europe Pose Political Threat

Date: 05-09-2017
Source: The Wall Street Journal

Persistent wage issue has potential to boost anti-establishment parties in eurozone countries with weaker economies

The biggest puzzle in economics right now is the apparent breakdown in the inverse relationship between unemployment and inflation set out in a famous curve by New Zealand economist and sometime crocodile hunter A.W. Phillips.

In Japan, Germany and the U.S., unemployment has dipped below what economists think is a sustainable level, yet few signs suggest that workers are responding in the usual way and demanding higher wages.

In the U.S., limp pay growth gives the Federal Reserve a reason to delay interest-rate hikes. In Japan it raises the specter of a slide back into deflation. But in Europe, it is a more serious problem, and it exacerbates the political tensions that pose the biggest threat to the survival of the eurozone.

Why China’s Xi Refuses to Go Ballistic Over North Korean Nuclear Turmoil

Date: 05-09-2017
Source: The Wall Street Journal

Powerful Chinese president grows timid ahead of pivotal leadership transition

Chinese President Xi Jinping played host at an annual emerging economies summit on Sunday but was upstaged by North Korea’s latest nuclear weapons provocation.

SHANGHAI—At a moment when Xi Jinping desperately craves stability, Northeast Asia is in turmoil.

The escalating nuclear crisis on the Korean Peninsula presents Mr. Xi with an acute challenge just weeks ahead of a Communist Party Congress expected to return him to power for another five-year term.

Kim Jong Un is playing him, as he does U.S. President Donald Trump, by ignoring admonishments and warnings from Beijing and Washington alike.