夏洛克，讓道了，中國的神探們說可以利用人工智能（A.I.）抓住罪犯——你要不信，就請看他們如何在演唱會中抓住了一名偷土豆的賊。

今年5月，香港歌手張學友在華東的嘉興舉辦演唱會，當地警方將A.I.應用于人臉識別，稱從20000多觀眾中逮住一名土豆大盜。這位毫無疑心的疑犯剛通過演唱會的安保系統，不多久就被抓了：一項算法將他的臉與重點通緝犯頭像數據庫中的一張照片匹配起來。當局以盜竊價值17000美元土豆的罪名將其逮捕。

使用北京曠視科技研發的軟件以來，這名盜賊已是張學友演唱會上被抓捕的第三名逃犯。而曠視科技是中國多家從事A.I.與人臉識別技術相結合產業的先驅企業之一。阿里巴巴旗下的移動支付平臺螞蟻金服利用一項“微笑支付”功能，使用戶在肯德基點餐更便捷。杭州一所高中以此技術監控學生出勤率。深圳以及其他城市的交警則以之鎖定亂穿馬路的行人和自行車。還有北京天壇附近一處公園，將該技術應用于公廁，以防止游客盜竊廁紙。

這都反映了世界第二大經濟體擁抱A.I.技術的非凡熱忱。習近平主席承諾，到2030年，中國將成為人工智能領域的全球領導者，并以此創造價值近1500億美元的國內產業。

面對中國的A.I.之夢，世界各國是否應該擔憂？也許不必。不管是中國的分析人員還是美國的官員，其多數對于中國相關投入的評估都建立于一個共同的假設，就是該計劃按照宣傳內容切確落實。誠然，中國政府加大了對國有企業的扶持力度，對外企加以限制，并毫不吝嗇對關鍵產業予以補貼，但中國的A.I.霸業還遠沒有一個定數。“A.I.不少難關本質上都是全球難題，”而“政府無法獨自解決，”麥肯錫（McKinsey）于6月就相關專題發出的報告中寫道。

谷歌大中華區（Google China）前總裁李開復強調，A.I.正由發現階段向實施階段轉換，前者由美國主導，至于后者，中國享有重大“結構優勢”。主要驅動力是什么？數據、計算能力，還有高水平的工程師。這些方面，人口第一大國占盡優勢。

但人工智能的倡導者們發出告誡，數百萬就業機會將會因此喪失，對于一個就業嚴重依賴重復性制造業的國家來說，前景不容樂觀。中國將如何應對？看來，深度學習也會造成深度問題。（財富中文網）

本文另一版本刊載于2018年7月1日的《財富》雜志，標題為“微微破碎的‘黑鏡’”。

譯者：沈昕宇

STEP ASIDE, SHERLOCK. Detectives in China say they can catch criminals using artificial intelligence—and if you don’t believe them, consider the case of the potato thief at the pop concert.

Officials in the eastern Chinese city of Jiaxing in May used A.I.-powered facial-recognition technology to nab the alleged tater taker from a crowd of more than 20,000 people attending a performance by Hong Kong crooner Jacky Cheung. Moments after passing through the concert’s security system, the unsuspecting suspect was busted: An algorithm matched his face with an image from a database of “most wanted” mug shots. Authorities seized the man on charges of stealing $17,000 worth of potatoes.

The thief was the third fugitive to be arrested at a Jacky Cheung concert in as many months using software developed by Beijing’s Megvii, among the many Chinese groups pioneering ways to combine A.I. and facial-recognition capabilities. Alibaba Group mobile payments affiliate Ant Financial uses a “smile to pay” feature to facilitate purchases at KFC. A high school in Hangzhou monitors students’ attentiveness in class. Traffic police in Shenzhen and other cities spot jaywalkers and reckless bike couriers. A park near Beijing’s Temple of Heaven uses the technology in a public restroom to stop patrons from stealing toilet paper.

All of this hints at the extraordinary zeal with which the world’s second-largest economy has embraced A.I. President Xi Jinping vows China will become the global leader in artificial intelligence by 2030, creating a domestic industry worth nearly $150 billion.

Should the rest of the world be alarmed by China’s A.I. dreams? Perhaps not. Implicit in most assessments of the country’s efforts, whether by U.S. officials or Chinese analysts, is the shared assumption that the programs will perform as advertised. Though the Chinese government has certainly stepped up support for state-owned enterprises, tightened restrictions on foreign firms, and doled out massive subsidies to key sectors, his country’s future A.I. supremacy is far from guaranteed. “Many of the challenges of A.I. are global in nature,” reads a June report from McKinsey on the subject, and “not for government to solve alone.”

Kai-Fu Lee, the former head of Google China, argues that A.I. is shifting from a U.S.-led Age of Discovery to an Age of Implementation in which China enjoys significant “structural advantages.” The main drivers? Data, computing power, and competent engineers—all of which favor the world’s most populous nation.

Yet proponents of artificial intelligence warn that it could wipe out millions of jobs, a troubling prospect in a country that remains so heavily dependent on repetitive manufacturing jobs. How will China cope? Deep learning, it seems, can also raise deep questions.

A version of this article appears in the July 1, 2018 issue of Fortune with the headline “'Black Mirror,' Slightly Broken.”