Corporations May Need a Chief Artificial intelligence Officer, says AISuperpowers.

• Author: Tahmincioglu, Eve
• Position: The Board [Reading] Room

Corporations May Need a Chief Artificial intelligence Officer, says AISuperpowers Author Kai-Fu Lee

Former Google China President and best-selling Al author Kai-Fu Lee provides a board wake up call, and advice

State Farm's recent ad campaign mocking insurance companies using artificial intelligence (Al) includes a clumsy and ineffectual robot attempting to provide service to two pro basketball stars trying to file a claim for a dented car.

In explaining the robot to the basketball players, the human agent says: "The budget insurance companies are building these cheap knock off robots to compete with us."

The spot quickly got panned on social media, and one of their Al-focused competitors even paid to promote the ad as a way to promote their own business.

It's a battle now playing out in almost every industry, between companies that may still see Al as all hype and Al startups and traditional corporations that have embraced Al, says Kai-Fu Lee, author of Al Superpowers: China, Silicon Valley and the New World Order, and the former president of Google China who is now a venture capitalist based in Beijing and a board member of electronics manufacturer Foxconn Technology Group.

Lee sees State Farm's ad as an "extreme example of foolish behavior by a company" because there are parts of the insurance giant's business, and almost any type of business, that can and will be replaced by Al.

Companies and...