저자: LiLu · 외국인
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콜롬비아 비즈니스스쿨 F.K. Tang 연설 시리즈 첫 강연. 리루는 1989년 천안문 이후 미국 도착, 콜롬비아 교육과 버핏 강연을 계기로 가치투자 입문을 회고. 이민·통합 등 미국 건국 이념과 아시아계 미국인 정체성을 논함. 미중 경쟁과 상호의존(반도체 공급망, 대만·한국·일본 중심 파운드리) 언급, 양국 정상 회동 후 전략적 안정 유지를 평가. 종목·가격 예측 발언은 없음.
다듬은 글
Good evening everyone. It is absolutely wonderful to be welcoming everyone at Columbia Business School and thank you all for coming. students, faculty, alumni, distinguished guests, friends of the university to actually celebrate the inaugural lecture in a speaker series uh funded by our friend Frank uh Tank, the Frank Tank speaker series.
And we want to extend our deepest gratitude to both you Frank and Sherry for starting that and for your generosity and for everything that you do actually for the school and your partnership. We have many distinguished guests with us today. Uh which I'm not going to talk about all of them. Uh trustees, friends of the school, deans, uh but we also have for the second day, second time today, our president Jennifer Manukin with us that she's going to speak to us uh in a bit and my dear friend uh dean of arts and sciences Amy Hugenfort.
uh with whom I've partnered for seven years now. Uh and the director of the Asian-American Initiative uh Chin Wu uh which where okay hi uh which we haven't met and of course we have our distinguished inaugural alum and feature speaker Leelu. Uh so I'm going to uh not go through these things but I'm going to tell you just very quickly when I first uh met Leelu was when I was just uh dean for maybe two or three months u and he Leelu was a trustee of the university and visited to come to meet and and we struck uh a wonderful first conversation uh that started a relation relationship that I've cherished uh for the last uh eight years.
Uh during that time we spoke a lot about the school about education about technology but then we struck uh sort of a conversation about us and China. Uh I had just returned 4 months earlier from a my first trip to Senzhen and I had seen some incredible things and I started brainstorming on an idea with Leelu uh about taking a bunch of my faculty members uh and visiting China to go and see sort of interesting companies and sort of gain understanding of what was happening.
ing on the ground, which is something that a lot of of us Americans actually haven't seen. Using it as an opportunity to actually teach about some of these things in our classrooms and then use that as the right place to also talk about the geopolitics of what's happening and about the USChina relationship.
So that was conversation number one. Conversation number two about that was with two other people here, Frank and Lihong on over dinner in November of 2019 uh in Hong Kong. That was my first trip to Hong Kong as dean and we had a wonderful dinner that I think Franku had hosted us. Uh and then I started hashing out that idea with you that I want to do that and you know we all got excited.
Then COVID happened. So we didn't actually do it uh for quite some time because it was almost impossible to travel. But as soon as the travel restrictions relaxed uh Leelu and and I spoke again uh and then we planned it. Uh and then two years ago we had a wonderful wonderful trip uh visiting basically companies uh in four different cities in uh China, writing seven case studies that we now use in core classes and large electives that we teach and using it as an opportunity to not only showcase interesting companies and what's happening in in China on the ground, but actually use it to talk about the complicated topics of USChina relationships, what's happening in different industries, semiconductors and the like.
Uh so it has been uh it was an interesting idea and uh and and the beginning of sort of a journey that has connected all of us uh and we benefited so much in the school and we benefit every time we teach these cases now uh in our classroom. So, and you know, every interaction for those of you that haven't spent time with Leelu is one of sort of a strategic exchange.
Uh, you always learn something. Uh, uh, the the sort of analytical thinking uh the framing uh is is always uh impressive and cherished. So, thank you. So now it's my great pleasure to introduce our 21st president, Jennifer Minukin. Uh Jennifer joined us uh a little bit more than three months ago. Uh she was chancellor at the University of Wisconsin Madison.
Before that she was dean of the law school at UCLA. She's a she's a very well accomplished legal scholar and she has been taking the reigns of our cherished university at a difficult time and she is uh us all in order and helping us navigate uh an incredible and ambitious future. So Jennifer, thank you.
I'm a little shorter than Christ, so I'll move down the microphone. Thank you for that kind introduction. And uh thank you everybody for being here this evening. It's wonderful to see this collection of amazing Colombians. We've got a couple of trustees here and a number of deans and many students and faculty and alum alums and and staff and friends of the university and of course our uh our our distinguished speaker.
Um I want to add my thanks uh to you Frank and Cherry for making this possible. uh to echo Costis, your support and your partnership have been invaluable for Colombia and I love the vision of what you're doing with this lecture and uh and this inaugural one is just is is extremely special. Um, I also want to thank Leelu uh for his service to the university as a trustee as an incredible alumni supporter of Colombia College, Colombia Law School, and Colombia uh business school.
And um I uh Cost described getting to know Leelu over a number of years, but he described his first conversation with him, which took place when he was just a couple months into his deenship. And I had the chance to have the equivalent conversation with Leelu earlier this afternoon, just a couple of months to my presidency.
And as Cost described, everything he said was was true. I mean, not the same. We did not make a plan to take business law faculty to China, but we did talk in such a wonderful way about what might be possible for Colombia, about the strategy of the future, about thinking about AI and what it means, about thinking about the student experience, about technological change, about about governance and opportunities, um, and what it means for Colombia to be Colombia in the years ahead.
And I also got to hear that as some of you may know, Leelu has three degrees from Colombia. An undergraduate degree, a law school degree, and a business school degree. What perhaps not everyone here knows is he got them all at the same time. Truly, he got all three degrees at once. He said he managed to find a loophole that let him do that.
If if everybody who manages to do that can be as distinguished as Leelu, I think we should keep that loophole alive and uh and moving forward. So, it's really a pleasure uh for me to be here to uh be part of the inaugural FK Tang research and speaker series. This series is also a wonderful example of the way that institutions like ours can bring together uh voices across different sectors, art, arts and sciences and business in this case to collaborate, debate, and move the needle forward on truly important topics.
It's also an opportunity to bring together Colombians who are interested in and supportive of our Asian-American initiative, which is doing such vital work to strengthen the university's resources and expertise and our shared knowledge in the area of Asian-American research and teaching. We're proud, I'm proud that Colombia is already a leader in the study of the Asian-American experience.
In fact, in the late 1990s, when the university established the Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Race under the direction of Professor Gary Okihiro, the inaugural majors were in Asian-American and Latino studies. And today, we have fantastic scholars exploring so many areas, including immigration, citizenship, social policy, poverty, culture, and race, and more.
But there are still gaps in our collective scholarly knowledge and understanding of the vital role that Asian-Americans have played in all facets of American life, in business, in the arts, in politics, in the law, in science and technology, in medicine, and in so many other areas of human endeavor.
And so, the Asian-American Initiative is doing this work and serving as a vital hub of scholarly activity for faculty, students, alums, and supporters. And we're looking to grow the resources with new faculty, new courses, new research grants, new internships, a minor in Asian-American studies, with visiting scholars, and with public-f facing programs.
This is part of embracing our and expanding our efforts to embrace work that reflects the diverse the diversity of cultures, languages, traditions, experiences, and histories that make up the Asian-American experience and the American experience because those are so deeply linked for us in this country.
The immigrant experience is so core to what it means to be an American. And the Asian-American experience is a critical part of this and especially important to lift up at a time when there's such pressure about immigration and immigrants in this country, including for some of our own students, our international students who are facing distinctive and troubling challenges.
And so this work is as important as ever. and we're so proud to be able to uh celebrate the Asian-American experience at a moment like this. That is one reason why the Tang lecture and the Asian-American Initiative is so especially meaningful for our university community. And so tonight, we are incredibly fortunate to inaugurate this series and to welcome Leelu.
Uh it's just a wonderful opportunity for all of us and he is one of our strongest supporters. Uh, as I mentioned, a three-time Colombia alum, an accomplished businessman, a philanthropist who also has one of the most compelling personal and professional stories that most of us have ever heard. He's done so much in the service of raising the profile of the Asian-American and Pacific Islander community, including co-founding the Asian-American Foundation.
So, enough from me. I know you're all eager to get to him and the main events. So, I will very much uh just say how pleased I am that we're able to have this event tonight. Unfortunately, I can't stay for the whole program. So, I'm especially pleased that I got to hear from Leelu earlier this evening.
And I look forward to more strategic conversations, more optimistic but realistic perspectives on the future. And I also am just so pleased and proud that you love Colombia because you so clearly do. Uh so thank you. Let's give Lelu a big round of applause for what he's done and what he's going to do.
Thank you. And now I do want to turn things over to Chin and Jennifer uh for all that they've done and will continue to do for Colombian Asian-American initiative. And I think now Chen, you're going to say a few words. Thank you all. Thank you. Thank you, President Manukin. Your presence and your support means so much for us.
And I love the optimistic and pragmatic approach. So, thank you so much. U I'm Ching Gao. I'm the director of the Asian-American Initiative, which is housed under Arts and Sciences. So, thank you, Amy Hungerfor, the executive vice uh president for the university uh to be here. I also want to acknowledge my distinguished colleague, Professor Jennifer Lee, who is the founding director of the Asian-American Initiative.
How about we applaud her? Okay, I'm so uh proud that uh under my leadership, we're going to continue the vision and mission set up by Jennifer and a number of other leaders, including the university leaders and trustees. I think we do important work as Asian-Americans. We are a strong force for the American society.
Interestingly, we make up 7% of the US population. But guess what? Um, in 2023, Asian-owned firms accounted for 12% of all the US employer businesses and they together reported 1.2 trillion in revenue. So, Asian-Americans are important. We are proud to be part of this community. I think uh President Manukin said that Leelu is one of the co-founders of the AsianAmerican Foundation five years ago.
That foundation has three focus areas, safety, belonging, and prosperity. They all ring so true for what we are trying to do at Colombia through data and research and action. I think we as Asian-Americans and scholars and students who pursue this field, we want to promote belonging and pride. And that's why everybody matters.
Every voice matters. I think there's no better person to be our inaugural speaker than Leelu. We heard the amazing personal story. I think in the field of both business, investment and philanthropy, Leelu is legendary. It's such a role model and inspiration especially for young people from all walks of life around the world.
You have a bold vision. You have a big heart. I think that's what brought all these people together in this room tonight. I think everybody is eager to hear what you have to say. Afterwards, we will have a a conversation and then we invite audience members to please raise your questions. So please, Mr.
Leelu, welcome. Thank you professor. Um so this is a really wonderful uh homecoming in a sense and is particularly I was a walking in earlier today. I was struck by the location of this and I remember that clearly at 125th Street not far from where lived at the time. uh exactly now 37 years ago right in that corner is when I was wondering all the questions some of you might be wondering at the time it is in the fall of 1989 I just really arrived transported from China and I have no idea what I'm going to do and I was standing in that crossroad literally got lost everybody's rushing by walking very fast speak a strange language called English which I knew nothing about and I was lost in my own thought and also in my way and I was wondering to myself where the hell I am where I came from where I'm going now understand those are the three question who you are where do we come from where do we go are the questions humanity has asked ourselves for a couple hundred thousand years ever since Homo sapiion.
Now to me 37 years ago in that corner around here it was a literally my survival question. I have no idea. I wasn't here voluntarily. I recently lost home. I was on the national most wanted list for my role as a student protest leader in Teneman Square and I was transported here didn't speak the language didn't understand what's going on and didn't know anybody of course I don't have a penny and uh so but I was wondering those question exactly the right place that is the edge of a Colombia university which literally saved me.
I was enrolled through Jonathan Cole's help into American language program and learn the language, went to Columbia College, law school and business school which led a series of things to why I am today. And it is really no accident that this should happen here, Colombia and in America. Now this year obviously is a 250 years anniversary of this country.
Imagine 250 years ago the group of colonist 2 and a half million people 20% of them are African slaves would really take on the mightiest power and rising British Empire to declare independence to build a new nation of people coming from different ethnicity different background different religious persuasion united in one simple idea and is enshrined in our founding documentation that our men are created equal indulled by the unalienable right.
Nobody can take it away including the government that among them life, liberty and pursuit of happiness. And on the basis of that set of ideas came to 150 years of unbelievable transformation that led to this country into the most powerful country and the richest country and populous country in the world in history 250 years later.
Now what really accounted to the dramatic meteoric rise? Immigration and integration has to account for a big part of that reason. Almost all of the 340 million people are descendant of immigrants or immigrants themselves. I'm sure many of them in this room are. And somehow we are able to integrate all of that into a common country into a common nation with a common set of ideas that if you pledge your allegiance to it and you could become American.
Now that realization is so powerful. That was the single most important transforming power in my personal life at the time. The minute I realized that I'm not here as a political refugee that have no home to go, my official status called stateless alien, whatever that means. It didn't reply for anything pleasant or optimistic.
But the minute I transform my own mentality from a refugee has no home to go back into a immigrant that are following the footstep of hundreds of millions people in pursuing this broadly defined idea of American dream. It is enormously enormously empowering and of course the country really build the institutions and the cultures that are able to successfully integrate not immigrant all those people they integrated into a path towards success.
In my own cases it really started right here at Colombia and also at business school. Now, two years into my Colombia journey and I was a student, now that I'm really immigrant, I need to think about how to make a living and pay off all the mountain student loans. So, which is really enormous for somebody grew up in a communist country, never know much about capitalism.
And uh so I asked everybody that how do you make money? How do you make a living in this country? And one day there was one person. I think it's from business school and gave me a a a poster and said, "Look, here's a a lecture about making money." And I look at it, they said, "Okay, something talking about making money over buffet.
Free lunch is good." So I said, "I have nothing to lose. If nothing else, I'll take the box of lerie." So I went into a room just like this at a business school at the time. But as I enter into the room, I was standing in the back as you are standing and I look around and there's no lunch. No lunch is served.
So I ask around where is the buffet to somebody pointing to someone standing at the podium. He said he is Mr. Buffett. Okay. Why somebody would be bold enough to call himself free lunch. So I figure that there has to have something that he want to say that is better than lunch. So I stayed. Now that lecture at Colombia Business School, by the way, it was the first time Warren came back to speak since he graduated.
utterly transformed my life and it turned me into a devoted value investor as I am today 34 35 years later. started investing when I was a student a year after I studied thoroughly about to verify what he said is true and doable and use some of the loans with free cash flow and I don't have to pay back until I graduate and that's the float right for those business school student.
So that's the beginning and 34 years later I've not not done anything else. But that's the power of this country. it take you into it and the institutions that really reward meritocracy. And seven years after I started my firm, which I started almost a year after I graduated, I got a fatal encounter with Charlie Mer, who is Warren's longtime partner.
And over a four or five hours of a conversation, Charlie decided to take me as a partner and he invested in the fund and become the largest investor and henceforth become my mentor, partner and lifelong friend. Now that if you dream up a script like this 37 years ago when I was a sitting standing in the crossroad of 125th Street Broadway, I could not really have accepted that.
I would have flatly rejected as a baseless faction fiction except that it actually happened in my life. We've been friends for 20 years until two three days before he passed away. We had our last conversation. Now why that happens in this country? What it is special that we have done? As I said, this group of people now 340 million strong come from all kinds of a different background.
But somehow we're able to congregate together, build a nation on a set of a common ideas. As I said among them, life, liberty, pursuit of happiness, un alienable right of individuals, consent of the governments, governance by consent, governing of the people, by the people, for the people and the bill of rights.
And so those are ideas are simple common ideas that no matter who you are, where you come from, what is an ancestry and a cultures and heritage, you can sign on and become Americans and helping each other for this common identity that reward meritocracy, reward hard work and give everybody an equal chance and of opportunities.
And this country was a remarkably successful Because of that on the other hand that path is not as smooth as we would like to believe. Particularly our effort of integration based on ancestry and religious beliefs are more successful than for example integration of people that are visibly different because of the skin color that has not been as successful.
If you are Christian, Catholic, Jewish, or any other religions or non atheists of the same skin color, whether you're from England, Ireland, Scotland, German, Italy, Greek, Eastern Europe, Russia, couple generations later, you slip into common identity and we have been remarkably successful. based on the idea of individual freedom, freedom of conscience.
However, when it comes to more visible differences that would not disappear in one generation, two generations, you look black few generations down, you look Asian a few generations down, you look brown a few generation down, this country has had a more struggling path. Think about the way we deal with the indigenous Indians.
Think about the African-American slaves that made up 20% of the population at the founding of this country exactly 250 years ago. Even a 100 years later after the civil war that institution ended. It goes another 100 years of institutionalized segregation. And then think about the AsianAmerican experiences.
AsianAmericans are not considered illegible to ever become Americans. It was excluded specifically for becoming Americans. Our first couple hundred years of immigration explicitly exclude anybody from Asia to ever become Americans. It's the only group of people has been targeted by law to explicitly exclude it.
But not because they're not useful. When useful, they were imported as a labors. The Chinese American built the most important connection of United States of East and West in the intercontinental railroad and builded the most dangerous part going through Sierra Nevada mountains and immediately after that they were meant to be kicked out of the country for decades 60 70 years all other Asian-American can experience a similar experiences of exclusion, discrimination and then though the common spirit of the founding principles that mean for everyone the constitution started we the people it didn't see we as mean whom now legally at that point only the white person considered eligible for being American.
But we the people the idea the universal ideals that founding principle as applied really inspired everybody because no such nation until that point founded with the explicit idea that all people should should be living this way in a universal fashion. No other country have ever founded with that principle with that abode experiment.
Now everybody understands including the founding fathers at the time 20% of the population are slaves. They understand this is not perfect but the idea is to work towards in constitutional terms a more perfect union. That effort was inspirational enough for people to take upon themsel especially the Asian-Americans to pursue that the same path available to everybody.
You look at the immigration history of this country. The most important the most important breakthrough are laid out by Asian-Americans of fighting for their right. Now one of the defining defining moment of the history of US immigration come this idea of birthright citizenship. Now that was the result of a heroic Chinese American later recognized as Chinese American fighting for his right named Wong Kim Arc.
It was through his effort go all the way to Supreme Court by that decision established the birthright citizenship that applies to millions 100 million of Americans today. Countling examples like that today and now we're talking about the Asian-Americans and American business. So, thank you Frank and Cherry in establishing this lecture series.
So, going back to businesses and Asian-Americans and of this country, why that is important? Why that is important? It's a critically important over the last 100 years as the economic center of gravity centered around Atlantic Ocean. The fact that American is open for all people from Europe give us the decisive ash to really flourished in that age.
Today that center of gravity is gradually moving to a bigger Indian Pacific Ocean where half of the population of the world lives. the 25 million Asian-Americans, their connections and their expertise really is the most important asset this country have as we embracing for the next century of continuous prosperity and success.
And if we don't handle that right, the consequences could also be dire. Let me give you one example. When Trump started the what do you call that liberation day, what is the term of it? He has so many of them and and applies universal tariff on every country. Only one country fought back and fought back successfully and that was China.
Why? that China was able to stand for us to understand still because rare earth rare earth now where did that rare earth come from there's a one person clearly identified as the godfather inventor of the Chinese technology of a rare worth that give it decisive decisive advantage That person graduated from Columbia University in 1951 is a PhD in chemistry and his wife.
Now in 1951 the Chinese Exclusion Act already ended. It ended in 1943. So all immigrant of a Chinese origin are allotted to become American but 105 people each year. Out of roughly a few hundred million at the time soon to be a billion population 105 Chinese are allowed to become American each year.
And also in 1951, remember that is the height of a Macafe era of a right scare. Everybody with any connections are treated automatically with suspicion. So you can imagine how they would have decided. They decided to go back to China and there after a few decade of persistent effort a invented the decis of a method that today give the decisive edge for China to dominate absolutely dominant rare earth to the point of 90 plus% of our market share interesting example but today what is described as a decisive battle is artificial intelligence.
Now, one out of five out of two fully more than 50% of the leading AI researchers are Chinese. Whether they work in China or work in United States, they were the leading forces. You look at all the leading labs in the United States, China of course, and you look at all the successful firms in that field.
Onethird or more of those are Chinese Americans or Chinese who want to be Americans. baby in this country or at least one of the co-founder of Chinese how they will be traded how they would think where they want to make their life make their home make their future and their fortune and their businesses will have a profound impact and how those two country will fare in the field of artificial intelligence.
So all those questions we talk about have a profound impact in real business life. This is going back to Asian-Americans and businesses and it is still alive today and it is still relevant and it is still vitally important and that group of people really of course have a different issues they have to face whether it is in the professionals in the bamboo ceiling when it is in the health because of some genetic differences is there's a whole bunch of issues that are worthy of a further study and understanding and until co ahead I personally assume that the discrimination already disappeared in fact most of the pe Asian-American today make up the 244 million Asian-American population came after the 1965 Immigration Act And so there is a lot of assumption that this has already gone and the co and and the wave of anti-Asian hate revealed the vulnerability collectively this group have when you're labeled to be as synonymous as a virus as you be called a China virus and be shot at stab at and subject to random violence.
es and verbally and physically fatal and unfatal. And as survey indicated, twoth3 of Asian-Americans do not feel physically safe. The whole community get threatened and of course the whole country's future would also be impacted. And then we realize despite the history, despite the success, the community is still vulnerable, still not organized, invisible, poorly funded.
Of the 7% of population, our philanthropic funding is less than half percent in fact 0.3%. and we don't have a national umbrella. And this is when a group of us decided that we must start umbrella organization. We call the Asian-American Foundation with expressive mission of to serve the 23 million Asian-Americans in their pursuit of the safety, belonging and prosperity free from violent slander and discrimination in perpetuality.
And that enterprise is enormously enormously important for this group of people and for the future of this great nation. And I'm glad to report that six years after founding of it, we were able to really mobilize hundreds of millions of dollars to over hundreds of different organizations and altogether audited over $3 billion into the community and the organization still thriving.
And so I'm here to say both on the eve and the conclusion of our first 250 years of a grand experiment called in America that we will continue to strive for this ideas and this group of people for this group of people to be successfully become the fabric of American society is vitally important for and the future of this great nation.
So with that, I want to thank you and I'm open for questions and answers. Thank you. I think I am. Yes. Um first question. Yes. Yes. Please. Hi, Mr. Lu, thank you so much for taking the time and your dedication to the Columbia community. Um, and Mr. Tang, thank you. Um, congratulations on your inaugural um, speaker series.
My name is Lucas. I'm a second year MBA student. My question is um, you talked about you you started your speech with um, coming to the US in 1989 and looking back and looking at some of your peers uh, during that time. You have one who stayed in China, who became a businessman and then subsequently taken away in a Hong Kong luxury hotel.
You have another one who came to the US, continued his advocacy. My question is, how has your perspective changed since 1989 being a Chinese student? And if you were to go back in time to China in 1989 as a student, would you have done anything differently? Okay, Cly, I'm going to do this because we're running out of time.
So I'm going to take a three uh questions at the same time. So so that everybody has a chance to uh to speak. So two more questions please. And if you don't mind I'll just stand here. Yeah. Please go ahead. Hi Lelu. Uh thank you so much for coming making the trip here. Um my name is Brian Tao. I'm a first year MBA student.
I was just hoping you could share your thoughts on AI, how it's affected your investment process and how you predict it will affect your investment process as well as how it will affect the transformation of China and the US. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Another person. Thank you so much, Mr. Leo, for taking the time.
Um, my Ryan. Uh, as someone who's born and raised in Shanghai, uh, I have a question. I'm also a senior at Columbia College. I'm wondering, you know, you mentioned this beautiful vision of founding the Asian-American Foundation and also a lot of philanthoric work that you've done for the community. What are some challenges?
What are some prospect that uh, you know, for us, the younger generation could do to sort of contribute to that vision? Yeah. Okay. So, let's start with the three. What would I have done differently if I were able to go back to my 23 years old self in Beijing? And how does AI impact investment? Um, and what young people such as yourself would really face a uncertain but also promising future.
Um, well, they're kind of all related. Look, when I was 23, I have the same amount of enthusiasm, optimism and hope and a sense of responsibility as I am today. So we doing what we we did what we did uh because our best intention to how to make China better, how to really uh help those who are otherwise helpless and improve the prospect of China.
So I think that intention continu should be reside in everybody including yourself. I have my daughter who's graduating from Colombia as well here and I give them the same advice I would give to myself begging them. You got to live to the best of your ability with the opportunity that you have and with the best knowledge you have.
Knowing that it's not going to be perfect. knowing you're going to really the best you can ever give is to give it your best try. And in the today of course that we would all whether in business in society in general will be influenced by a whole set of the different factors from geopolitical changing and to technological waves and of course AI is is one of the greatest technological wave that is happening.
today and now over the last two 300 years we have been uh dealing with technological waves one after another. We somehow get used to uh a big big changes and it changes typically through a process of a creative destruction and while creating new things but also distract bunch of the old and causing a great deal of both hope your fear but also anguish anxiety and of course AI is all of that but there's something different about it.
Um it feels very very different on the surface. It feels different because the pace of a change is quite a dramatic and in mere three four years you saw the whole world has been transformed and the technology itself has really progressed and the spa space is is almost incomprehensible to most people outside the field and the um The scale at evolve is also dwarf anything that we have seen before.
Whether is the internet build up is the railroad or the telecoms and is the concentrated nature of the financial impact particularly on the top also feels very very different and but those is on the surface but underneath that one for the first time that we're not only dealing but we're thinking profoundly about The nature of a technology along a different spectrum that we are not familiar with before.
It has always been a technology too. Till today, today though we begin to question whether it is two or it is or becoming a creature. on the two versus creature, we began to really tip the line. And it started out by confusing you in recognition in language between a person and a machine. when AI passed the touring test in November 2022 with a CH GBD and then acquires a reasoning and then it acquires ability to master another structured data called machine language software coding and then it gains agency because of the ability of software cing and now we're evolving to the kind of agent that is capable of coding, capable of operating on computers with all the software better than humans in collaboration with large numbers organizing with their own own languages, their own way of communication, developing their own plans are a long stretch of task, a long chain of thinking through that evolution in four years.
We have now began to blur the distinction between two versus creature and began to openly contemplating and also anguish over what is this technology going to lead to us by Silicon Valley's narrative generative AI will lead to a process called RSI. I recursive self-improvement and risi by its own force will lead to AGI general artificial intelligence that equals to all of human capability and from there to go to ASI artificial super intelligence that supersede surpass all humans both individually and in collection.
And from ASI you gains almost power of semi-od. And in that somewhere along the side the process question is where would a human reside if it indeed become from a technological evolution into evolution in the biological sense. that indeed we're dealing with a alien intelligence that is better in every domains of human capability both individually and in collection.
Where does human will reside? We have been where we are because we are the domin speci due to our superior intelligence. And so those raising profound questions both technically, financially, psychologically, but also towards the collective future of human civilization. That is where we are. That is the profound question that for both those in control and also the young people such as yourself who will have a important role in shaping that future.
That's where we are. Go ahead. Can we have another set of questions please? Thank you so much for being here. My name is Suji Park. I am an alum from Barard College. And so I'm going to take the question more lighter. So this group is filled with ambitious, talented Asian-Americans who like we're go go and I'm sure that's you as well.
What brings you joy outside of financial? What do you do to recharge, relax, refresh? Thank you. Thank you. Couple more. There's one over there. Yes, please. Hi, U Mr. Leelu. Thank you very much. My name is Zatian. I'm a post-doctoral researcher at the Asian-American Initiative. So I believe I have you and many folks in the room to thank for creating this job opportunity, this institution and a job opportunity for me.
So um like one thing you mentioned in the talk really struck me as to think about uh the Asian-American talent and how important they are for our future. Um but I sense there's a sense of a tension between in thinking about where they want to stay longer term. So that ties to the background that for example the the rivalry between China and the US is uh is tense and there might be a cycle and they have to choose either one place or the other.
So my question for you is do you see a optimistic and also pragmatic way forward so that they could see a future where where they live shouldn't be a permanent hard decision where they could see like a freedom of uh flow of talent flow flow flow of uh living styles more freedom uh around this uh global migration.
Thanks. Good. Please. Okay. Unless we give a our association representative a question. Please. Yes. Please go ahead. You Mr. Lulu to allow me to ask you a question and I'm very delighted and let me tell you I just saw a documentary about you for the first time without knowing about you yesterday evening and I'm very inspired.
So I have a bit of a different set of questions here. Uh like you said and I was very inspired by your background that you were involved in political side of governance at certain point and later on you transformed yourself to the business side and you're extremely successful on the business side. So on a general thing as a person who's actually looking at the
speak louder a little bit so that as a general person who's actually looking to understand so what do you think is more transformative? Is it the political side or is it the business side? That is one question and just an extension of it because someone who's a little bit on the very very curious about this side.
You said that integration of uh Asian-American society is very important and I'm quite sure. So my general very minor observation as an Indian student studying in Colombia and living in US for the past one year is that I see that uh there are so many communities around the world who come to us and are actually participating in the electoral proc process here but slightly I observe that usually the Chinese or the Asian-Americans are slightly on the lesser visibility on this.
It's just an observation. I'm not sure I don't have a statistics. It's just that I tend to follow the politics here. Here I just noticed that I might be wrong. Okay. So what is the observation? I'm sure there is a there is there's a good thing and bad thing for that. I got you. Okay. So what do I do to recharge stay active
and what is the position of Asian-American particularly in your case Chinese American in the current environment of a geopolitical tension what are the situation circumstances we find ourselves how do we deal with it by your observation which one is more transformative politics versus economics and and our general participation in the uh political process.
Well, um you know I yes you the people can really give you uh identity for your outward uh profession but what really give people motivation is is uniquely individual and different to each of them. They may or may not tie it to your profession. Now I happen to have the good fortune that actually I I am interested in what I do and what I do give me broad exposure because as investor fundamentally you're predicting the future now you don't have to always act to it but predicting future outcome really give you a opportunity to express your insatiable curiosity to understand everything and interested in everything and to see and let science tells you whether you're right or wrong.
Now, you don't always have a stake with it. Sometimes when you have a stake to that prediction, that's even more rewarding, but only if you have overwhelming confidence. The odds are with you. Uh so, insatiable curiosity is one of just it's just who I am. So, I'm interested. So they give you a a lot of good reasons to get up in the morning, get excited, engaged, and of course all the things I do, I chose to do.
I I chose to do things I'm interested in. So it's a broad range and I'm just genuinely interesting to do. So being in the country that allow that free expression uh is quite a blessing. But get back to your question. Um in the current circumstances we find ourselves as Asian-Americans or Chinese Americans into this uh geopolitical tension between two big superpowers.
How do we make sense of it? How do we make sense for our own life in that process? Now ideally of course all people should really find the place they find most comfortable with their value system with the opportunity set with their culture habit all of that comes together. Now the word obviously is not really made out of ideal and is still governed by a primary system of nation state and government play a decisive role.
This is a come back to your economic versus political and both are really obviously very important. It used to be the political forces are the most dominant forces until the modern era started with the invention of a market economy. Then the economic forces begin to take up a much larger percentage of a people's life.
Think about how much you live in the context of a companies, associations, employers versus you are under government apparatus. And so that is the modern life that we have experienced over the last few hundred years. So, but political forces still play a critical important role and US and China are locked in a long-term competitive relationship and hopefully that will be more peaceful relationship and various forces are really pointing towards a peaceful coexistent relationship partially going back to the force of economics.
One of the fundamental truths about the modern economic forces is that if you form a big common market, it become the most efficient market and withdrawing from that market come from a deep cost. And once the market is globalized and become a common global market, each country begin to lock into a dynamic that you cannot really withdraw from it for too long.
You will lose your competitiveness after a period of time. And so even if there are frictions and the barriers all kinds of a national boundaries once the common market is formed the cost is a prohibitedly high for that market to break. Even with the barriers frictions tariffs you'll find a workaround among third countries third party transactions.
So that dynamic is very interesting that make the word somewhat interdependent somebody and that's where Asian-American come in is a very interesting dynamic. Of course you're going to really decide on his own which one is more comfortable but the broadest stroke is really not black and white. Again, let's come back to the central theme of this lecture series which Frank and Cherry end is the business and Asian-Americans.
Let me give you another example. In today's AI race, one of the critical component to that race is access, production and use of semiconductor chips. Semiconductor chips determines the amount of compute which lead to the power of your models and applications. Generative AI live on your ability of compute at is the center is the semiconductor chips.
And what is interesting though let me ask another question where those semiconductor chips are manufactured in the terms of the industry is called fabricated where are those semiconductor chips are fabricated that one is one what Korea, East Asia. Now, we have a great companies, Micron, Intel, uh, in this country, but they made up a tiny single percentage of all of it.
Vast majority to the point of 95% are fabricated in countries with one common features unite all of them. They are all use chopsticks. It is chopstick countries. Unfortunately, they're not in India because you don't use chopsticks. All of them. Now, you can study the culture implication of it, but the reality is this.
So we're really really locked on that level to the extent those semiconductors are designed and developed research in this country. They also led are currently being led by people who use chopsticks. Who are they? Jensen Hang from Nvidia. Lee Putin in Intel, Lisa Su AMD, Haktang in Broad and the list goes on and on.
So there goes the complexity between economics and politics. And this is why the president of the United States and president of China in the last few months have met twice. And each time the greatest outcome of that summit is you're going to meet again. They have a plan and a time to meet again. Maintain that strategic stability.
maintain that relationship. So you as Asian-Americans or Chinese Americans would have a choice, somewhat of a free choice. On the other hand, given that economic reality that all people from all over the world eventually is going to also find a common way to coexist much like the common market. There is one country that has built from the very beginning with the vision that all people of different origins, of ancestry, of religion, of culture, and eventually different skin colors would all be leaving together with a common identity.
And you could be black plus American. You could be brown plasma, you could be Asian plasma American, you could be white American. And that experiment turned out to be critically important for the vision that once a global common market formed that we're likely to figure out a way for different nations, for different peoples of differences to find ways to coexist in this world.
So it is also critically important for this first experiment now 250 years and going strong to succeed. If this experiment succeed, there is a better chance for the rest of the world begin to leave in peaceful coexistence. All participated in the common market support supply whatever distinguish your unique contribution whether using chopstick will leading to computer chips or other culture habit lead to other contributions to our collective civilization. That's how I think about those questions.
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