Image caption:
Robot boxing performance displayed during the 2025 World Artificial Intelligence Conference.
The Wall Street Journal, July 29 article, original title: How China is preparing for the AI competition with the United States. China is intensifying efforts to build an independent artificial intelligence ecosystem that can operate without relying on Western technology, in preparation for the long-term technological competition with the United States. Washington has been trying to slow down China's development in the field of artificial intelligence by implementing export controls and other measures to restrict China's access to U.S. capital, talent, and advanced technologies. However, China is retaliating, striving to enhance its self-reliance and strength in artificial intelligence - if successful, this effort will eventually make China less vulnerable to pressure from the United States.
Many such initiatives can be seen at this week's artificial intelligence summit held in Shanghai (the 2025 World Artificial Intelligence Conference and the High-Level Meeting on Global Governance of Artificial Intelligence - editor's note), where China showcased many products free of U.S. technology. A start-up company based in Shanghai introduced a new artificial intelligence model, claiming that it requires less computing power and memory than other systems, making it more suitable for using Chinese-made semiconductors. Although the performance of Chinese chips still lags behind U.S. products, Chinese companies such as Huawei have been continuously improving performance by integrating more chips together, thus narrowing the gap.
China also released the "Artificial Intelligence Global Governance Action Plan" at the conference, calling for the creation of transnational open-source communities and secure, reliable open-source platforms that allow users to freely deploy and improve Chinese open-source artificial intelligence models. Industry participants said that this not only demonstrates China's ambition to set global governance standards in artificial intelligence but may also weaken the influence of the United States in this field, since the leading artificial intelligence models in the United States are not open-source models.
Before this conference, China issued a series of announcements and investment plans aimed at enhancing its own artificial intelligence capabilities, including rapidly increasing power generation capacity and conducting training programs for relevant skills. This nationwide initiative is led by the Chinese government, with institutions including state-owned enterprises, private companies, and local governments investing heavily.
Winning the global artificial intelligence competition has significant implications. Artificial intelligence has the potential to bring disruptive changes to the economy and military. It is believed that occupying a leading position in this field is crucial for future global influence and national security. The United States still maintains an early advantage, with Silicon Valley hosting the most popular artificial intelligence models and the most powerful chips. The Trump administration is taking measures to try to maintain America's leading position.
However, China has shown a willingness to fully develop its domestic artificial intelligence industry. Chinese artificial intelligence start-up DeepSeek is becoming increasingly popular, raising hopes for China's self-reliance and strength in the field of artificial intelligence. Huawei has published several papers detailing how its researchers have built large language models using domestic chips without relying on U.S. technology. "China is clearly making progress in strengthening its artificial intelligence and computing ecosystems," said Michael Frank, founder of the think tank Seldon Strategies.
Although the best large language models in the world are still American models, the best model available for free use today is a Chinese model. Data from benchmark testing provider Artificial Analysis shows that since November last year, the overall performance of China's best open-source model has exceeded that of the best open-source model in the United States.
China is also investing heavily in other areas, including providing more electricity for domestic data centers to develop and run artificial intelligence systems. Morgan Stanley researchers predict that within the next five years, ending in 2030, China will invest $56.4 billion to build a power grid, which is more than a 40% increase compared to the previous five years. Currently, China's power generation capacity is about 2.5 times that of the United States. Although the United States is also increasing its power generation capacity, the gap is expected to widen further over the next five years. Data released by the Ministry of Education in April showed that there are 626 regular universities across the country that have successfully registered artificial intelligence bachelor's degree programs, far exceeding the 35 in 2019. Starting from the autumn semester this year, primary and secondary schools in Beijing will all offer general education in artificial intelligence.
By evaluating the backgrounds of more than 200 authors who participated in writing DeepSeek papers between 2024 and February 2025, researchers from the Hoover Institution and Stanford University stated that a series of actions taken by China have already created a strong domestic talent pipeline for the development of China's artificial intelligence industry. (Authors: Raffaele Huang, Liza Lin, translated by Wang Huicong)
Original: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7533457713548886563/
Statement: The article represents the views of the author(s). Please express your opinion by clicking the [Up/Down] buttons below.