British media: In what areas does pragmatic Chinese AI lead the United States?

Financial Times article on July 31, titled: Understanding China's Pragmatic AI Plan. Subtitle: The US has an advantage in breakthrough innovation, while China excels in execution. The US and China have the world's two most important artificial intelligence (AI) ecosystems. 

Geopolitical tensions can easily lead to opposing views of the two countries. Chinese AI is seen as "both lagging behind and leading the US." In fact, the US and China are implementing fundamentally different strategies.

Since the American company OpenAI launched its chatbot, the world has been racing to build large language models. China is hindered in this race by two factors: the inability to access advanced American chips, which limits China's computing power. 

While OpenAI and others are expanding the scale of their large models, Chinese companies must focus on efficiency; Chinese companies are also restricted by accessible data. China's "Personal Information Protection Law" sets strict data protection standards. 

These restrictions mean that Chinese companies are more motivated to produce AI services built on smaller language models. These models may not be as powerful as large models, but they are cheaper to create and operate.

China's tech ecosystem is driven by this pragmatism. This means that while the US ecosystem has an advantage in breakthrough innovation, China excels in execution: finding product-market fit, scaling up, and making applications affordable. 

A recent report on generative AI patents by the World Intellectual Property Organization shows that from 2014 to 2023, China filed over 38,000 patent applications, compared to 6,276 in the US. Of course, patents do not equate to breakthroughs. 

But China's large number of patents can translate into more products. One area of Chinese AI application worth noting is electric vehicles. Chinese companies may not produce superhuman AI, but "good enough" human-vehicle interaction AI will 

become widespread in China before anywhere else.

Chinese tech industry is often seen as a giant supported by state-driven ambitions. In reality, effective self-regulation and (external) geopolitical constraints mean that China has advantages in some areas while striving to catch up in others. 

AI is the most transformative technology in the world, and both China and the US can contribute to it. After all, the most profound challenges facing humanity—from combating climate change to curing cancer—are not just China's or America's, 

but the world's. (Author: Jennifer Scott)

South China Morning Post article on August 1, titled: Despite Chip Supply Constraints, China is Narrowing the AI Gap with the US. Despite the inability to access advanced chips, China is narrowing the AI gap with the US.

Chinese tech companies are striving to create their own large language models. Several Chinese companies have already managed to deliver their AI-generated video tools to global users. In contrast, San Francisco-based OpenAI, 

although the first to demonstrate such capabilities, has yet to make its tools widely available. Chinese companies have also launched open-source models, allowing anyone to build their own AI systems, thereby contributing to global AI development.