Artificial Intelligence USA and China in the battle for supremacy

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The strength of Chinese AI developers lies in practical applications rather than large language models. Despite this, the global AI race between the USA and China remains fierce. Chinese companies excel in humanoid robotics, showcasing significant technological advancements and narrowing the gap with global leaders.

The AI race between the USA and China has become a defining competition of our time, reminiscent of the space race during the Cold War. A snapshot of this rivalry was evident at a recent leading AI conference in the People's Republic, highlighting the fierce competition and advancements in the field.

At this year's WAIC, the "World Artificial Intelligence Conference", the focus was on concrete applications of AI, with a special emphasis on robotics. And it is particularly in this area—applications —where China is currently catching up particularly fast with the USA. This trend is particularly noticeable in bipedal, humanoid robots, which, thanks to their AI-enhanced brains, are becoming increasingly useful for applications in a wide range of industries.

China and the growing market of humanoid robots

One of the stars of this year's WAIC was Tesla's humanoid robot "Optimus Gen2". While it remained behind glass in the "World Expo Exhibition and Convention Center" in Shanghai and thus was denied interaction with the trade fair visitors, it was nonetheless a crowd magnet.

However, Tesla was one of the few foreign exhibitors at the WAIC this time. The vast majority of the 500 companies showing more than 1,500 AI-related products and systems were from China itself. And so, Tesla's biped was greeted by a domestic team of no fewer than 18 humanoid robots from Chinese production, demonstrating China's status as a "fast follower" in the world of AI, as the Asia Times noted in its trade fair report.

The Chinese are showing off their AI chips

For example, "Healthy Loong", the 1.85 meter tall and 82 kilogram two-legged robot developed by the Humanoid Robot Innovation Center in Shanghai, showed his fine motor skills, which allows him to perform precise work. He can climb stairs, make coffee, and easily avoid obstacles with a walking speed of one meter per second.

M Cube Conference in China

"The era of the AI-defined car is inevitable"

The brain of the Chinese humanoid is based on the Large Language Model (LLM) "Zhuque" and the Baihu model, which were also developed by Chinese scientists. Such technological advances attract great attention in China. Due to the U.S. chip boycott against China, which is focused not least on AI chips, there has been recent discussion about whether China can keep up with the Americans in the field of AI at all. It can, as was seen at this year's WAIC.

"China flexes its AI muscles at the Expo in Shanghai," headlined the Asia Times. The USA remains a global leader in the development of LLM. "In 2023, 61 significant AI models will stem from institutions in the USA, far surpassing the 21 from the EU and the 15 from China," states a recent AI Index report from Stanford University in California.

Yet, when it comes to transferring smart models into the real world, China has a tremendous competitive edge thanks to its highly developed electronics industry. Humanoid robots are just one example. Numerous AI applications for smartphones, PCs, wearables, health services, and components for autonomous vehicles were also on display at the WAIC.

Drive AI in practical applications more strongly

Despite the U.S. chip boycott, Chinese entrepreneurs are finding ways to not only further develop artificial intelligence, but also to use it commercially. "No one will deny that we in China are struggling with limited computing capacities," Reuters news agency quotes Zhang Pingan, head of the cloud computing department at Huawei, in its conference report. "But if we believe that we cannot become technology leaders in AI because we do not have the most advanced AI chips, then we should give up this view," says the Chinese manager.

Robin Li, CEO of Chinese search engine and AI corporation Baidu, called upon the Chinese industry to more strongly push the deployment of AI in practical applications. "Without application, if you only have 'fundamental models', whether open source or closed source, then it's worthless," says Robin Li at the conference.

The importance given to AI by the Chinese government was made clear simply by the fact that Prime Minister Li Qiang gave the opening speech at this year's WAIC. He called for more international cooperation in AI. AI is a "common good" of humanity that must remain "safe, reliable and controllable". International cooperation is necessary for this too. At the same time, no country in the world should be left behind in AI, says Li Qiang.

Chinese industry should benefit from AI

The Chinese Prime Minister had also chaired a State Council meeting in early July, focusing on accelerating the digital transformation in China's manufacturing industry. So, a conclusion of the WAIC in Shanghai could be: Like in other countries, China sees the need to regulate AI as well. Unlike in Germany, the focus of the debate is not so much on the concerns and potential dangers, but on the concrete benefits of the new technology for science, research, and particularly for the competitiveness of industry.(heh)

*Henrik Bork is Managing Director at Asia Waypoint, a Beijing-based consulting firm specializing in China.