China may overtake the US with the best AI research in just two years

White House plans to cut funding for science couldn't come at a worse time for the country's ambitions to lead the world in artificial intelligence. The most detailed analysis of Chinese AI research papers yet suggests that China is gaining on the US more quickly than previously thought. China's vibrant tech scene has come up with a number of recent breakthroughs, and the government has recently launched a major initiative to dominate the development of the technology within a matter of years (see "China's AI awakening"). Still, it isn't easy to measure progress in a broad and complex area of technology like artificial intelligence. Previous studies have shown that China already produces a larger number of research papers mentioning AI terms like "deep learning."