China could soon overtake the US in AI development, former Google CEO says

During his talk at a tech summit organized by the Center for a New American Security (CNAS) on Wednesday, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt told his audience that it won't be long before China overtakes the United States in the development of advanced artificial intelligence (AI), according to a report by The Verge. Schmidt, who's now the executive chairman of Google's parent company Alphabet, said that while the U.S. would maintain its leading place in the next five years, China will be able to catch up "extremely quickly." "Trust me, these Chinese people are good," Schmidt pointed out. China has previously laid out plans to become the world leader in AI by 2030, as outlined in a government policy released in July of this year. "They are going to use this technology for both commercial and military objectives, with all sorts of implications," The Verge reports.