Google's return to China foretells a global race to deliver AI

When Google abandoned the Chinese search market over government censorship in 2010, it seemed a remarkably principled act of self-sabotage. The company's decision to return to China today, by establishing a new AI research center in Beijing, is all about safeguarding its future. The center was announced at an event in Shanghai today by Fei-Fei Li, a prominent AI researcher and the chief scientist at Google Cloud. With the announcement, Google is acknowledging the growing importance of China for the future of AI. It is also setting the stage for a battle over who gets to deliver AI to the rest of the world.