AI building blocks: The eggs, the chicken, and the bacon

As I read this post from the World Economic Forum, This is why China has the edge in Artificial Intelligence, what struck me wasn't whether China has an edge in AI, or even if I care. It made me wonder, are these factors essential to building a solid foundation for AI? Does high performance in these areas give an edge to AI projects? And, overall, my answer was: somewhat, but misleading. Your focus should not be on the amount of data, but the data available that could apply to the problem you have defined.