The People's Republic of China, nonetheless, is already an AI powerhouse, and for America to maintain its edge - and to prevent U.S. tech from being used for exceedingly disturbing purposes - Washington should force U.S. companies to end cooperative AI projects in China. The West should be seriously concerned: whoever wins at AI will both dominate the global economy and field the most destructive conventional military force. Unfortunately, American companies are helping China's leaders in what many call - correctly - crimes against humanity. For instance, AI researchers from Microsoft, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and Michigan State University gave keynote speeches at the Chinese Conference on Biometric Recognition in Xinjiang in August of last year on facial recognition, a social-control technology. Some of Google's research is in China.

China, writes Amy Webb in Inc., has been "building a global artificial intelligence empire, and seeding the tech ecosystem of the future." It has been particularly successful, Webb, the founder of the Future Today Institute, believes. "China is poised to become its undisputed global leader, and that will affect every business," she notes. Not everyone shares Webb's assessment that Chinese researchers are in the lead. America, after all, is home to most leading AI tech.

China's AI dominance reaches across multiple industries compared to the majority of nations only concentrating on a few.Getty The Boston Consulting Group's study Mind the (AI) Gap: Leadership Makes the Difference published earlier this month provides insights into China's emerging global leadership of AI. A copy of the study can be downloaded here (PDF, 20 pp., no opt-in). BCG's study focuses on the key drivers of success in AI implementations and is based on a global survey of over 2,700 managers in seven countries. Please see page 4 of the study for additional details regarding the methodology. The study found that there is a strong connection between bold, disruption-friendly management styles including actively putting AI high on the agenda, encouraging rapid development and piloting, and fostering cross-functional, agile R&D, all leading to AI industry leadership.