In recent years, China has dramatically increased funding for artificial intelligence education programs, and it has paid off. Almost half of the best scientists in this field throughout the world come from the Middle Kingdom.
According to a report by MacroPolo, China has overtaken the United States in the number of talented artificial intelligence developers and researchers. Only 18% of them are from American universities. Over three years, the share of Chinese scientists grew from a third to almost half of the total, while the United States remained at the same level.
According to researchers, this imbalance has been growing for a long time. For most of the past decade, the United States relied on Chinese students coming to American universities to earn doctoral degrees and then stay to work in the country, but recently many Chinese scientists are choosing to stay and work in their homeland. Since the application of artificial intelligence can help increase productivity, strengthen industry and scientific research, AI experts have proven to be one of the most important geopolitical assets. On the one hand, the Chinese are attracted to AI-developing tech giants and startups like Google and OpenAI, but on the other hand, the growing conflict between Beijing and Washington is scaring many of them away.
According to MacroPolo managing director Damien Ma, more than 2,000 artificial intelligence programs have emerged in China since 2018, including 300 at elite universities. However, many of them had nothing to do with generative AI.
“Many programs have focused on the use of artificial intelligence in industrial production, while Americans are now mostly interested in generative AI,” Ma emphasized.
The United States still holds the lead in AI development, but more and more developments in this area are coming from researchers trained in China. Chinese scientists make up 38% of leading artificial intelligence researchers in the United States, American scientists make up 37%. Three years earlier, these figures were different – 27 and 31%, respectively.
“These data show how dependent American artificial intelligence research is on Chinese scientists. The United States is a world leader in AI development, largely due to the fact that we attract talent from around the world, especially from China,” said Matt Sheehan, a fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace who studies Chinese information technology, commenting on these figures.
American defense agencies have long turned a blind eye to the influx of Chinese scientists and their dominance in AI development projects, partly because they were driving American developments forward, partly due to a lack of access to classified data. However, not long ago, a Chinese citizen working as a Google engineer tried to transfer developments in the field of AI, including critical data on microchip architecture, to the Beijing company. US politicians are faced with a difficult task: to resist Chinese espionage, while not scaring away scientists who want to move to the country.
“Chinese scientists are driving the cutting edge of artificial intelligence,” said Subbarao Kambhampati, a professor and AI researcher at the University of Arizona. In his opinion, a ban on scientific research by Chinese citizens would be akin to “shooting yourself in the foot.”
For now. According to researchers, the majority of Chinese who earn PhDs in the United States remain in the country, helping it maintain global leadership in AI development. But it is weakening: the US now houses 42% of the top AI talent, up from 59% three years ago.
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