Stanford Study Says U.S. Leads The AI Race But China Is Coming On Strong
The tech report highlights that US-based institutions produced the most significant AI model releases in 2024, with 40 compared to China's 15 and three in Europe, but this does not tell the whole story. The report finds that the performance of China's AI models has improved considerably over time. For instance, it pointed out in 2024, the Chinese models nearly equaled leading AI models on key performance benchmarks in 2023. It also adds that China continues to lead regarding AI publications and patents.
Nonetheless, the US continues to maintain its lead in AI investment worldwide. The report reveals that in 2024, private investment in the US AI industry reached an astonishing $109 billion compared to the $9.3 billion and $4.5 billion in Chinese and UK markets. This huge gap in investment is evident in the generative AI field, where the US attracted $25.5 billion more in investment than the combined total of the European Union and the UK.
Before now, there have been concerns in some circles about the new-found performance of Chinese companies in the AI industry. In January, the Chinese DeepSeek R1 model caused quite a stir when it was revealed that it could almost match the capabilities of its more popular Western AI models, such as the OpenAI's GPT-4, Meta's Llama and Google's Gemini, but at a very reduced compute resource spend.
This report highlights the significant progress that China has made in its AI journey as it aims to be a global AI leader. At this rate, AI is evolving into an important tool for exerting economic and geopolitical influence, hence the competition for dominance will likely continue to increase.
Whether China eventually dethrones the US in the AI race is a question that can only be answered as further developments unfold. However, the US may need to do more to maintain its current position as the leading AI nation.
