China is currently striving to become the dominant player in the global artificial intelligence industry, and according to media reports, citing insiders and experts, Beijing’s corresponding efforts may eventually prove successful, since AI models developed in the Asian country already demonstrate a high level of efficiency and have significant competitiveness.
Machine intelligence is actually the main technology of modernity. After the debut of ChatGPT from OpenAI in November 2022, the so-called artificial intelligence boom began, implying a kind of global attention to the relevant industry and massive investments in digital cognitive systems. Machine intelligence has already demonstrated impressive abilities to process huge amounts of information, including through an analytical approach. Artificial intelligence can also generate original media content based on user prompts. Moreover, AI has already demonstrated its effectiveness as a working tool. It is highly likely that over time, artificial intelligence will eventually become a new means of production, the scaling of which will have significant economic and possibly social consequences. Also, some futurological forecasts provide that machine intelligence in the process of its technological evolution can transform into an autonomous form of consciousness that exists in the digital space, able of independent development that does not require external impact, and surpasses the human mind in terms of cognitive capabilities. Artificial intelligence can fundamentally change the world as the territory of human civilization in economic, political, social, and cultural dimensions. Perhaps AI will become a new form of cognition in the surrounding cosmological space of being. Against this background, the interest of countries in artificial intelligence is logical. It is highly likely that in the foreseeable future, AI will determine the economic potential of the states and their position in the international arena.
Artificial intelligence has already become a kind of rivalry point between China and the United States. Washington and Beijing perceive machine intelligence as a strategic technology. The corresponding perception is logical from the point of view of the significant potential of digital intelligence. The United States has consistently restricted China’s access to advanced chips, which are necessary for training and ensuring the subsequent operation of artificial intelligence systems. Washington fears that Beijing may use AI to strengthen its military capabilities. Policymakers from Congress believe it threatens the national security of the United States. Against the mentioned background, China restricts mineral exports to the US and makes the first moves towards technological sovereignty, which is critically important in the context of the current geopolitical tension.
The deterioration of relations with Washington is prompting Beijing to pursue its own approach to boosting the appeal and performance of homegrown artificial intelligence models. China relies on open-source technology and develops its ultra-fast software and chips.
AI companies from an Asian country, like leading firms from the United States, elaborate large language models. The corresponding models are trained on huge amounts of data and are used in apps such as chatbots. The peculiarity of the practice of Chinese companies is that these technology brands elaborate open-source large language models. Developers can download the mentioned virtual products and build on top for free and without strict licensing requirements from the inventor. At the same time, the practice of the US AI companies provides for a smaller scale of possibilities in terms of interaction with large language models outside the format of standard use of the functions offered to consumers.
Tiezhen Wang, a machine learning engineer at Hugging Face, a repository of large language models, stated that the relevant Chinese digital products are the most downloaded. The most popular on Hugging Face is Qwen. In this case, it means a line of artificial intelligence models developed by the Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba.
Tiezhen Wang stated that Qwen is rapidly gaining popularity due to its outstanding performance on competitive benchmarks. It was also separately noted that this digital product has a highly favorable licensing model. This means that companies can use Qwen without extensive legal reviews.
Qwen comes in different sizes or parameters, according to terminology typical for the area of large language models. Large parameters mean a high level of digital product power. In this case, higher computational costs are needed. Smaller virtual products are cheaper to run.
Tiezhen Wang stated that Qwen is likely to be one of the best-performing models available right now, regardless of which size the user chooses.
Chinese startup DeepSeek gained consumer attention after the debut of DeepSeek-R1. The mentioned digital product is a large language model that, according to the developers, competes with OpenAI’s o1 designed for reasoning or solving more complex tasks.
Chinese companies claim that their virtual products have a high level of competitiveness on a global scale. These firms say that their large language models can compete with open-source offerings like Meta’s Llama, and closed LLMs such as those from OpenAI, across various functions.
Grace Isford, a partner at Lux Capital, said that over the past year, there has been a rise in Chinese contributions to open-source artificial intelligence. It was also noted separately that in this case, really strong performance, low cost to serve, and high throughput are observed.
Open source technology serves several purposes, including driving innovation and building a community around the product. Recently, more and more developers have been gaining access to the mentioned technology.
It is not only Chinese companies that are currently offering open-source digital functional models to consumers. For example, Meta and Mistral AI have corresponding versions of their virtual products. In this case, it means digital products, which are artificial intelligence models.
As mentioned above, the AI industry has become a space of geopolitical rivalry between Beijing and Washington. Within the circumstances specific to the relevant state of affairs, open-source large language models are of particular importance to China. The mentioned models can be used all over the world. For companies from an Asian country, the specified feature is an unambiguous advantage. Paul Triolo, a partner at global advisory firm DGA Group, said that in this case, there is an opportunity for Chinese technology brands to become global players in the area of artificial intelligence. Also in this context, it was noted that companies from an Asian country would like their digital products to be used in overseas markets.
Moreover, the potential global interest in large language models developed in China could boost Beijing’s status as a kind of technology center.
Currently, there is a huge focus on the elaboration of artificial intelligence models. The corresponding tendency is global. At the same time, discussions are currently underway as to which apps will be developed based on artificial intelligence models and who will dominate the international Internet space in the future. It is worth noting that the digital environment has actually become a new dimension of reality. Virtual space is no longer what can be described as a conditional world or a world that is not real. In the appropriate environment, many processes are formed and implemented, which also relate to what is happening offline. In a certain sense, virtual space is gradually becoming a matter of being at a new stage in the history of the world. The development of the digital environment challenges the thesis that objective reality can only be material in a strictly applied interpretation of the corresponding formulation. In a physiological sense, a person cannot exist in a virtual space, but humans’ activity in many aspects, including professional and every day, is already moving into the online territory.
Currently, there are many scenarios for using artificial intelligence models. It is worth noting that the relevant practice is not limited only to the fulfillment of consumer tasks. Artificial intelligence models can be used for more global tasks, including accelerating frontier scientific and engineering technologies.
Some experts compare AI models with operating systems such as Microsoft’s Windows, Google’s Android, and Apple’s iOS. Potentially, the mentioned models can dominate the market, as the specified operating systems on mobile devices and personal computers. The first signs of the realism of the relevant perspective are likely to increase bets on the development of a large language model that can become the most popular.
Xin Sun, senior lecturer in Chinese and East Asian business at King’s College London, said that China’s companies perceive the mentioned models as the center of the future technological ecosystem. Separately, it was noted that the business strategies of the specified firms are formed based on an appropriate perception. In this case, it is assumed that developers will join the ecosystems of companies, elaborate new apps based on large language models, and gain users and data from which it will be possible to generate profits in various ways, including directing consumers to leverage cloud services.
The process of training artificial intelligence systems involves the use of huge amounts of information. Also, in this case, the need for significant computing power is implied. Nvidia is currently the leading developer of graphics processing units, which are used to train artificial intelligence systems. This company is one of the main beneficiaries of the artificial intelligence boom. In the current year, Nvidia’s market capitalization exceeded the $3 trillion mark. Nowadays, the company is one of the most valuable brands in the world.
Currently, most firms operating in the artificial intelligence area train their AI models using Nvidia’s high-performance graphics processing units. In China, the products of this company face limited sales opportunities. The corresponding situation is related to Washington’s trade restrictions against Beijing. It is worth noting that China continues to be one of the largest markets in the world, which is why for companies to stop interacting with the relevant commercial space or decrease business opportunities in an Asian country means financial losses.
The mentioned export restrictions imposed by the United States apply not only to advanced chips but also to equipment for the production of microcircuits of this category. Over the past year, Washington has tightened the relevant measures. This means that Nvidia cannot export its advanced products to China. The company had to develop semiconductors that did not violate the US trade restrictions regime. The corresponding products have lower performance indicators.
Restrictive measures by the United States have not prevented Chinese companies from elaborating advanced artificial intelligence systems. Paul Triolo stated that firms from the Asian country currently have access to computing power sufficient to continue improving AI models. It was noted that the corresponding state of affairs is because Chinese companies have stockpiled a large number of Nvidia’s graphics processing units and use domestic processors from Huawei and other brands.
Also recently, in the Asian country, local firms have stepped up efforts to create viable alternatives to Nvidia. On the way to this goal, Huawei is the main player, which has been one of the main targets of US restrictive measures against the Chinese technology sector for several years. Also in the Asian country, Baidu and Alibaba are investing in semiconductor development.
Paul Triolo reckons that over time the gap between China and the United States in terms of advanced hardware computing will become greater, especially next year. The corresponding expectation is largely due to Nvidia will roll out its Blackwell-based systems in 2025. The company will not be able to ship these products to China because of the US export control regime.
Grace Isford stated that the Asian country is systematically investing and growing its entire domestic artificial intelligence infrastructure outside Nvidia with high-performance AI chips from firms such as Baidu. It was also noted that Beijing will be able to continue the mentioned investment and development of homegrown digital intelligence infrastructure regardless of access to Nvidia’s products.
AI, as the main technology of contemporaneity, will continue to be a point of rivalry between countries. Against the background of growing geopolitical tensions, the participant in the mentioned process with a higher level of technological sovereignty will be in a more favorable position.
It is worth noting that during the period of active development of artificial intelligence, the issue of cybersecurity has become more relevant. Scammers also have access to AI technologies. To counteract the corresponding threat in the cyber environment, personal awareness of users is important. For example, an Internet search query such as how to know if my camera is hacked will allow anyone to get information about signs of unauthorized access to the device. Digital literacy is an effective tool for combating cybercrime.
