The global race to build the most powerful artificial intelligence is intensifying — and so is the fight over whether anyone should slow it down.
Experts say China has narrowed what was once a commanding U.S. lead in AI models. Chinese startups Moonshot AI, DeepSeek, Z.ai and Alibaba have all released systems that have rivaled American technology this year.
“The gap between U.S. and Chinese models is narrow and fragile,” said Samm Sacks, a senior fellow at Johns Hopkins’ Institute for America, China, and the Future of Global Affairs.
The competition comes as Chinese President Xi Jinping is expected to visit Washington this month to meet President Trump.
Even as Beijing pushes to dominate AI, China’s state security minister, Chen Yixin, has warned the technology could threaten the country’s own political and ideological control if exploited by “hostile forces.”
In Washington, Mr. Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance are dismissing calls from tech leaders and Democrats to regulate AI, calling the warnings a coordinated, election-year “hoax.”
Speaking by phone Monday to a tech conference in Los Angeles, Mr. Trump said, “AI is bigger than the internet.” He argued opponents of the technology “are playing right into the hands of China.”
Read more:
• Trump busts AI ’conspiracy theorists’ for pulling an election-year ’hoax’
• As the world debates the risks of AI, China closes the technology gap with the U.S.
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