As world debates AI risks, China closes tech gap with US

As the rapid development of artificial intelligence triggers a renewed debate about its risks, the US and China keep racing to develop increasingly powerful models even as they express their own concerns.

The US has outpaced China and other countries for years in AI model capabilities, research, citations and other areas. But China has been rapidly catching up as an AI superpower even as US-led restrictions have blocked it from accessing some of the most advanced technologies, including the cutting-edge chips and the machines to make them.

Experts and recent reports, like one by the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence, said China has emerged as an AI counterweight to the US and this year appears to be erasing the US lead.

“The gap between US and Chinese models is narrow and fragile,” said Samm Sacks, a senior fellow at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies’ Institute for America, China, and the Future of Global Affairs.

“The US labs spend enormous amounts of compute pushing out the frontier. But Chinese developers can learn from those systems.” — Lizzi C Lee, fellow at the Asia Society Policy Institute’s Centre for China Analysis.

The debate takes on greater importance ahead of Chinese president Xi Jinping’s expected visit to Washington this month to meet US president Donald Trump, and as experts say, the future of AI will depend significantly on what China and the US do and don’t do.

Here’s a quick look at some of the most important Chinese AI models and the concerns in both Washington and Beijing:

Beijing-based startup Moonshot AI made a splash with the release of Kimi K3, taking Silicon Valley by surprise with capabilities close to US rivals. It was ranked No 3 globally in model intelligence in July, shortly after its release, behind Anthropic’s Claude Fable 5 and OpenAI’s GPT-5.6 Sol, according to AI benchmarking platform Artificial Analysis. But Kimi K3 now ranks ninth, behind new frontier models from Anthropic, OpenAI, Meta and SpaceXAI, indicating China’s AI lead is fluid.

AI startup darling DeepSeek was the first to upend global stock markets by proving Chinese AI models are capable of challenging the US lead. The company’s R1 model, released in January 2025, was more cost-effective than similar US models. In April, DeepSeek previewed its powerful V4 model, saying it has big improvements in knowledge, reasoning and “agentic” capabilities, referring to the ability to plan and execute multiple, complex steps with limited human guidance.

The powerful GLM-5.2 from startup Z.ai that rolled out in June raised Silicon Valley eyebrows with comparisons to the most advanced Anthropic and OpenAI models.