Developing story · 2 episodes · 14 Oct to 22 Oct
The Bipolar AI Empire Race
The saga tracks the escalating geopolitical rivalry between the US and China as they construct competing artificial intelligence ecosystems. While China holds an advantage in research output, the US maintains a lead in compute power, solidifying a dual-polar AI landscape.
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US and China build rival AI empires that extend geopolitical power
The essay argues that artificial intelligence has become an imperial technology, allowing the United States and China to extend their existing geopolitical influence. Both powers control the key…
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China leads in AI researchers and publications but trails US in compute and model capabilities
China now has 51,000 active AI researchers compared with 14,000 in the United States, according to Digital Science data cited by Nature. Chinese undergraduates made up 57% of NeurIPS 2025 authors,…
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