How China Is Girding for an AI Battle With the U.S.

As Washington tries to limit China’s progress, Beijing is spending more to build AI that doesn’t rely on U.S. technology

Excerpt: "China is ramping up efforts to build a domestic artificial-intelligence ecosystem that can function without Western technology, as it steels itself for a protracted tech contest with the U.S.

Washington has been trying to slow China’s AI progress through export controls and other restrictions that limit Chinese access to U.S. capital, talent and advanced U.S. technologies. To an extent, those restrictions have worked.

But China is fighting back with expanding efforts to become more self-sufficient in AI—a push that could ultimately make it less vulnerable to U.S. pressure if it succeeds.

Many of the initiatives were on display at an AI conference that ended this week in Shanghai, which Chinese authorities used as a showcase for products free of U.S. technologies.