China gains on the US in the artificial intelligence arms race

Led to debate in US over whether China is imitating advances or is engaged in independent innovation

Robert O Work, the veteran defence official retained as deputy secretary by President Trump, calls them his “AI dudes.” The breezy moniker belies their serious task: The dudes have been a kitchen cabinet of sorts, and have advised Work as he has sought to reshape warfare by bringing artificial intelligence to the battlefield.

Last spring, he asked, “OK, you guys are the smartest guys in AI, right?”

No, the dudes told him, “the smartest guys are at Facebook and Google,” Work recalled in an interview.

Now, increasingly, they’re also in China. The United States no longer has a strategic monopoly on the technology,