AI superpower ambitions take centre stage as Trump and Xi meet
US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping are set to discuss AI development, as both nations view the technology as a critical component of national power. While the US currently leads in frontier models, China is aggressively pursuing AI supremacy.
Why it matters
The AI arms race between the US and China is a defining geopolitical issue that will influence global technological standards and security.
Image source, Getty Images Image caption, The US and China are locked in a race to develop AI
US President Donald Trump has been blunt about his AI ambitions, as well as about who he considers the US's main rival to be: China.
His Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, has not said anything so forthright - but it seems he holds a similar view.
"China very much sees it as a race, they very much think China should be the leading force in AI - they see AI as a power maximiser," says Rebecca Arcesati, from the Mercator Institute for China Studies.
You can look beyond the rhetoric for evidence of this: AI has been a cornerstone of China's technological ambitions for more than a decade, whether Xi emphasises it publicly or not.
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