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A computer generated image of the letters AI.
The new AI threats from China
A flurry of impressive new artificial intelligence models is coming online in China. DeepSeek grabbed the world’s attention in January with its powerful and allegedly low-cost R1 model, then Alibaba followed it up with a new model called Qwen 2.5-Max, before Tencent released the model Hunyuan Turbo S that it claimed was faster than DeepSeek.
But there’s even more competition now. On Saturday, Baidu announced two new versions of its AI model, Ernie, that are adept at more complex “reasoning” tasks, a major point of emphasis right now for the top American AI companies like OpenAI and Anthropic. And a Chinese newcomer called Manus recently launched an AI “agent” that can complete multi-step tasks for users — say, order and pay for a pizza — that’s receiving lots of hype though it’s currently invite-only.
The dam has burst in the Chinese tech industry and now every player is racing to release software that can beat DeepSeek but can also compete with the top AI countries in the world.
Can the US stay ahead of China on AI?
Microsoft’s partnership with OpenAI and DeepMind is at the forefront of maintaining America’s edge in artificial intelligence.
But can America stay ahead of China in the push for AI leadership? Nic Robertson, CNN’s international diplomatic editor, puts the question to Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith during a Global Stage livestream conversation hosted by GZERO in partnership with Microsoft at the Munich Security Conference.
Smith says that while the US is currently in the lead, it’s only by a matter of months. He explains that Microsoft is in a constant race with the Beijing Academy of Artificial Intelligence and companies like Baidu. “There is no reason to assume that one country or the other will have a sustainable leadership position,” he says. “We’re all going to have to keep racing ahead.”
While both the US and China will continue competing for the top spot, the true advantage will go to the one that can deploy AI both quickly and, Smith says, “in a manner that will both lead to its ongoing improvement and the productivity of their economies more generally.”
Watch the full Global Stage conversation from Munich here: https://gzeromedia.com/globalstage
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'Difficulties on the road to AI': Man pours water on Baidu chief at conference
SHANGHAI/BEIJING (REUTERS) - A man poured a bottle of water over Baidu Chief Executive Robin Li on Wednesday (July 3) at the opening of an annual conference for the Chinese search giant.