China’s advanced AI may surpass US efforts: Report
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China is accelerating AGI research in Wuhan with state-backed, ideology-driven AI models, raising alarms about US strategy, warns Georgetown report.
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Chinese company iFlytek's AI smart curriculum platform at the 2025 World Digital Education Conference on May 15, 2025 in Wuhan, Hubei Province of China. (AP)
Chinese scientists appear to be on track to develop next-level artificial intelligence infused with Chinese Communist Party ideology, potentially pushing China ahead of the United States in the race for human-like artificial general intelligence (AGI), according to a recent study,
The central testbed for this effort is Wuhan—a city globally known as the origin point of COVID-19, but also increasingly recognized as a growing hub for scientific and technological advancement, including AI development.
With strong backing from the Chinese government, two leading AI institutes based in Beijing have opened branches in Wuhan to jointly develop sophisticated alternatives to large language models (LLMs), the generative AI systems that currently dominate the focus of Western developers and policymakers.
These findings come from a new report by Georgetown University’s Center for Security and Emerging Technology (CSET), published Monday and shared in advance with Newsweek.
US faces strategic risks in AGI race
William C. Hannas, the report’s lead author, senior analyst at CSET, and a former CIA expert in Chinese open-source intelligence, warned that the US risks falling behind—and may already be losing ground.
"We need to work quickly and smartly. Pouring billions more into data centers isn't enough. Competing approaches are needed," Hannas stated.
According to Hannas, "The two advantages the U.S. has, chips and algorithms, are being eroded by indigenous Chinese workarounds. Worse, the two sides are not playing the same game. U.S. companies are fixated on large statistical models, whereas China covers its bets by funding multiple AGI paths."
