China’s AI strategy relies on frenzy and frenemies

WANDERING through the halls of China’s top artificial intelligence (AI) summit this week, I overheard heated debates on some of the thorniest issues facing the sector: How do we solve the problem of interoperability if hundreds of companies are launching their own AI agents? Which large language models are the most developer-friendly to build apps on? Are humanoids tools or companions?

Held on the banks of the Huangpu river in Shanghai, the World AI Conference convened thousands of people – as well as scores of robots – and brought to life all the passions and pitfalls of the current state of AI in China. It also put into stark contrast the chasm between the strategy pushed by Beijing and the one touted by the White House.

It’s the first major gathering since DeepSeek’s breakthrough reasoning model launched earlier this year, driving intense competition at home and proving China can go toe-to-toe with Silicon Valley.