As China and the United States race to expand their artificial intelligence capabilities, economists said the two countries need closer cooperation on global governance and safety standards to better manage the technology's potential risks.
Although the US continues to lead in frontier AI research, large-scale models and computing power, economists said that China is rapidly catching up and has developed strengths in integrating AI into manufacturing, consumer services and other parts of the real economy, reflecting the two countries' different development priorities.
"There are two main players in the development of frontier AI — China and the US," economist and Nobel laureate Michael Spence told China Daily. "There's almost no measurable difference between them now in terms of performance. Whatever difference there was, China has caught up."
According to Stanford University's Institute for Human-Centered AI, since early 2025, US and Chinese AI models have traded places at the top of performance rankings multiple times.
According to the institute's 2026 AI Index Report, as of March, the top US model led by only 2.7 percent, with a marginal gap that has fluctuated in single digits over the past year.
