Despite escalating export controls and a race for tech sovereignty, China and the US remain locked in an AI ecosystem that neither side can fully detach from, investors and scholars said at a major tech conference, reports Caixin. The world’s two largest economies are bound by open-source models, shared business incentives and the exchange of talent, said speakers at Web Summit Lisbon, one of the world’s largest tech conferences, which drew more than 71,000 attendees from 157 countries to the Portuguese capital from Nov. 10 to Nov. 13.
Division of labor—US-driven breakthroughs on foundational models and China-led scaling of applications—will still define the next phase of the AI race, even as geopolitical rivalry intensifies, Larry Li, founding partner of venture capital (VC) firm Amino Capital, told Caixin on the sidelines of the conference.
“From 0-to-1 breakthroughs, the U.S. still has the more advantageous soil. From 1- to-1,000 scale-ups, China’s culture and training are better suited. The country has more engineers and a bigger market,” said Li, who is from China and has lived in the US for 35 years. Silicon Valley-based Amino Capital was an early backer of Zoom and other early-stage tech winners.