Feature
By objective measures, the United States leads the world in artificial intelligence (AI) development. According to the Global Vibrancy Tool 2024 from the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered AI, the US is ahead in many categories. But to maintain that position, it can’t be complacent. Other countries, particularly China, are working to catch up.
“The AI race is shaping up to be about both competitive products, but also agility and flexibility of the systems,” said Chris Brown, president of Intelygenz USA.
He added, “China’s centralized AI adoption approach has enabled rapid deployment at scale. The U.S. continues to lead in fostering entrepreneurial ingenuity and further deploys new solutions daily. We've also seen Europe excel in precise, sector-focused AI applications. Regardless, the competition will be won by those who can deploy AI most effectively.”
Benchmark #1: Country-Based AI Models
One benchmark the institute lists is the number of foundation models developed.
“In terms of notable machine learning models, the United States vastly outpaced other countries in 2023, developing a total of 61 models,” according to one of the institute’s reports in 2024. Following behind was China with 15 models, France with eight, Germany with five and Canada with four.
Benchmark #2: Private Investment in AI
In terms of private investment in AI, the US has ranked far ahead between 2013 and 2023, with $67.22 billion invested in 2023 alone. That number is nearly nine times greater than the amount invested in the next highest country, China.
China saw $7.76 billion in investments in 2023, followed by the UK at $3.78 billion, Germany at $1.91 billion and Sweden at $1.89 billion.
When looking at aggregate investments in the 10-year period between 2013 and 2023, the picture looks very similar. The US leads the pack with $335.2 billion in investments, with China following at $103.7 billion and the UK hitting $22.3 billion.
Related Article: The State of AI: Top Trends and Missteps Ahead
Benchmark #3: AI Data Centers
Of course, an important success factor for AI is data center capacity, another area where the US excels.
According to Statista, as of March, 2024, the US had 5,381 data centers, compared with 521 in Germany, 514 in the UK and 449 in China.
However, according to a US government report released in December 2024, the US could face trouble due to a lack of power. “Barriers to sufficient and appropriate availability of energy and related grid infrastructure could constrain AI access and innovation or lead data centers to increase their presence outside of the U.S.,” the report warned.
“Given the compute and data center energy needs, there will be more local government touchpoints between AI companies and local government on permitting, land use, and other key energy resource policy questions,” said Jeff Le, who served as deputy cabinet secretary in California under former Governor Jerry Brown. “These issues may run into NIMBY opposition and concerns on climate impacts.”
Benchmark #4: AI Regulation Levels
When it comes to the issue of regulatory environments, which country is considered the “leader” is murkier. For example, Belgium passed five bills in 2023 related to AI, while the US passed one, according to the institute. On the other hand, from 2016 to 2023, the US led with a total of 23 bills passed, followed by Portugal, Belgium and Spain.
But regulatory issues are a balancing act, according to the government report. “A legislative or regulatory environment that significantly increases operational costs for AI developers may cause companies to offshore operations to more permissive environments. The People’s Republic of China is already considering steps to encourage relocation to China through more developer-friendly copyright laws. However, …a legislative environment that fails to ensure creators’ IP rights are protected may harm America’s creative community.”
Furthermore, the report noted, jurisdictions such as the European Union are including transparency requirements that may encourage creators to seek out opportunities outside of the US.
“It is likely that multiple states, such as California, Texas, and Florida, will pass AI safety and security legislation that could impact how LLMs are built and governed,” Le explained. “This could have an impact absent federal legislation.”
The government report also expressed concern about the US lagging in AI standardization. “As a result of efforts by both allies and adversaries like the Chinese Communist Party, there is a renewed focus in policy circles on technical standards, how they are set, and who sets them.
The report continued, “There has been a rise in the number of Chinese companies participating in standards development organizations, the number of proposals and submissions from Chinese companies, and the number of Chinese nationals taking leadership positions in these organizations.”
Benchmark #5: Number of AI Patents
It’s when the focus gets to the number of AI patents that US hegemony breaks down.
While the US was responsible for 54% of the world’s granted AI patents in 2010, since then its share has declined to 20.9%, compared with China’s 61.1% share, according to the institute’s report.
In granted AI patents per capita, 2022 found South Korea and Luxembourg ahead of the US. And in the percentage change of granted AI patents per capita by country, Singapore, South Korea, China and Denmark all led the US.
Related Article: New AI Policies From Biden: What They Mean for the US and the World
What’s Next for the US in the Global AI Race?
These aren’t the only areas where the US is falling behind. In fact, according to a study by SAS, generative AI is more widely used in China than in the US.
“China business decision makers report that 83% of their organizations are using the technology,” according to the study. “That’s more than in the United Kingdom (70%), the United States (65%) and Australia (63%). But organizations in the United States are ahead in terms of maturity and having fully implemented GenAI technologies at 24% compared to China’s 19%, and the United Kingdom’s 11%.”
In November 2024, the bipartisan US-China Economic and Security Review Commission recommended that the US Congress establish and fund an effort equivalent to the Manhattan Project — which enabled the US to develop the atomic bomb ahead of other countries — to help maintain its lead in AI, specifically by acquiring artificial general intelligence (AGI) capability.
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“AGI is generally defined as systems that are as good as or better than human capabilities across all cognitive domains and would surpass the sharpest human minds at every task,” explained the Commission. These recommendations included broad multiyear contracting authority to the executive branch and associated funding for leading artificial intelligence, cloud and data center companies.
More ominously, and echoing the Manhattan Project aspect, the commission also recommended directing the US Secretary of Defense to provide a Defense Priorities and Allocations System “DX Rating” to items in the AI ecosystem to ensure the project becomes a priority.
“Many AI applications are dual-use in that their versatility and wide-ranging capabilities permit them to be used in both civilian and military capacities,” the Commission warned. “Since the commercial sector widely uses such dual-use technologies, it is extremely difficult for [the Department of Defense] to limit adversaries’ acquisition of these technologies. Consequently, DOD must be capable of both using and defending against dual-use AI.”
