As per a report from The Information, the US artificial intelligence (AI) sector previously prided itself on attracting a significant number of Chinese researchers. In fact, some even wittily dubbed the global AI competition as "a contest between two factions of Chinese talent." However, the current scenario is witnessing a substantial transformation, marked by a reversal in the flow of talent.

Data reveals that from 2015 to 2024, the number of Chinese AI researchers skyrocketed from fewer than 10,000 to 52,000. Institutions such as the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Tsinghua University, and Peking University, along with tech giants like Tencent and Alibaba, have emerged as pivotal centers for AI talent in China. On the other hand, the total count of AI researchers in the US has surpassed 63,000, with Stanford University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and industry leaders like Google and Microsoft constituting the backbone of its talent ecosystem.

Despite China's impressive surge in the number of researchers, the US continues to hold a competitive edge in terms of research impact, foundational theoretical advancements, and groundbreaking achievements. Nonetheless, China has demonstrated remarkable prowess in applied domains, particularly in computer vision and knowledge graphs. Moreover, the performance gap between Chinese and US large-scale AI models is rapidly diminishing.