From Funding to Foundries: How China Builds AI Power

On May 7, at the AI+ Expo hosted by the Special Competitive Studies Project (SCSP), the Institute for Security and Technology (IST) convened a panel on one of the most consequential questions shaping technology and national security today: how is China building AI power, and what does the United States still misunderstand about the systems and actors driving it?

First, in a firestarter briefing, IST’s Jennifer Tang and Fatima Faisal Khan discussed IST’s past, current, and future work on U.S.-China technological and geopolitical competition.

Then, in a panel discussion moderated by IST Chief Trust Officer Steven M. Kelly, expert China watchers discussed the state of China’s AI ecosystem. Panelists included:

• Ryan Fedasiuk, Fellow, American Enterprise Institute
• Samm Sacks, Senior Fellow, Paul Tsai China Center, Yale University
• Sunny Cheung, Research Fellow, The Jamestown Foundation
• Jost Wübbeke, Managing Partner, Sinolytics