China is closing the AI gap with the United States

At the World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai this month, startup founder Qu Dongqi showed off a video he had recently posted online. It displayed an old photograph of a woman with two toddlers. Then the photo sprang to life as the woman lifted the toddlers up in her arms and they laughed with surprise.

The video was created by AI technology from Chinese internet company Kuaishou. The technology was reminiscent of a video generator, called Sora, that American startup OpenAI unveiled this year. But unlike Sora, it was available to the general public.