With smugglers and front companies, China is skirting US AI bans

In the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen, a mazelike market stretches for a half-mile, packed with stalls selling every type of electronic imaginable.

It’s an open secret that vendors here are offering one of the world’s most sought-after technologies: the microchips that create artificial intelligence, which the United States is battling to keep out of Chinese hands.