How Unexpected US and China Cooperation in AI Is Changing the Landscape

New York: The US and China are big rivals in artificial intelligence, but they still work together. A recent study looked at over 5,000 AI research papers from a big conference called NeurIPS. It showed that 141 papers, or about 3 percent, were written by teams from both countries.

In 2024, that number stayed strong with 134 out of 4,497 papers being collaborative. Researchers looked at how US and Chinese teams share ideas and tools. For example, Google’s transformer design was in 292 papers by Chinese authors. Also, Meta’s Llama models were used in 106 papers. On the other hand, Alibaba’s Qwen model stood out in 63 works with US authors.

Jeffrey Ding, a professor studying AI in China, thinks this teamwork is not surprising. He says the US and China’s tech worlds are mixed together, and both gain from it. Many Chinese students study in the US, keeping strong connections with their American peers.

Katherine Gorman from NeurIPS shared that this event itself shows how important international teamwork is. After finishing school, students often keep working together across countries. This helps in creating networks where people collaborate.

The latest WIRED magazine discusses how China is impacting the world today. With worries about China’s growth pushing US leaders to change rules and invest heavily, it’s good to remember that both countries can benefit from teaming up in AI.