In the race for AI supremacy, China and the US are travelling on entirely different tracks

A child visits the World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai, China. Photograph: Wang Zhao/AFP/Getty Images

Of the many events that stand out as noteworthy in online discussions across Chinese social media in 2023, it’s perhaps the rise of ChatGPT that will prove to be the most significant.

Although the chatbot made by the US-based OpenAI was officially launched in late 2022, it took until 2023 for its unprecedented growth to raise eyebrows in China, where the government has set the goal of becoming the global AI leader by 2030.