Chinese tech giants are speeding to catch up with their US peers in the creation of artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots. The world’s second-largest economy is on course to spend $15 billion (€13.5 billion) on AI projects this year alone, a rise of nearly 50% in just two years. Even before the arrival of large language models like the Microsoft-backed Chat GPT, some tech experts refused to bet that the West would dominate the AI race, despite the most advanced AI labs being located in the US and UK. Kai-Fu Lee, the Taiwanese computer scientist, venture capitalist and tech executive predicted...