China could close the gap with the US in terms of artificial intelligence (AI) within one or two years, the Global Times writes, thanks to the People's Republic's breakthroughs in the field.

The AI gap between China and the US could soon be closed, a technology expert has said.

Zhou Hongyi, founder and chairman of 360 Security Technology and a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, made the prediction to China's daily English-language newspaper Global Times.

The gap in AI largely lies in "determining the technical direction," according to the businessman.
 Zhou argued that China would make further progress in the AI field this year. He said it would be the "year of application" for Chinese software algorithms, with a focus on large language models (LLMs) — a type of AI that can mimic human intelligence.

 The South China Morning Post (SCMP) recently reported that China has allegedly developed new military surveillance equipment to enhance the nation's electronic warfare capabilities with the use of AI. The device reportedly provides wide bandwidth, real-time monitoring and analysis of the electromagnetic spectrum, picking up "everything from amateur radio broadcasts to Elon Musk’s Starlink satellites."

SCMP quoted Yang Kai, a professor from the School of Information and Electronics at the Beijing Institute of Technology, who claimed that his team used AI to analyse enormous blocks of data, helping the Chinese military improve its information-gathering abilities at a high speed and for relatively low cost.