Devrim Danyal, founder of Blockchain & Artificial Intelligence Academy, wrote about the determining factors of the international artificial intelligence race and Türkiye's position in this race for AA Analytics.
It would not be an exaggeration to say that artificial intelligence models have become an integral part of our lives. Creating such a powerful technological paradigm shift in a short time has not only transformed daily life, but also opened the door to a new era of competition on a global scale. Moreover, this competition is no longer experienced only among technology companies; It is turning into a geostrategic struggle in which states are also direct parties. Today, competition has turned into a global strategy that reshapes countries' economic growth, military capacity, energy investments, education systems and even diplomatic balance of power. Therefore, artificial intelligence is at the center of countries' long-term power projections, similar to nuclear technology or the space race.
China's attack and US policy change in the artificial intelligence race
For many years, the undisputed leader of this race was seen as the USA. A significant part of the world's most powerful artificial intelligence laboratories such as OpenAI, Google, DeepMind, Anthropic, Meta and xAI are located in the USA. Advanced semiconductor designs, venture capital ecosystem and the world's largest cloud infrastructures also support this superiority.
However, there has been a remarkable change in this race in the last few years. In recent years, China has not only been increasing the number of companies developing artificial intelligence, but has also been steadily reducing the gap with the United States thanks to its government policies, data capacity, industrial integration and long-term planning. The question now being discussed is "Can China catch up?" not; "In which areas has it caught up with the USA, and in which areas is it still behind?" It has become a question.
China's biggest advantage is its central planning approach that integrates artificial intelligence not only on digital platforms but also throughout production. Within the scope of the "AI Plus" strategy, the Beijing administration has made artificial intelligence transformation a state policy in almost all sectors, from production to health, from finance to transportation. Artificial intelligence is not just a new software technology for China???????; It is considered a strategic production tool that increases economic efficiency.
In contrast, the US model is largely based on private sector dynamism. A significant part of the innovations come from companies that grow with venture capital. Although this model has produced extremely successful results to date, in recent years the US government has begun to consider artificial intelligence as one of the fundamental elements of not only economic growth but also national security. This approach opened the door to a new era in Washington's relations with Silicon Valley.
In particular, restrictions on the export of advanced artificial intelligence models, control of advanced chip sales, and security restrictions on the distribution of some artificial intelligence systems aim to preserve the technological superiority of the USA. But these same policies also put certain pressures on Silicon Valley's traditional "rapid innovation" culture. The recent increase in coordination between the government and large artificial intelligence companies shows that the period when the sector operates completely with free market dynamics may be behind us.
An interesting paradox emerges here. While the USA is trying to control technology more tightly for national security purposes; On the contrary, China can ensure that artificial intelligence spreads faster throughout the country, thanks to central planning. While trying to establish a balance between freedom of innovation and security on the one hand, economies of scale are being created thanks to state coordination on the other. However, it would not be correct to say that China has completely caught up with the USA. Because the artificial intelligence race is not just about developing models.
In what area do Chinese and US technologies differ?
One of the most critical components of this race is advanced semiconductor technologies. Today, the high-performance graphics processors (GPU) required to train the most advanced artificial intelligence models are still largely under the control of the US ecosystem. Although China has made significant progress in domestic chip development, the US's advantage in high-end computing power continues. Similarly, fundamental research, the global developer ecosystem, and a significant portion of the productive AI platforms used around the world are still developed by US-based companies.
However, China's real success is seen on the implementation side rather than the laboratories. From smart cities to autonomous logistics, from production facilities to public services, the rapid integration of artificial intelligence into daily life increases China's competitive advantage. The data volume and central coordination created by the huge population allow algorithms to mature much faster in real-life scenarios.
In fact, two different artificial intelligence models are competing today. The US offers a more open ecosystem driven by innovation, entrepreneurship and global technology companies. China, on the other hand, is developing a different development model that is state-supported, industry-focused and integrated into the national strategy. Both models have their own strengths. However, the winner of the future will not only be determined by the country that develops a better major language model. Energy infrastructure, data centers, electricity production, semiconductor supply, education system, qualified human resources and regulations are becoming the determining factors of this race as much as the algorithms. The transformation of artificial intelligence into a technology that consumes more and more energy may make electricity production capacity one of the important topics of geopolitical competition in the coming years.
Therefore, today's competition is no longer a technology race in the classical sense. Now countries are not only trying to produce smarter algorithms, but also building the data centers, energy infrastructures, chip factories and talent ecosystems that will run these algorithms. Therefore, in the coming period, the question "who developed the best artificial intelligence?" rather than "who built the most sustainable artificial intelligence ecosystem?" The question seems to be more decisive.
As a result, it can be said that China has significantly reduced the distance between it and the United States. Beijing has achieved remarkable momentum, especially in terms of industrial integration, public policies and economies of scale. In contrast, the USA; It maintains its leadership thanks to its basic research, advanced semiconductor technologies, global software ecosystem and high value-added innovation capacity.
From Türkiye's perspective, it is critical to approach the artificial intelligence race not only as a country that develops technology, but also as a production center that can spread this technology throughout its economy. Although Turkey has significant advantages thanks to its young and dynamic population, developing defense industry, strong production infrastructure and increasing entrepreneurship ecosystem, it needs to combine these elements around a common national artificial intelligence strategy in order to achieve a permanent position in global competition. Investing in high-performance data centers in the coming period, developing domestic large language models, safely integrating public data into the artificial intelligence ecosystem and strengthening university-industry collaborations are among the main topics that will determine Türkiye's competitiveness.
However, the real competition is not only about developing artificial intelligence applications, but also about being among the countries that produce and export this technology. Türkiye's acceleration of long-term investments in strategic areas such as chip design, cloud infrastructures, cyber security, robotic systems and energy efficient data centers; It is of great importance to strengthen the incentive mechanisms that will keep qualified human resources in the country and to expand the financing models that will support the private sector's artificial intelligence transformation. In a period when artificial intelligence shapes new global balances of power, Türkiye's place among the countries that develop their own technology, produce regional solutions and have a say in international competition, instead of remaining in the position of a consumer, stands out as a strategic necessity in terms of technological sovereignty as well as economic independence.
The artificial intelligence race is no longer an area that can be defined by the absolute superiority of a single country. The next decade will see technological superiority not only through algorithms; It shows that state policies will be determined by countries where economic resilience, energy capacity and human capital can be managed together. What will determine the future of artificial intelligence will not only be the smartest model, but also the strongest national ecosystem that supports it.
[Devrim Danyal is the founder of Blockchain & Artificial Intelligence Academy and Future Technologies instructor.]
The opinions expressed in the articles belong to the author and may not reflect the editorial policy of Anadolu Agency.