Has China caught up to the U.S. in AI research? An exploration of mimetic isomorphism as a model for late industrializers

Abstract Artificial intelligence represents a twenty-first century critical technology. We test for and find rapid learning and differentiation characterizing China’s AI development process as a model with a better fit than the Foreign Direct Investment/export-oriented growth of earlier Asian industrializers. China outproduces the U.S.A in both annual and cumulative numbers of AI papers, but quality measures show China lagging the U.S.; even so, China’s AI development is impressive. China and the U.S.A both present a similar structure of citation impact and citation sources from important nations in the world. As for the collaborative structures, China plays a dominant role in AI research with other nations,…

• NN
  National Natural Science Foundation of China

  Award: 72374099
• FR
  Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities

  Awards: XKJC202404, 14380006