Chinese scientists appear to be on track to develop next-level artificial intelligence infused with Chinese Communist Party ideology, potentially pushing China ahead of the United States in the race for human-like artificial general intelligence (AGI), according to a recent study,

The central testbed for this effort is Wuhan—a city globally known as the origin point of COVID-19, but also increasingly recognized as a growing hub for scientific and technological advancement, including AI development.

With strong backing from the Chinese government, two leading AI institutes based in Beijing have opened branches in Wuhan to jointly develop sophisticated alternatives to large language models (LLMs), the generative AI systems that currently dominate the focus of Western developers and policymakers.

These findings come from a new report by Georgetown University’s Center for Security and Emerging Technology (CSET), published Monday and shared in advance with Newsweek.

William C. Hannas, the report’s lead author, senior analyst at CSET, and a former CIA expert in Chinese open-source intelligence, warned that the US risks falling behind—and may already be losing ground.