China's military AI models lag behind foreign equivalents, study shows

China’s military AI models trail their foreign equivalents in performance, concentrating on support functions rather than combat, according to a study by Chinese researchers.

The findings appeared in a paper by researchers affiliated with the Armed Police Force Shandong Corps and the Engineering University of People’s Armed Police, published in the journal Defence Industry Conversion in China in July.

“The military’s AI applications are mainly used in auxiliary fields such as intelligent question-answering and content generation,” the authors wrote.

“They still lag considerably behind foreign large language models in performance, while offensive applications in actual combat remain at an exploratory stage, with relatively limited theoretical and empirical research.”

The paper comes as AI moves from an emerging military technology to a core component of the strategic competition between the United States and China, with both militaries exploring the use of artificial intelligence to sharpen command and control.