Some say future wars will be defined by artificial intelligence. “Whichever nation harnesses AI first will have a decisive advantage on the battlefield for many, many years,” former Secretary of Defense Mark Esper told an audience at the 2019 AI World Conference. He added that “again—we’re in a race, we have to get to the end state quicker than the Chinese can, than the Russians can.” But China may be getting closer to getting that upper hand. Former chief software officer for the U.S. Air Force Nicolas Chaillan said, “If we don’t take a stand now and take action, we have no fighting chance in succeeding 10 to 15 years from now.” So how far has China’s AI development really reached? Why is it advancing so quickly? What would losing the AI race to China mean for the United States and the rest of the free world? And what is the …