China Matching Pentagon Spending on AI.

* The U.S. military and China's People's Liberation Army are both pursuing artificial intelligence capabilities which could give them a leg up in future conflicts. PLA investment in AI is now on par with the Pentagon's, experts say.

The United States views China as its top military and economic competitor.

"Supported by a burgeoning AI defense industry, the Chinese military has made extraordinary progress in procuring AI systems for combat and support functions," according to a recent report from the Georgetown University Center for Security and Emerging Technology.

The People's Liberation Army is most focused on procuring AI for intelligence analysis, predictive maintenance, information warfare, and navigation and target recognition in autonomous vehicles, said the study, "Harnessed Lightning: How the Chinese Military is Adopting Artificial Intelligence," by analysts Ryan Fedasiuk, Jennifer Melot and Ben Murphy.

Additionally, laboratories affiliated with the Chinese military are actively pursuing Al-based target recognition and fire-control research, which may be used in lethal autonomous weapon systems, according to the authors.

"If public contracts reflect how the PLA prioritizes different emerging technologies, then it is likely the PLA spends more than $1.6 billion each year on Al-enabled systems," the study said.

"However, because it is still an emerging technology, the PLA's true spending on AI likely exceeds this number, as more funding is captured in research and development rather than off-the-shelf technology...