Artificial intelligence has become a competitive research area, it has the potential to transform many industries: self-driving cars, facial recognition systems that enhance security, or diagnosing systems that could detect cancer better than a doctor.
In fact, global GDP is set to increase by 14 percent because of AI, according to PwC. The tech's deployment in the decade ahead will add $15.7 trillion to global GDP, with China predicted to take $7 trillion and North America $3.7 trillion, according to the multinational company.
"Data is the new oil, so China is the new Saudi Arabia," Kai-Fu Lee, venture capitalist and author of "AI Superpowers: China, Silicon Valley, and the New World Order," told CNBC's "Squawk Box."
"If you measure by research — basic research papers published, the excellence of research — U.S. is and will be ahead for the next decade," he said. "But if you measure by value created, how much market capitalization, how many users, how much revenue, China probably is already ahead."
Lee said AI could replace 40 to 50 percent of all jobs in the U.S. in the next 15 years.
Still, China is not yet the dominant force in the world of AI.
The innovation is still coming from the U.S. a huge network of high-quality universities and labs led by the greatest minds on earth — not just Chinese engineers coming to the U.S., and computer scientists, but also from India and everywhere else,
Meanwhile, Friedman said the race in AI could potentially come down to politics. More specifically, U.S. President Donald Trump's stance on immigration.
"What really drove our economy forward, what drives any economy, is that we had a higher percentage than any other country of high-IQ risk takers ... people who start new companies, and new businesses, and create new medical and new engineering breakthroughs," he said. "Trump basically has put out a sign in our front yard that says, 'Get off my lawn.'"
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