The race for artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly a race for researchers, not only chips, compute or infrastructure. According to the latest MacroPolo AI report, China is now the largest source of elite AI researchers, with 38% of the world’s top AI researchers having completed their undergraduate studies in China.

Speaking to CGTN, digital and AI management expert Jeffrey Towson says he believes that China's abundant AI talent pool serves as a powerful counterbalance to its constraints in compute and hardware.