The global AI race was supposed to be a sprint. Back in 2017 when driverless cars and domestic robots were thought to be just around the corner, the promise of deep learning made it seem like we were mere months away from living in an AI-powered utopia. As it turns out, the global AI race is more of a marathon. And the US has a huge lead that’ll be difficult to overcome for any country, but especially China. The setup It was easy to believe China would pull ahead a few years ago. US big tech companies such as Microsoft…This story continues at The Next Web