Beijing is rapidly closing the gap with the United States in the development of generative artificial intelligence capabilities, according to the Defense Department’s latest annual report to Congress.
China Narrows AI Gap with U.S.
The report, released this week, states that China’s commercial and academic AI sectors have made significant progress in large language models (LLMs) and LLM-based reasoning models in 2024, narrowing the performance gap with leading U.S. models.
These tools are capable of generating software code, text, images, audio, and other media based on human prompts. The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) is leveraging military-civil fusion mechanisms to ensure its access to advancements from China’s AI communities.
The Pentagon is also expanding its use of generative AI. Earlier this month, the department launched GenAI.mil, a platform delivering commercial AI options to its workforce, beginning with Google Cloud’s Gemini for Government products. The rollout has received mixed reviews from users.
Officials announced Monday that xAI’s “frontier-grade” capabilities, based on the Grok family of models, will soon be added to GenAI.mil. This integration, targeted for early 2026, will allow military and civilian personnel to securely handle Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI) and access real-time global insights from the X platform.
Military Applications and Information Operations
The DOD report notes that Beijing continues to invest in AI for military applications, including unmanned systems, intelligence gathering, decision-making assistance, cyber operations, and information campaigns. Advances in generative AI are making it easier to create convincing fake content for use in information operations.
PLA publications have previously argued that LLMs can improve the efficiency of creating synthetic media, including deepfakes. Chinese researchers have noted a lack of personnel with adequate foreign-language skills for authentic content generation, and believe generative AI can address this deficiency. Companies like Baidu, Alibaba, and Huawei are developing generative AI technologies for various content creation tasks.
The report also indicates that Beijing could utilize information operations to support potential military campaigns against Taiwan, aiming to weaken the island’s resistance and create social divisions. China has already exploited military exercises around Taiwan to spread disinformation narratives and exaggerate its military capabilities.
Chinese leaders may be considering a “joint blockade campaign” against Taiwan, which would likely involve information operations to isolate the island and control the narrative surrounding the conflict.
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