China and the United States are engaged in a fierce competition for global supremacy in the field of artificial intelligence (AI). Tech leaders acknowledge AI as the next major industrial revolution.

At a New York City ballroom late last month, a crowd of hi-tech luminaries gathered at an honours ceremony. The biggest draw for the assembled tech geniuses was Nvidia founder Jensen Huang, the superstar head of one of the world’s most valuable companies, set to receive the night’s top award. In some ways, engineers have been at the centre of every industrial revolution, Huang told the crowd, from steam to electricity to information technology. But this one, artificial intelligence (AI), will be...