Stanford Report: Chinese Public More Positive About AI Than Americans, Model Gap Nearly Closed

A Stanford University report shows Chinese people are much more positive about AI than Americans. 84% of Chinese respondents said they are excited about AI products and services, compared to 38% in the US. An Edelman survey found 72% of Chinese trust AI, while only 32% of Americans do. The report says the performance gap between US and Chinese AI models has basically disappeared, with the two countries' models trading the lead since early 2025.

In tech progress, industry contributed over 90% of notable frontier models in 2025, with many reaching or exceeding human baselines on PhD-level science and reasoning tests. On the SWE-bench Verified coding benchmark, model performance jumped from 60% to nearly 100% in a year. Generative AI reached 53% population adoption in three years, faster than PCs or the internet. By early 2026, US consumers were getting $172 billion in annual value from AI tools.

The Brookings Institution says China focuses on using AI in manufacturing, education, healthcare, while US tech focuses on AGI. Americans worry about job loss and misinformation, while Chinese society is more accepting of AI. Only 31% of Americans trust the government to regulate AI, the lowest among countries surveyed.