U.S. officials are having a ‘Sputnik moment’ over AI innovation in China

The phrase “Sputnik moment” refers to the October 4, 1957, launch of Sputnik 1, the first artificial Earth satellite, by Sergei Korolyov for the Soviet Union. It was this American fear of the technological gap between the United States and the U.S.S.R. that ignited the space race to put a man on the moon. Nowadays the phrase is commonly used to describe the United States’ need to keep pace with the rapid development of other countries.