Eric Schmidt, the head of Google’s parent company Alphabet, made a stark warning that Beijing is investing heavily in artificial intelligence for both commercial and military use at a US tech summit.
He made his comments in response to China unveiling their AI strategy in July.
Mr Schmidt said: “It’s pretty simple.
“By 2020, they will have caught up; by 2025, they will be better than us; and by 2030, they will dominate the industries of AI.”
The tech boss warned that China’s AI strategy could give the communist state the upper hand in any future war with the US.
The American said his country needed to get its “act together” and improve its military procedures for any potential conflict.
He accused the US Government of wasting too much time with red tape and pleaded for a change to the military’s planning procedure around the implementation of AI technology.
He said: “If we were in a huge war with a major adversary, I am sure the rules would be different, but right now, the planning procedures and so forth, in my view, take too long.”
Mr Schmidt suggested that the US should replace some human tasks with AI to help ready the country for war: “We have this whole tradition of military standing watch… as if that is a good use of human beings.”
China’s national AI strategy speaks of the need for the “modernisation of the national defence and armed forced”.
It goes on to say: “The people’s armed forces will be transformed into world-class military by the mid-21st century.”
Tensions between the US and China have risen in recent months, particularly over North Korea’s nuclear weapons tests.
In August China demanded that North Korea halt its defiance of the United Nations nuclear weapons orders, but also warned the US not to retaliate to the the rogue state’s actions.
Donald Trump has criticised Beijing for not doing enough to reign in its neighbour.
The US President on Twitter said: “I am very disappointed in China.
“Our foolish past leaders have allowed them to make hundreds of billions of dollars a year in trade, yet they do nothing for us with North Korea, just talk.
“We will no longer allow this to continue. China could easily solve this problem!”
China has also began to increase its military presence in the South China Sea, an area that five countries all claim territorial ownership.
New satellite images show that China has started developing more military bases in the contested waters over recent months.