On the shores of scenic West Lake in China’s Hangzhou, companies dubbed the “six little dragons” are quietly working to upend America’s so-called supremacy of artificial intelligence.

Already known as the home of tech giant Alibaba, the Chinese city is now emerging as ground zero in the race for dominance of AI. The AI start-ups, and many others acoss China, are working to beat Silicon Valley at their own game by developing next-generation models of the emerging technology.