For 2700 years, the once-clear boundary between imagination and science has steadily blurred. From the mythical bronze robot Talos, hammered to life by Hephaestus, the Greek God of fire and craftsmanship, to Leonardo da Vinci’s mechanical marvels, the dream of artificial intelligence has haunted our imaginations for centuries. But while the West tinkers with self-driving cars and chess-playing algorithms, China is taking a bolder leap: building