When Matt Scott arrived in Beijing to work as an engineer at Microsoft Research in 2006, he never thought he would still be in China 11 years later.

But now the 35-year-old from New York is the co-founder of an artificial intelligence startup in one of China's innovatioin hubs in Shenzhen, Guangdong province.

"Being in China is really important when it comes to AI," he said. "If you look at the numbers, such as publications on topics like deep learning, it's China that is leading the way."