As a global technoscientific form involving various forces and stakeholders, research and development (R&D) in artificial intelligence (AI) transcends corporate, national and institutional boundaries. Incorporating transnational rhetorical analysis and corpus-assisted discourse analysis, this article examines the global cultural flows surrounding AI constructed in official and media discourses in the US and China. We propose a new theoretical concept of knowledgescape that expands the toolkits of global flows and provides new explanatory power about global innovation and competition. This concept sheds light on the global processes, mechanisms and power dynamics of the production, dissemination, consumption and contestation of cutting-edge knowledge.