President Donald Trump’s theory of artificial intelligence is typically straightforward: there can be only one winner, and that winner takes all. He repeated that today, saying on Truth Social that “There is a SICK conspiracy going on against AI and Data Centers, and the only one that is happy about it is China. WHOEVER WINS AI, WINS!” Last week he had told reporters in Dallas that he had no concerns at all about AI causing human extinction.
Let’s assume Trump’s premise about the race is right. But the great AI race may not be the kind of race he is describing, because one of the runners also has an incentive not to reach the finish line. China is investing heavily in artificial intelligence and has set aggressive targets for its deployment across the economy.
The Chinese state has also been explicit about a boundary advanced AI must never cross. In July, President Xi Jinping called for AI to remain “secure and controllable” and for governments to build monitoring and emergency systems that ensure AI stays under human control. Xi is due at the White House later this month, and AI is expected to be on the agenda.
But that statement also sits alongside official Chinese policies that AI must also “uphold socialist core values.” What happens if AI decides that “socialist core values” are suboptimal? That’s why the race Trump is describing may not, in fact, be the same race at all. Trump’s position is that the U.S. must stay ahead of China.
He has support on that front. Republican Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, who is working with Senate Majority Leader John Thune and Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar on legislation addressing catastrophic AI risk, said that Beijing will not stop whatever Washington does, and that if there are going to be killer robots he would rather they be “American killer robots than Chinese killer robots.” The other side now comes increasingly from people involved in AI research. Anthropic Chief Executive Dario Amodei said this weekend that “we must slow the pace at which we improve the capabilities of AI models.” His essay called for outside evaluation, stronger safety rules and international coordination while preserving a U.S. technological lead.
He warned that within six to twelve months, a swarm of misaligned agents could hold the internet through a persistent botnet. Within hours, OpenAI Chief Executive Sam Altman said he agreed and committed his own company to the framework laid out by Amodei. Their argument had acquired political force after Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon resigned, warning that leading labs were racing toward self-improving systems without adequate safeguards.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
