On May 21st J.D. Vance, America’s vice-president, described the development of artificial intelligence as an “arms race” with China. If America paused out of concerns over AI safety, he said, it might find itself “enslaved to PRC-mediated AI”. The idea of a superpower showdown that will culminate in a moment of triumph or defeat circulates relentlessly in Washington and beyond. This month the bosses of OpenAI, AMD, CoreWeave and Microsoft lobbied for lighter regulation, casting AI as central to America’s remaining the global hegemon. On May 15th president Donald Trump brokered an AI deal with the United Arab Emirates he said would ensure American “dominance in AI”. America plans to spend over $1trn by 2030 on data centres for AI models.
The Economist
