Behind AI doomsday prophecies, US and China jockey for lead in tech race

At the BRICS summit in India, Chinese President Xi Jinping announced plans for a "BRICS open-source zone" for artificial intelligence. This move aims to expand China's ally base by backing open-source AI development and training in emerging and developing economies. In July, Xi chaired the World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai and launched the World Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Organization, which now has 29 participating countries.

Xi's strategy to expand his "AI alliance" comes as the U.S. and China compete for dominance in the AI field. In May, AI was discussed at the Sino-US summit in Beijing, with Trump hinting at "guardrails" for AI in future talks. China has quickly expanded its influence in AI by attracting Global South countries into its AI ecosystem.

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei warned in a Sept. 12 essay that AI's risk of escaping human control has grown, describing the race as a confrontation between democracies and autocracies. China responded to the warning, dismissing it as "Cold War script" concocted by the American "tech right." Chinese officials have emphasized the importance of AI security and warned of potential cyber threats from hostile forces.

The U.S. acknowledges China's rapid advancement in AI but remains confident in its technological lead. Huang Ping, a professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong-Shenzhen, analyzed the Sino-US AI race in three stages. The first phase saw American companies leading deep learning development, while China took its first steps toward catching up in 2016 with AI research labs.

The second stage saw the rise of large language models and the U.S. gaining an advantage in technology and hardware. The third stage, beginning in 2024, has seen China develop cost-effective models and apply AI to industries, narrowing the AI performance gap with the U.S.