As artificial intelligence (AI) systems rapidly advance, the U.S. and China are both investing time and resources into developing the technology, but experts are divided on who controls the most advanced systems, who will be the front-runner to shape free speech and power in modern society.
“The race between the U.S. and China, I think it’s going to dictate the future of humanity,” Dr. Michael Capps, the CEO of Diveplane, told Fox News Digital.
“The Chinese government, Chinese military, and Chinese technology are all working in concert to win the AI race,” he added. “In the United States, I would say that US technologists are working on it really hard, but not the government, and not the military. They’re talking about it, and they’re thinking about it, but it’s such a tiny bit of our discourse in Congress, its such a tiny bit of our military budgets, it’s not a focus. President Xi is 100% focused on it. Putin has said whoever wins the air race, wins World War III before it happens.”
This race, which Capps said would determine the future of humanity, is in some ways like the 21st Century Space Race between the United States and the Soviet Union, Gordon Chang, the author of “The Coming Collapse of China” told Fox News Digital.
Experts weighed American and Chinese military and civil investments in artificial intelligence and while some believe the U.S. has a slight advantage in developing the technology currently, others worry China has already surpassed U.S. capability. (Getty Images)
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Capps applauded the $140 million investment by the U.S. government to fund “responsible” AI research by the National Science Foundation, but he said It’s nothing compared to what Google spent this month. Unless the U.S. makes a “dramatic change” now, Capps said China is “going to be way ahead of us.”
From a military defense perspective, he said the U.S. used to be ahead, but China has “caught up” and is now “moving faster than us.”
Developments in artificial intelligence, McKinley said, require human talent, and the United States dominates the market when it comes to talent.
“We win on the talent, and on the computer, and on the institutions required to run all of them. The algorithms are easy to replicate,” McKinley said. “China is very good at knocking off other people’s ideas, not really good at generating their own because they don’t have the incentive structure to create that. So while the generative AIs that are currently in the news cycle, all of those that are in the news cycle are made in America, conceptualized in America, created in America.”
But, the stakes are high for whichever country is able to gain the most advanced technology. James Czerniawski, a senior policy analyst at Americans for Prosperity, told Fox News Digital that he does believe the U.S. and China are sort of “space race” for AI dominance and whoever wins the race will benefit from dictating the controls of the new technological age.
“Both of those areas are friends of the U.S., South Korea is even a treaty ally, but they’re both close to China and they both have business ties with Chinese companies, so this is up for the United States to exert our geopolitical influence on both Seoul and Taipei,” he said. “This is something that we can do. This is something we haven’t done to the extent we should and this is an area where the Biden administration, I think, is going to be tested.”
“The United States will have a lead, it’s a question of whether we are willing to impose those prohibitions and restrictions on transfers to China,” he added. “The business community wants to go all in on helping Beijing. We should not, of course, permit that.”
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“The Space Race, even the Cold War, had a defined objective that was governmental,” he explained. “There was no private sector component, so when you look at Chinese advances, they’ve basically been playing catch up for the past 20 years and their focus has largely been, as I understand it, on commercial stuff.”
Chang said China has different priorities when it comes to AI, but Xi Jinping no doubt wants to dominate AI to assert control and boost China’s economy despite political hurdles.
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