AI super-powers: China, Silicon Valley and the new world order

TLDR

The US–China trade war over semiconductors reflects broader concerns about tech supremacy, with debates over whether Silicon Valley or state‑backed Chinese firms will dominate AI amid fears of AI‑driven unemployment and security risks. The study examines the relative AI capacities of the US and China to address this question.

Abstract

The Trump–Xi trade war over semi-conductors is just one manifestation of the trepidation about who holds tech supremacy: the US or China. Does the future lie in Silicon Valley, the epitome of American entrepreneurship and home to the mission-oriented founders who have connected us and organized the world's information? Or with the growing Chinese tech behemoths, which we presume are propped up by the state? The two countries’ relative artificial intelligence (AI) capacity is of particular interest in answering this question. Anxiety over the advance of AI is rife as, even in the hands of American engineers, it sparks deep-seated worry about the social dislocations it could cause in the form of widespread unemployment. More worrisome yet is the potential of AI beyond human control, operating without the right moral underpinnings. This is where pundits exclaim that AI in China's hands could spell limitless (and sinister) use, especially in the realm of security. This consternation has fuelled western commentators’ fascination with the ‘Made in China 2025’ initiative and its unabashed aim for the country to be a world leader in AI.