Nobody Has to Lose

We keep talking about the AI race as if it’s a competition between models: ChatGPT versus DeepSeek. OpenAI versus the Chinese labs. Washington versus Beijing. But what if we’re watching the wrong race? Artificial intelligence may feel like software, but underneath it are semiconductors, critical minerals, electricity, data centers, cloud infrastructure, capital—and governments increasingly deciding who gets access to what.

In the new episode of AI Ascent with Dr. Jonathan Luckett, I take a deep look at Pax Silica, Washington’s emerging effort to organize countries around the physical infrastructure that makes advanced AI possible, and China’s competing approach through initiatives such as WAICO and its growing ecosystem of open-weight AI models. But the most interesting part of this story may not be Washington or Beijing. It may be the countries in between—India, Indonesia, Brazil, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, South Africa, Kazakhstan and others—that increasingly have something both sides need and may have very little interest in choosing only one.

That leads to the question at the heart of this episode: What if the emerging AI world doesn’t divide neatly into an American bloc and a Chinese bloc? What if the real divide is between countries that have technological choices—and countries that don’t? And if much of the world wants access to both American and Chinese technology, perhaps the question isn’t who wins an AI Cold War. Perhaps it’s whether we’re intelligent enough to avoid making one inevitable.

Listen to the latest episode of AI Ascent with Dr. Jonathan Luckett here:  https://bit.ly/4gpbvPb