"The U.S. is currently ahead in the AI race, and it owes that fact to one thing: its monopoly on advanced computer chips. Several experts told me that Chinese companies are even with or slightly ahead of their American counterparts when it comes to crucial AI inputs, including engineering talent, training data, and energy supply. But training a cutting-edge AI model requires an unfathomable number of calculations at incredible speed, a feat that only a few highly specialized chips can handle."
"On Monday, he declared on Truth Social that the United States would lift restrictions on selling highly advanced semiconductors to China. In doing so, the president has effectively chosen to cede the upper hand in developing a technology that could determine the outcome of the military and economic contest between the U.S. and its biggest geopolitical rival."
"This gives the U.S. not only an economic advantage over China, but a military one. Already, AI systems have revolutionized how armies gather intelligence on enemies, detect troop movements, coordinate drone strikes, conduct cyberattacks, and choose targets; they are currently being used to develop the next generation of autonomous weapons."
The United States holds a leading AI position primarily because of its control over advanced semiconductors, with Nvidia uniquely able to produce the specialized chips needed at scale. Chinese firms match or slightly surpass U.S. counterparts on engineering talent, training data, and energy, but lack access to the specialized chips required to train state-of-the-art AI models. AI capabilities provide both economic and military leverage by transforming intelligence, surveillance, strike coordination, cyber operations, and autonomous weapons development. Lifting export restrictions on advanced chips to China threatens to transfer that leverage and alter the strategic balance.
Read at The Atlantic
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