What the ChatGPT Moment Means for U.S.-China Tech Competition

Ironically, Baidu’s chatbot Ernie was trained on English-language information from Wikipedia and Reddit, which are both blocked in China. “It’s going to be a difficult balancing act for Chinese companies to find ways to use generative AI technology without running afoul of Chinese censors,” said Paul Scharre, who recently wrote Four Battlegrounds: Power in the Age of Artificial Intelligence.

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Beijing will also likely use AI to produce propaganda, Scharre said. “They’re basically fake news generators, so they can be used to generate state propaganda or fake news at speed and scale that may not be possible with people.”

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“Competition over AI—and emerging tech broadly—carries consequences that extend beyond the digital domain. A country that leads in AI is going to reap significant economic benefits and also gain a national security advantage,” Howell said. “What’s at stake here is not just who leads in artificial intelligence but also who sets the rules for how it’s going to be used around the world—so democratic values and the concept of open societies are at stake in the AI race.”

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