Who’s Winning the AI Race? It’s Not That Simple.

This also isn’t a two-horse race. AI development is picking up pace around the world, and the technology’s underpinning of everything from email to missile systems raises the stakes significantly. A more useful historical analogy for the current state of AI development may be the revolution that occurred centuries before the space race.

“I think the Industrial Revolution in many ways is a more helpful paradigm,” said Paul Scharre, vice president at the Center for a New American Security. “It was this combination of technologies that were mutually supporting, much like we’re seeing today with AI and data, the internet of things, mobile devices, wired and wireless connectivity, this whole panoply of technologies.”

The Industrial Revolution, like today’s, also left an easy-to-understand scorecard. “You could see clear winners and losers in the 1800s depending on how rapidly countries industrialized,” he said.

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