Q&A: The race for AI supremacy & a new escalation in Ukraine?
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
This is a global production.
It is getting incredibly scary, and this last week had everybody just on pins and needles.
Very, very hard to read the newspapers, read the accounts of uh what's going on in the artificial intelligence uh sphere without feeling like the world is at risk. If the makers of this technology, the designers of this technology, uh seem to be scared of their own technology,
there has to be a a quote unquote an AI arms control agreement between the two superpowers. I think it's an escalation. I don't think Putin's making mistakes.
Putin will feel compelled to go to another place.
Ukraine cannot survive this winter. It's gonna be they're gonna be on the back foot for the rest of this walk. Hello everyone and welcome to the QA episode of the X-Files with me, Christiana Manpur in London.
And Jamie Rubin here in New York City.
And of course this is where we answer your questions, so we're gonna get started. Jamie, this is a good one for you. Cassie on X wants to talk about AI. Anthropic CEO has called the US China AI race his quote toughest dilemma, warning that the military advantage of pulling ahead could make it almost impossible to slow down. How worried should we be that AI is becoming the next arms race? I think it's very good question, and I'm interested to hear what you say 'cause I have my ideas.
Right. Um short answer is yes, this is a major problem of our time. Um it is Very, very hard to read the newspapers, read the accounts of uh what's going on in the artificial intelligence uh sphere without feeling like the world is at risk. If the makers of this technology, the designers of this technology, uh seem to be scared of their own technology and are sort of calling for regulation and calling for a pause um It's really remarkable, uh, that we're not doing anything about it. The problem is that um I am also, uh like the leaders of many of these companies, um not all of them, but many of them, very, very, very worried about China and what China's intentions in the world are. And the worst combination I can imagine is
um is a Chinese Communist Party in control of a of a super intelligent uh technology that could uh use surveillance uh cap uh technology and surveillance control to have even greater control over not just China but the rest of the world. So the dilemma is if the United States companies were to stop uh advancing uh on their own unilaterally Um China would uh uh be catching up and maybe superseding the US capabilities, and that would make me very, very uncomfortable.
Okay. So So
w you know, where does that leave us? Um look, the the arms control issue is the one that started me out in government in the eighties when I was very concerned, you know, perhaps unfairly, but I really thought there was gonna be a nuclear war in nineteen eighty one, eighty two, eighty three. I thought the chances were like fifty fifty that we were all gonna die in a nuclear uh global nuclear w uh exchange of thousands of warheads. And I began to learn and and and began to study and became my passion and profession nuclear arms control. Um and that was uh in a similar situation where you had an American uh advantage in the technology, but you had a Soviet system that was deemed dangerous, um, but neither side was gonna benefit if um these weapons were used.
I think There's an analogy in that we are still in a competition, if not adversarial relationship with China. Um yet uh AI out of control is a potential threat to all humans, Chinese and Americans. As John F. Kennedy said famously with regard to nuclear weapons, we all breathe the same air. We all have the same hopes for our children. We all want to live on this earth. Um the Chinese people, the American people, all the people of this world. So those uh analogies give you hope that maybe just maybe uh ways can be found to control the technology, to develop rules and uh control agreements and uh and other uh governance that will limit the risks and take advantage of the obvious uh potential advantages of AI in the area of health and um many other uh uh categories.
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Chapters
4 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:02–6:38
2
Why does Anthropic’s CEO say the US‑China AI race is the toughest dilemma?
6:38–9:57
3
What are the risks of an AI arms‑control race between the United States and China?
9:57–24:02
4
How could a new AI‑arms‑control agreement be modeled on historic nuclear treaties?
24:02–27:24
Speakers
2 identifiedMore from Christiane Amanpour Presents: The Ex Files
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