Artificial Intelligence Cold War on the horizon

While the U.S. has lacked central organizing of its AI, it has an advantage in its flexible tech industry, said Nand Mulchandani, the acting director of the U.S. Department of Defense Joint Artificial Intelligence Center. Mulchandani is skeptical of China's efforts at "civil-military fusion," saying that governments are rarely able to direct early stage technology development. Tensions over how to accelerate AI are driven by the prospect of a tech cold war between the U.S. and China, amid improving Chinese innovation and access to both capital and top foreign researchers. "They've learned by studying our playbook," said Elsa B. Kania of the Center for a New American Security. "Many commentators in Washington and Beijing have accepted the fact that we are in a new type of Cold War," said Ulrik Vestergaard Knudsen, deputy secretary general of Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), which is leading efforts to develop global AI cooperation.