Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice weighed in on the global artificial intelligence race, warning the United States must remain the "technological leader" against the "great competitor" -- China. "The United States is currently the technological leader, and we have to keep it that way. We absolutely have to win this race so that a democracy wins the race for these frontier technologies, not an authoritarian state -- and China, of course, is the great competitor here," Rice said Friday on "The Story." Earlier this week, Vice President JD Vance laid out the Trump administration's vision for the future of artificial intelligence during the AI Action Summit in Paris. During his remarks, Vance emphasized deregulation, private-sector innovations, safety and security as well as global cooperation while touting U.S. success in AI growth.

DeepSeek's new AI model is causing deep consternation from Silicon Valley to Washington. Few would have predicted that a little-known Chinese startup with a couple of hundred homegrown engineers would be able to release a frontier AI model rivaling the capabilities of America's best and biggest tech companies – reportedly at a fraction of the cost and computational power. Experts are hotly debating just how many and which type of chips DeepSeek used and whether the company stockpiled them or circumvented U.S. export controls. But the release and viral adoption of a Chinese AI competitor model has already rattled markets, highlighted the urgent competition for global brainpower, and caused some to ask whether all those billions that U.S. tech companies have spent buying chips and building data centers built a competitive moat or a Maginot line. This moment is game on, not game over.