The Biden administration this week introduced new export restrictions designed to control AI's progress globally and ultimately prevent the most advanced AI from falling into China's hands. The rule is just the latest in a string of measures put in place by Donald Trump and Joe Biden to keep Chinese AI in check. With prominent AI figures including OpenAI's Sam Altman and Anthropic's Dario Amodei warning of the need to "beat China" in AI, the Trump administration may well escalate things further. Paul Triolo is a partner at DGA Group, a global consulting firm, a member of the council of foreign relations, and a senior adviser to the University of Pennsylvania's Penn Project on the Future of US-China Relations. Alvin Graylin is an entrepreneur who previously ran China operations for the Taiwanese electronics firm HPC.

An Artificial Intelligence (AI) wave is sweeping the world as countries from China to the US and the UK compete aggressively and commit resources to get ahead in the race. US-based Paul Triolo, director (geotechnology) of Eurasia Group, a political risk consultancy firm, shares his views with Malini Goyal on a range of issues around AI. Edited excerpt from the interview: What makes AI of such critical significance for nations and businesses? Why are experts calling it the new arms race? I think the term arms race has unfortunately become a favored meme on artificial intelligence, in part because people have confused the progress of artificial narrow intelligence with artificial general intelligence (AGI). AGI, which most experts think we are years from developing, could provide an advantage to one country, should it choose to use the technology maliciously.