WASHINGTON--A skirmish between national security and trade officials in the Biden administration is hindering efforts to forge a digital-services pact with Asian countries, according to people involved in the talks. National Security Council and State Department officials want to set rules for digital trade in Asia, which could include cross-border flows of information, digital privacy and standards for the use of artificial intelligence in Asia, the people said. The proposed pact would be open to U.S. allies in the Asia-Pacific region. It would exclude China, similar to the approach the administration has taken on issues such as export controls on advanced technology. The U.S. has tried to put together alliances that would set standards in Asia, as a way of limiting Chinese influence.

To date, it might well be the most effective and useful algorithm -- or family of algorithms -- that humanity ever invented. Ever-improving methods for erecting models of how the world works and then testing those models against evidence make it possible to distinguish good ideas from bad. Step-by-step, humanity's understanding of the universe, the world, and itself, has grown. The Artificial Intelligence revolution, however, could well overturn how good ideas are sifted from bad and subvert science's ultimate goal of understanding. The claim that AI could undermine scientific understanding, or even make it obsolete, is far from new.