The AI race has long been framed as a zero-sum game: either the US or China will win at the end. But as concerns pile up around the increasing capabilities of AI models—especially AI agents—researchers in both countries are trying to team up to work on AI safety. This week, Zoë Schiffer speaks with senior writer Will Knight about what he saw and heard on the ground when he visited China this summer—and why the two countries might actually need to start working together to avoid a major AI catastrophe.
This is our second episode from our summer break series. We’ll be back next week with our usual roundtable. Articles mentioned in this episode: I Met With China’s Top AI Experts.
They’re Freaking Out, Too AI Hacks Are Bad. AI Worms and Viruses Will Be Worse The Humanoid Robot of the Future Is a 6-Foot-Tall Beefcake With a Chinese Body and an American Brain You can follow Zoë Schiffer on Bluesky at @zoeschiffer and Will Knight on Bluesky at @willknight. Write to us at [email protected].
How to Listen You can always listen to this week's podcast through the audio player on this page, but if you want to subscribe for free to get every episode, here's how: If you're on an iPhone or iPad, open the app called Podcasts, or just tap this link. You can also download an app like Overcast or Pocket Casts and search for “uncanny valley.” We’re on Spotify too. Transcript Note: This is an automated transcript, which may contain errors.
Zoë Schiffer: This is WIRED's Uncanny Valley. I'm Zoë Schiffer, contributing editor. If you've been following tech news this summer, and definitely if you've been listening to the show, you probably already know that China has been in the headlines quite a lot, particularly when it comes to the AI race.
The country's open models continue to close the gap with US frontier models at what some people estimate is a fraction of the cost. In turn, the US has maintained its tight restrictions on chips and export controls to slow down China's rise. We think of AI advancement in so many ways as zero-sum, if China wins, the US loses, and vice versa.
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