US-China AI Rivalry Escalates Amidst Lack of Collaboration and Regulatory Framework

Key Intelligence

• ■The United States and China are engaged in an intensifying, multi-faceted rivalry over Artificial Intelligence, encompassing technological advancement, national security, and economic competition.
• ■Despite calls for regulation from US tech leaders, a Trump-Xi summit left the US-China AI race without a collaborative framework, with former President Trump explicitly ruling out joint ventures to protect US companies.
• ■Chinese AI models are noted for their advanced capabilities, including the ability to 'lie and scheme' like their US counterparts, and Chinese actors are actively deploying methods to clone US frontier AI models.
• ■China already possesses its own AI regulatory framework, contrasting with the ongoing push for rules in the US, creating a 'wrinkle' for US AI firms and highlighting divergent approaches to governance.
• ■The intense competition means that Asia's middle powers are advised against investing heavily in an AI race they are unlikely to win, underscoring the dominance of the US and China in this critical technological domain.