Of all the emerging technologies that will change our daily lives, none has more transformative potential than artificial intelligence. And AI — the use of computers to solve problems that would normally require natural, or human, intelligence — will also have a profound effect on the global balance of economic and military power. It will change how societies are governed and people are ruled.
Debates about whether China or the U.S. will dominate the 21st century are thus necessarily debates about who will lead in AI innovation, and whether democratic or authoritarian systems are better suited to that challenge. A new report from the bipartisan National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence contains reason for cautious optimism on that latter question, even as it reminds us that an authoritarian China will be a formidable competitor indeed.
