Comment by seanmcdirmid
2 days ago
The history of industry and technology of the world is just one of IP theft. Long term IP diffuses, you can’t really stop it with anything short of impassable boundaries.
If China trains better models than the rest of the world by using all the data it can acquire, it will simply win. You can’t throw China in jail for not playing by same rules as other countries, you can’t economically isolate it longer than a few years, and even then 70-80% of the world won’t care about embargoes even in those few years. The best solutions will diffuse into the world eventually.
What does it mean to win the AI race?
It means you have the best toys (products, tech, services) that AI enables. And you get to sell them to the rest of the world vs. your competitors (who have to catch up).
Winning the AI race gives China or the US a commercial advantage, but only if the rest of the world allows it. That advantage can be regulated. For example, in America and Europe people don't use WeChat, and in China they don't use ChatGPT.
If you're talking about military power, where AI gives an edge in cyber security and warfare, then China has already won. They are ahead in tech, AI and quantum computing. The moment you step foot in China you realise they're easily ten years ahead. And that didn't happen overnight. It's the result of long term investment in infrastructure, education, and technology.
The arches of power are shifting, and the US can't stop it. Companies like OpenAI are built on the promise of developing a secret weapon called AGI that will rebuild the US economy, solve social problems, and give the US a technological edge to control the rest of the world.
But that's never going to happen. It's a nice story they tell politicians and regulators to get away with theft and also get investors like Microsoft to give them more infra and money.
Question: Did OpenAI made its API publicly available to generate revenue, or share responsibility and distribute the ethical risk with developers, startups, and enterprise customers, hoping that widespread use would eventually influence legal systems over time?
Let's be honest, the US government and defence sector has massive budgets for AI, and OpenAI could have taken that route, just like SpaceX did. Especially after claiming they're in a tech war with China. But they didn't, which feels contradictory and raises some red flags.
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