Is artificial intelligence the new nuclear or space race? “It has become the organizing force of power” and China and the USA compete for hegemony

If it weren’t already a recurring theme and its increasingly inseparable presence in people’s lives, a recent report from the global strategy group JP Morgan comes to warn that artificial intelligence will have seismic effects on global alliances, populisms and the rules of war. It is the United States of America that is ahead in the global race for artificial intelligence, but this constant struggle for dominance is having political repercussions, so much so that the report highlights the 2024 presidential election as “the most important event” that changed the geopolitics of AI in the last year.

“The race for global dominance in AI is very serious,” Emma Ruttkamp‑Bloem, professor of philosophy at the University of Pretoria (South Africa) and president of the UNESCO World Commission on the ethics of scientific knowledge, technology and AI, tells Expresso. “I don’t know if it’s supremacy, control or symbolism, but AI is power. Mastery in AI means incalculable power that comes from knowledge of human behavior, through surveillance capitalism, which is the business model of AI.”