Industry leaders warn of unprecedented economic changes from AI, including potential rapid GDP growth alongside high unemployment.
Advanced AI chips have become the new front line in global tech rivalry, with Anthropic’s CEO warning against sales to rival nations.
Speaking at the World Economic Forum, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei made a stark comparison when discussing advanced computer chips used for AI development. He said that selling these chips to rival nations would be like “selling nuclear weapons to North Korea.”
His comments came as the technology took up a major part of the annual gathering in Switzerland, even as discussions about Donald Trump and Greenland got most of the attention.
China closing the AI gap faster than expected
Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis talked about Chinese progress in the field, noting that the gap between China and Western companies might be smaller than people thought. He said Chinese firms could be just six months behind the cutting edge, rather than one or two years. But he added that Chinese companies haven’t shown they can push past where things are now.
His remarks touched on the stir caused nearly a year ago when DeepSeek, a Chinese company, released a model that matched leading American systems like OpenAI’s ChatGPT on certain measures while costing far less to develop. The announcement caused a stock market drop that temporarily wiped nearly $1 trillion from US and European technology companies, with Nvidia losing hundreds of billions in market value.
The discussion comes as Trump administration officials ease restrictions on advanced AI chip exports to China, moving away from policies meant to keep Beijing from accessing American technology for AI development. While sales of the most advanced processors stay blocked for national security reasons, the shift is a big policy change.
Europe has its own problems in the global AI competition
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said the continent needs to change how it thinks about things, arguing it focuses too much on regulation while not doing enough to support local technology companies. He said Europe must build competitive products that can succeed around the world, not just at home.
Europe’s work in this area is smaller than what’s happening in the US and Asia. Many promising European companies get bought by larger foreign technology firms. France’s Mistral AI, valued at €11.7 billion ($13.7 billion) in a recent funding round, is Europe’s leading AI startup but remains tiny compared to OpenAI’s valuation of over $500 billion.
Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt warned that without more investment in open source AI, Europe might end up dependent on Chinese models as US companies move toward “closed source” systems. He said this probably wouldn’t be good for Europe.
Signal’s Meredith Whittaker gave advice for businesses looking at AI, telling executives to get past what she called an “intimidation factor” around the technology. She said to ask specific questions about what the business actually needs rather than just following trends.
Amodei said the world might face something never seen before. Rapid GDP growth mixed with high unemployment or lots of low-wage work and inequality. Hassabis called for international work bringing together philosophers, social scientists, economists and technologists to figure out the best way forward.
Meanwhile in the Middle East, G42, the United Arab Emirates’ leading AI company, expects to get its first shipments of world’s best chips from Nvidia Corp., Advanced Micro Devices Inc. and Cerebras Systems Inc. within months, according to CEO Peng Xiao.
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