Compete with China on chips and energy, not on superintelligence

Dan HendrycksMutually Assured AI Malfunction [Dan Hendrycks]at 47:20

From the conversation

We also have um non-prololiferation in this case of of AI chips to rogue actors like North Korea or Iran or adversaries um uh through export controls. Uh and we also have competitiveness with China. Instead of it being containment of the Soviet Union, this would be competition with China. And how do we improve our competitiveness? Well, we want to be, you know, we want energy for AI data centers. We want secure supply chains so that if Taiwan is invaded, our AI chips aren't cut off. Um we want secure supply chains for robotics. U because if there is a USChina conflict then um a lot of the a lot of that supply chain is currently in China. So very vulnerable. Um so those are some basic things to um improve competitiveness. So it's making competitiveness not be let's be the first to build super intelligence which is what um uh uh the sort of Manhattan project strategy um pushes toward but instead it's competition is more you know market share in the um uh in across the globe of people using your AIS as opposed to Chinese AIS in your supply chain security uh instead. Uh so that's kind of uh what's in the paper at a high level. There's lots of other specific things in there like assuming high levels of automation, what are ways that you distribute power? Um, uh, what are things about AI rights?…

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Summary

Competition with China should be reframed away from a race to build superintelligence first (as in a Manhattan Project approach) toward competition over market share, supply chain security, and infrastructure like energy and chip manufacturing. This shifts the competitive focus from dangerous racing dynamics toward more sustainable forms of competitiveness that don't incentivize cutting corners on safety.

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