How will artificial intelligence impact Sino–US relations?

Abstract

Along with the dramatic growth of big data, improvement in computation, and advances in deep-learning algorithms, artificial intelligence (AI) is entering a third wave of development and becoming a new focus of international competition. This essay argues that AI may profoundly affect Sino–US relations. On one hand, competition between China and the United States surrounding AI may aggravate strategic mutual suspicion, accelerate the AI arms race, change power dynamics, and undermine strategic stability between these two countries. On the other hand, the rapid development of AI has the potential to open new areas of cooperation between China and the United States. As AI introduces new forms of uncertainty into the international political arena, China and the United States, as two major global powers, need to increase trust, resolve disputes, deepen cooperation, and strengthen conflict management capacity, to help steer the world toward a more peaceful, secure, and prosperous future.