The United States is a proud country. We wear our pride on our sleeves for everyone to see. Why not? We are proud to be known as the worldwide leader in AI. Or is that just a figment of our overactive imagination? China seems to be working very hard to yank that honor out from underneath us.
Over the years, the threat of loss of privacy and having China watch and potentially control everything we say and do was one threat. That caused the United States to force Huawei to exit the country.
That has been easier said than done. Today, Huawei is bigger and stronger than ever before. Could the new Chinese DeepSeek AI chip do the same in the AI space? And what about Quantum technology?
AI is not new and has been with us for decades at different levels
So, let us pull the AI camera back and get a longer-term, historical perspective of AI, the USA and China — who is wining and why?
Artificial Intelligence is not new. In fact, is has been with us in many different stages for many decades. We’ve been using, researching and advancing this technology in fits and spurts for longer than most realize.
There are many different levels or artificial intelligence. Some newer and more impactful than others.
For example, in the year 2011 IBM Watson was introduced to the world and won the TV game show Jeopardy.
Then it rapidly grew in coming years through the IBM World of Watson around 2016. I attended that event, and it was bigger than life. Watson became a worldwide phenomenon.
However, the world was not ready yet. At the time, Watson was AI and was bigger than live. Then it vanished from the public stage. What happened?
One mistake was using the term Watson rather than AI. They should have used both.
Today, IBM is now trying to restart the growth engines with Watsonx.
At the same time, IBM is also focused on Quantum, and is showing real promise for Watsonx and Quantum, both separately and together.
This has been the way the AI world has worked for more decades than we can remember.
In the last couple years, we’ve seen AI relaunch with all sorts of excitement and ignorance. Now, everyone is getting in on this game.
OpenAI, ChatGPT, Nvidia, Oracle and more are AI powerhouses
Today, new companies like OpenAI who just created and released ChatGPT, a version of Chatbot technology. Or Nvidia which makes AI chips and supplies companies from around the world. Or Oracle, who makes the servers and so many other companies are creating a new marketplace.
However, while we in the United States are so proud of ourselves for our ingenuity and pat ourselves on the back because we like the accolades, AI continues to grow in other countries like China with their new DeepSeek technology.
We do not know which country will lead this AI race going forward. In fact, this is a clear sign that countries from around the globe are all working fast and furious to be the leader.
And not every worldwide country and company shares our concern for both sides of the coin. The good and the bad. The light and the dark. The safe and secure and the fear of the great unknown.
Will AI and Quantum write its own code and advance beyond human understanding?
AI is an amazing technology that will continue to rapidly grow and will ultimately write its own code.
Fear is at that point we may lose control. However, once unleashed, we don’t really know what this technology will do.
This is the part of this growth story every company and every country want to sink their teeth into.
I am not saying we should throttle back completely on the safety side. After all the threat we pay attention to today is the world full of competitors who are not hamstrung.
However, we should also be aware of the threat that comes from other countries moving further, faster ahead of us in this new world.
We need to advance AI and Quantum more rapidly than other countries
There is a push and pull working together. How do we remain in control?
This is one of the real problems visionaries like Elon Musk are warning us about.
In fact, both technologies, AI and Quantum represent the future. Musk says there may be a real threat to safety and security.
There are so many different versions of AI. Some much more advanced than others. And that disparity will only continue and in fact, accelerate.
That is why we must keep running as fast as possible if we want to remain in the AI lead.
The fight for AI and Quantum superiority
Moving forward, the battle for AI dominance will continue between the U.S. and China. We are just in the very early stages. This as the technology gets smarter and faster than the human being can control it.
Different companies already use AI in different ways. The moves some companies make is much more advanced compared to others.
I will continue to write about AI and Quantum companies
Going forward, I will write about different companies and their AI and Quantum technologies.
We must win, but we must win carefully. At the same time other companies from other countries are not limited like we are.
That being said, we also need to keep our eyes open for the unknown that is being created by the U.S and others in the race to be number one.
What was the term President Ronald Reagan used? Trust but verify!
