The Myth of the AI Race, With Alvin Wang Graylin

This episode unpacks U.S. and Chinese AI strategies, regulation approaches, and the future implications for society and security.

Host:

James M. Lindsay (cfr.org/experts/james-m-lindsay), Mary and David Boies Distinguished Senior Fellow in U.S. Foreign Policy, CFR

Guest:

Alvin Wang Graylin (asiasociety.org/policy-institute/alvin-wang-gr…), Senior Fellow for Technology, Asia Society; Digital Fellow, Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence; Professor of AI/Tech Policy, University of Washington

We Discuss:

• Whether the framing of an AI "race" with China is accurate or helpful, and why it may be producing costly policy distortions.

• The concept of AGI (artificial general intelligence) and the thesis that underpins U.S. policy.

• China's focus on broad industrial adoption over frontier model development.

• How U.S. export controls and visa restrictions spurred the innovations behind DeepSeek.

• Why China turned down the offer to purchase NVIDIA H200 chips.

• Why Beijing regulates AI more extensively than either the United States or Europe.

• The Trump-Xi discussions on AI safety guardrails and the shared interest in preventing non-state bad actors from weaponizing AI.

• The economic bubble risk posed by rapidly rising data center costs.

Mentioned on the Episode:

China's "AI Plus" Initiative (cset.georgetown.edu/publication/china-ai-plus-…), State Council of China, August 2025

China's New Generation Artificial Intelligence Development Plan (digichina.stanford.edu/work/full-translation-c…), State Council of China, 2017

For an episode transcript and show notes, visit The President’s Inbox at: cfr.org/podcasts/presidents-inbox/the-myth-of-…

Opinions expressed on The President’s Inbox are solely those of the host or guests, not of CFR, which takes no institutional positions on matters of policy.