Siliconsciousness: Is China Gaining an Edge on the US in the AI Race?

The DSR Network

Chris Cotnoir

Government

4.5 • 1.9K Ratings

🗓️ 29 January 2026

⏱️ 35 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Is the U.S.-China AI rivalry a zero-sum game? While the race for technical dominance heats up, both nations are taking radically different paths to the finish line. MIT Technology Review’s Caiwei Chen and the FT’s John Thornhill join host David Rothkopf to explore where China currently holds the edge—and why the "us versus them" framework fails to capture the true complexity of the AI landscape. This material is distributed by TRG Advisory Services, LLC on behalf of the Embassy of the United Arab Emirates in the U.S.. Additional information is available at the Department of Justice, Washington, DC. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	AI is incredible. They can teach you how to fry an egg and even write a poem, pirate style.
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0:26.4	Visit Slack.com forward slash meet Slackbot to learn more.
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1:01.5	That's code DSR 26 at the DSR network.com slash buy.
1:08.5	Thank you and enjoy the show.
1:14.4	Welcome to CILA consciousness, the DSR Network podcast focusing on the artificial intelligence revolution, politics and policy.
1:34.2	Hello and welcome to DSR's Silla Consciousness.
1:35.5	I'm your host, David Rothkoff.
1:39.4	This week, as every week, we're going to look at an important subject in the area of AI.
2:00.1	This week, we're extremely lucky to have with us, John Thornhill, who's the innovation editor at the Financial Times, who writes a weekly column on the impact of technology, and Kai Wei Chen, who has China-reported MIT Technology Review, covering everything related to China in the global tech world.
2:04.4	Welcome to both of you. Hi. Nice to be here.
2:11.7	It's good to have you. The genesis of this conversation was a piece that you guys did together conversation called The State of AI is China about to win the race, which was at the end of November, I think,
2:20.6	but with holidays intervening and so forth, we haven't been able to get this on the books until now.
2:28.3	And since then, you know, since the peace came out, there have been a number of developments
2:35.5	in the US-China AI competition,
	...

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