US v China: The AI race

We speak to a US-China tech expert who served under presidents Biden and Trump about America’s race with China to develop Artificial Intelligence. Does he agree with president Trump’s statement “whoever wins AI wins”, and what does “winning” look like?

Justin, Marianna and Anthony discuss Donald Trump’s rejection of any regulation for Artificial Intelligence, and whether this is in line with public opinion in the United States.

The team also talk about Congress, and how Republicans are reacting to Donald Trump’s most outspoken comments yet on AI. Plus, could Democrats be making the issue more central to their campaigning ahead of this November’s midterm elections? It’s an issue which has also united progressive Democrat senator Bernie Sanders and former Trump adviser Steve Bannon - what was their message to voters?

Our guest this week is Chris McGuire, a US-China technology expert with the Council on Foreign Relations. He’s a former senior adviser at the State Department for Trump in both his first and second terms, and previously served as Deputy Senior Director for Technology and National Security at the National Security Council from 2022 to 2024 under president Biden.

Presenter: Marianna Spring, BBC Social Media Investigations correspondent, Anthony Zurcher, North America correspondent and Justin Webb, Radio 4 presenter

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Producer: Emma Close with George Dabby, Josh McMinn and Nik Sindle
Sound engineer: Mike Regaard
Series producer is Purvee Pattni
Editor: Sam Bonham.

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