US ‘very substantially’ leading China in AI: Trump

Washington, Sep 3 (IANS) President Donald Trump has said the United States is leading China “very substantially” in artificial intelligence, putting technological supremacy at the centre of an intensifying competition between the world’s two largest economies.

Trump made the assertion on Wednesday (local time) as his administration concluded a G20 Innovation Ministerial in North Carolina focused heavily on artificial intelligence, emerging technologies, investment and the workforce of the future.

“AI is going up, and we’re leading China in AI very substantially,” Trump said during a meeting with US travel industry executives.

The President also linked America’s technology expansion to a broader surge in investment that he said was flowing into the country.

Trump’s remarks came as his administration has increasingly portrayed artificial intelligence as both an economic opportunity and a strategic national security contest in which Washington must maintain an advantage over Beijing.

The President has made similar claims previously, repeatedly arguing that the United States holds a substantial lead over China in AI.

But China remains the competitor against which the administration most frequently measures American technological leadership.

Trump has argued that maintaining the US advantage requires faster construction of AI infrastructure, greater energy production, investment in advanced manufacturing and a regulatory environment that allows American technology companies to expand rapidly.

His latest comments came on the same day that G20 ministers concluded a two-day Innovation Ministerial in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, hosted by the US Department of Commerce and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.

The meeting brought together representatives from major economies, including India and China, and produced a consensus statement on emerging technologies.

The statement recognised that emerging technologies have the potential to expand prosperity, productivity and opportunity.

The ministerial focused on six areas, including pro-innovation policy frameworks, technology for economic opportunity, development of a skilled technical workforce, intellectual property policies for artificial intelligence, AI standards and investment in industrial supply chains.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick hosted discussions with some of the biggest names in the American technology industry, including Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Anthropic co-founder Tom Brown and Palantir CEO Alex Karp.

White House science adviser Michael Kratsios separately hosted discussions with technology leaders including Elon Musk, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Google DeepMind co-founder Demis Hassabis.

The gathering also produced the Carolina Principles for Emerging Technologies, which call for investment in foundational research, stronger pathways for commercialising innovation and wider adoption of trusted technologies.

The Trump administration has argued that keeping the United States ahead in artificial intelligence will require not only better AI models but the infrastructure needed to operate them, including advanced chips, data centres and large amounts of electricity.

Competition with China has become central to that effort.

Washington has imposed controls intended to restrict Chinese access to some advanced American semiconductor technologies, while Beijing has accelerated efforts to develop domestic capabilities in chips, artificial intelligence and other strategic sectors.

India is emerging as an increasingly important participant in the global AI ecosystem. New Delhi has sought to expand domestic AI infrastructure, computing capacity and innovation while deepening technology partnerships with the United States and other major economies.

The G20 Innovation Ministerial included India alongside the United States, China and other major economies, placing New Delhi directly inside the wider international debate over how artificial intelligence should be developed, governed and deployed.

–IANS

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