“China won’t win the AI race but would it be much worse if it did?” by Chastity Ruth
“China won’t win the AI race but would it be much worse if it did?” by Chastity Ruth  
Podcast: LessWrong (30+ Karma)
Published On: Wed Jun 03 2026
Description: It seems to me accepted wisdom in the West that the US owned labs must “beat” the Chinese labs in the race for AGI/ASI. Even those who don’t think there will be a winner, that essentially the race is to see which country's AI will kill/disempower us first, seem to believe that if there has to be a winner then better it be the US labs. (I haven't seen a survey, so I could be way off here.) For those in power and those heavily financially invested in the labs this of course makes sense. But what about for the rest of us? I had myself accepted the wisdom, in the nebulous way you consider propositions in domains where you don’t have any expertise. The CCP is repressive, I thought. They are an authoritarian country and therefore fundamentally a malign actor. Of course they mustn’t win. Then I heard Victor Shih, Chinese political system expert, talk on Dwarkesh's podcast: “For the Chinese government, they’re very afraid that some actor—outside, but even inside the Party—is going to use it [AI] as a tool to usurp the Party's power. So they want to know that they have a way of [...] ---Outline:(02:45) Who is more willing to slow AI development?(06:41) Who is more likely to hit the brakes before a rogue ASI breakout?(13:17) Who is developing models more responsibly?(17:07) Who is using models more responsibly?(20:30) Who is more likely to lead us to paradise?(21:45) Race dynamics --- First published: June 3rd, 2026 Source: https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/nmpzH6sLLtKsQhSPM/china-won-t-win-the-ai-race-but-would-it-be-much-worse-if-it --- Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.