Washington's AI Supremacy Fantasy Obscures Real Competition
Source: The New York Review of Books
The framing of AI as a zero-sum race with China has calcified into mythmaking in Washington policy circles, where technological lead equals geopolitical permanence. This logic ignores how quickly AI capabilities diffuse and how many other powers—the EU, India, smaller nations—are developing parallel systems. The narrative serves domestic political needs more than strategic reality, allowing policymakers to avoid harder questions: what does America actually need to compete (edge cases matter more than headline capabilities), and what costs does the pursuit of "primacy" extract from alliances and innovation ecosystems that require openness. The risk is that this frame becomes policy, tightening export controls and domestic collaboration in ways that slow American progress while doing little to slow China's.