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Anthropic\u2019s chief executive officer Dario Amodei compared artificial intelligence chips to nuclear weapons. Google DeepMind\u2019s CEO said China\u2019s technology is just months behind the US. Signal\u2019s Meredith Whittaker called new adaptations of AI uniquely \u201cperilous.\u201d<\/p>\n
The message from tech executives at the World Economic Forum is that AI is a powerful geopolitical force, and one politicians and business leaders need to wield as such. It\u2019s effectively one more piece of firepower in the global struggle between major economies like the US and China.<\/p>\n
The idea that AI is more than just a buzzy next-gen tech, but a crucial tool for whomever wants to be a 21st century superpower, means it\u2019s high on the agenda at Davos. It\u2019s holding its own in the attention stakes, even if the buildup to the annual gathering of the world\u2019s global elite has been dominated by Donald Trump and tensions over Greenland.<\/p>\n
In a sign of the AI push at Davos, Anthropic and tech venture capital investors Lightspeed and General Catalyst planned exclusive parties. Even with a busy schedule ahead for the week, there was a line outside the VC event at 10:30pm. Palantir Technologies Inc. set up its house across the street from the USA House, a church just outside the Davos perimeter that\u2019s the main venue for the Trump administration this week.<\/p>\n
AI is becoming a major driver of the global economy \u2014 with companies and nations committing billions to ensure dominance \u2014 and has implications for everything to the future of work and robotics to how wars are fought and space travel.<\/p>\n
With so much at stake, countries can\u2019t afford to slow down when it comes to investment and innovation. And, according to Amodei, the US even risks giving up its edge over China by selling advanced AI chips to its rival.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you think about the incredible national security implications of building models that are essentially cognition, that are essentially intelligence,\u201d Amodei said. \u201cIt\u2019s like selling nuclear weapons to North Korea.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was almost a year ago that Chinese large-language model DeepSeek spooked the industry \u2013 and the western world more broadly \u2013 with a new model that performed similarly to leading models like OpenAI\u2019s ChatGPT on some metrics at a fraction of the cost.<\/p>\n
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It drove a rout of nearly $1 trillion in US and European technology stocks and \u2013 temporarily \u2013 wiped out hundreds of billions of dollars from Nvidia\u2019s market value. The technology has yet to meaningfully supplant its American rivals outside of China, but it was quite the wake-up call.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey may be only six months behind, not one or two years behind, the frontier. That\u2019s what DeepSeek showed,\u201d Google DeepMind chief Demis Hassabis said. \u201cBut they have yet to show they can innovate beyond the frontier.\u201d<\/p>\n
In this tech race between the US and China, Europe is falling behind. Microsoft Corp.\u2019s Satya Nadella said the continent needs a change in mindset.<\/p>\n
In his view, Europe is too focused on regulation and not enough on encouraging home-grown tech.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re only going to be competitive if the products coming out of Europe are globally competitive,\u201d he said. Europe has led in privacy and in safety around AI, Nadella added, \u201cbut you also have to complement it by building locally and thinking globally.\u201d<\/p>\n
Europe is losing out as many of its most promising companies get absorbed by larger tech companies abroad. While governments have been marshaling resources to build out data centers and deploy AI, the scale is significantly smaller than the US and Asia.<\/p>\n
France\u2019s Mistral AI is Europe\u2019s leading AI startup. But valued at \u20ac11.7 billion ($13.7 billion) in a funding round last year, it\u2019s a minnow compared with OpenAI, valued at north of $500 billion.<\/p>\n
Eric Schmidt, the former Google CEO and a tech investor, said that Europe must ramp up investment in open source AI or it will be left with few options but to rely on China. US companies are moving toward a \u201cclosed source\u201d AI.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnless Europe is willing to spend lots of money for European models, Europe will end up using the Chinese models,\u201d Schmidt said. \u201cIt\u2019s probably not a good outcome for Europe.\u201d<\/p>\n
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While economies and companies are working out how to safely integrate AI without losing their edge, the technology continues to become more powerful.<\/p>\n
For businesses thinking about adopting it, Whittaker said executives need to ask tough questions about what they need and what will work for them. She says there\u2019s sometimes an \u201cintimidation factor\u201d at play when it comes to the tech.<\/p>\n
\u201cAsk the questions, and ask the questions selfishly in relation to what your business actually needs,\u201d she said. \u201cGet as specific as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n
The technology is also advancing in ways that will force governments to reconsider how they structure their economies and deploy resources.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe could have this very unusual combination of very fast GDP growth and high unemployment or at least underemployment or a lot of low wage jobs, high inequality. I don\u2019t think that\u2019s a macroeconomic combination we\u2019ve ever seen before,\u201d Amodei said. \u201cThat\u2019s really going to be a problem we need to solve.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hassabis said he\u2019d like to see the world\u2019s best minds collaborate in a scientific way \u2014 combining philosophers, social scientists, economists and technologists, to work out how best to deploy the technology.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnfortunately it kind of needs international collaboration.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a9 2026 Bloomberg<\/p>\n
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