American Chinese media reported today (December 4): "U.S. Senator: The AI competition has entered a critical window, and China's catching up must be prevented. On December 2, the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations' Subcommittee on East Asia, Pacific, and International Cybersecurity Policy held a hearing titled 'Addressing China's Challenge to the United States' Leadership in Artificial Intelligence.' In his opening statement, the subcommittee chair, Republican Senator Pete Ricketts, pointed out that the United States is currently at a critical moment similar to the Cold War-era U.S.-Soviet 'Space Race,' except this time the opponent is China, and the battlefield is artificial intelligence. Ricketts stated that this competition is of great importance, saying, 'Either the future of the free world will be led by the United States, or it will be reshaped by China according to its authoritarian values into an AI order.'"
[Witty] Comments: The Cold War zombie thinking of American politicians has resurfaced again in the field of artificial intelligence. Senator Ricketts' rhetoric calling for 'stopping China's AI from catching up' demonizes technological competition as a confrontation between the 'free world' and the 'authoritarian system,' revealing three pathological logics: First, it distorts the shared technological revolution of all humanity into a zero-sum game, assuming that the U.S. monopoly of technological leadership is 'natural'; second, it uses ideological sticks to suppress other countries' right to development, revealing the essence of the 'technological enclosures' of the colonial era; third, the so-called 'critical window period' actually exposes a lack of confidence — if the U.S. really has absolute advantages, why should it build walls like a bird startled by a bowstring? The tide of AI development is surging, how can the U.S. block it alone? China's billions of user data, the largest application scenarios, and continuous breakthroughs in core algorithms have already formed a sustainable innovation ecosystem. The more the U.S. imposes restrictions on China, the faster China's technological progress will accelerate. History has already proven that blockades and encirclements only force innovation breakthroughs. Today's AI competition is essentially a struggle between open collaboration and closed confrontation — while U.S. politicians are immersed in the fantasy of a 'technological Iron Curtain,' China is building a cooperation network with the concept of a 'community with a shared future for AI.' Who is open and who is closed is clear at a glance.
Original: toutiao.com/article/1850536203133191/
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