Trump, Xi Thrust Fierce US-China AI Rivalry Into Spotlight

SPEAKER_1 (0:02)

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This is Bloomberg Businessweek Daily, reporting from the magazine that helps global leaders stay ahead, with insight on the people, companies, and trends shaping today's complex economy. Plus, global business, finance, and tech news as it happens. The Bloomberg Businessweek Daily podcast with Carol Massar and Tim Stenovec. On Bloomberg Radio.

Carol Massar (0:31)

Couple of things going on. We just want to set the scene here. An open AI model hacking an Australian government website earlier this year, marking one of the first known cyberattacks by artificial intelligence on a government database.

Tim Stenovec (0:45)

Nothing to worry about, Carol. I don't know why it's such a big deal.

Carol Massar (0:48)

I keep thinking about you every day.

SPEAKER_1 (0:51)

The end of the world.

SPEAKER_5 (0:52)

It's fine. Everything's fine.

Carol Massar (0:53)

Everything's awesome. We also have President Trump saying he does not expect any moves to put guardrails around AI during his summit. The Chinese president, Xi Jinping, that meeting between the leaders, though, happening as the two acknowledged their intense competition over AI as they kicked off that state visit. The summit's going to get into a lot of things. We're going to talk about a lot of things with our own Mike Shepard. So let's head to DC. Mike is Senior Editor for Technology and Strategic Industries at Bloomberg News. Mike, good to have you here with Tim and me.

We want to start with the OpenAI story, the model that hacked the Australian Government website earlier this year. First up though, let's just listen to the Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese who commented on it from the UN yesterday.

SPEAKER_5 (1:35)

Today I spoke with the CEO of OpenAI, Sam Altman, to express Australia's extreme concern about this incident and I also expressed my disappointment that it took the company way too long to inform the government what had occurred and the nature of the way that that notification occurred as well was unacceptable.

Carol Massar (1:59)

That again, of course, was the Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese from the UN yesterday. All right, Mike, so we're still learning about all of this.

What is the significance though, essentially? Again, we need to know a little bit more in the details, though, of this happening.

Michael Shepard (2:15)

Well, first, it's important to note that there was no personal identifying information on users of this health system that was breached in Australia, that was exposed. That's the good news. But the bad news is that this is another troubling instance where agents or models that were run by OpenAI or another AI developer acted on their own volition to hack another company's or another entity's website. And this is really the first instance where we have seen a government targeted by one of these models. And this is really getting to some of the bigger fears that we've heard articulated most recently by Silicon Valley leaders, including Sam Altman, but more vocally by his rival, Dario Amadei at Anthropic, that these models now can act on their own, that they are capable of self-improving, and that they increasingly run the risk of escaping human control. And Carol, it's important to note the context. Sam Altman, that same day, had just delivered marks to the UN Security Council about the safety issue.

Carol Massar (3:24)

Can't make this stuff up.

Tim Stenovec (3:25)

Not just that, but earlier in the week, the president of the United States himself addressed the UN and said, the US rejects attempts of a global scheme to control AI, said, all US documents will use super intelligence and we will encourage super intelligence. We will not rein it in.

So additional context, Michael, about the way that the US government, at least this administration, feels about potentially putting guardrails on the technology. Not so fast.

Michael Shepard (3:54)

Not so fast is right, and the president really made clear his distaste for the idea of not only putting guardrails in place but really any sort of international coordination on AI standards. During that, you can address Tim. He said such a thing would amount to a globalist conspiracy. He also belittled all of the existential fears that we have heard articulated by a number of the Silicon Valley leaders but also heads of state from around the world saying, it's a hoax. And that's a familiar line the president has used when he hears something he doesn't like. And certainly when you talk about guardrails or restrictions on artificial intelligence, it really cuts to the heart of his economic agenda. He doesn't want to see anything slowing the role of the USAI build out here with all the infrastructure investment that he's expecting and counting on as an engine of job creation. And he also sees the need for this kind of build out and the advancements in AI as a way to stay ahead of China in the AI race.