Can the development of AI be slowed down? Technically, sure. Will it be slowed down? Probably not. Any decision rests with around a dozen individuals in two countries. There are perhaps 5 entrepreneurs each in the US and China pushing the boundaries of AI. Three of them - Anthropic's Dario Amodei, OpenAI's Sam Altman and xAI's Elon Musk - have flagged an existential risk to humanity from unregulated AI and urged a slowdown.
There are only two political leaders, highly flappable Donald Trump and unflappable Xi Jinping, who have the power to press pause. Trump has already deemed safety risks a hoax. But the matter seems serious enough for a US-China discussion on the sidelines of the 3-day Trump-Xi summit in Washington that starts today. In the end, politics, economics and circumstances may determine the outcome more than technology itself.
