In an opinion essay, Steve Forbes argues the strategic contest over artificial intelligence is emerging as a de facto cold war that will shape global standards and power. He contends Beijing is leveraging cheap energy, state subsidies and exportable “open-weight” AI models to build influence by enabling countries to run sovereign AI stacks domestically. By contrast, leading U.S. firms rely on proprietary systems, risking a bifurcated market that could tilt toward Chinese architectures. Forbes warns Chinese models may encode censorship and security risks, citing propaganda alignment and jailbreak vulnerabilities, and calls for U.S. leadership in open-weight AI rooted in market principles. He advocates light-touch, harmonized regulation, expanded domestic energy and semiconductor capacity, and integrating AI into national security. The stakes, he writes, are who sets the rules—and the values embedded in tomorrow’s digital infrastructure.
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