Epic AI Battle: China has the might to do what we can only dream of, says Eric Schmidt

Eric Schmidt, who is storied for leading Google during its period of explosive growth, opened up about the ‘epic fight’ between the US and China regarding artificial intelligence (AI) in an interview with The Washington Post. He feels both countries have the resources, talent, and the will to dominate AI development. This race holds profound implications, as advancements in AI could lead to new scientific discoveries, economic benefits, and even strategic military advantages.

“I’ll say this very directly–this is a race between the U.S. and China. Both countries have a willingness, a goal, a national policy. They have the capital, they have the energy, and they have the people at scale that almost no other country has. That fight is the epic fight,” said Former Google CEO Schmidt, who’s also the co-author of a new book, “Genesis,” that explores the opportunities and challenges of the AI revolution.

“As you know, in the US, we’ve been trying to slow China down a bit. It’s been somewhat successful but not hugely successful. And China is doubling down. They’ve recently brought out models that are analogous or similar to the best models in America, which shocked me. The competition is important, because when you get closer to general intelligence, you can build your own AI scientists. And if you add more–you have human scientists and AI scientists, you can supercharge and get there so much faster,” he added.

US Dominance

When it comes to AI innovation, US remains a global leader, with companies like OpenAI and Google spearheading advancements. American AI models, particularly in generative AI, have set benchmarks that Chinese firms are now striving to match. “We, America, actually invent this technology. We have all these AI scientists, which are just computer programs. We unleash them. We were doing pretty well,” Schmidt noted.

The US has restricted China’s access to the advanced Nvidia chips, but China has adapted by finding workarounds. Currently, most of these critical chips are manufactured in Taiwan by TSMC, using exclusive technology controlled by ASML in Europe. American policies have successfully limited China’s access to this technology, a strategic move to maintain an edge in the AI race.

“The problem that they’ve had has been lack of hardware. We have restricted the access to what are technically known as A100-level chips. This is the previous generation, or two generations of Nvidia chips. But it sure looks to us that China has found ways around those sanctions, which is not a surprise, and they’ve also learned how to do things with fewer chips, which is to their credit, and shows you how good engineers they really are,” he said.

“…these chips that we care about are all largely made in Taiwan through a company called TSMC, using technology that’s proprietary in a monopoly by a company called ASML in Europe. So, the government has made it very difficult for that technology to get to China, which was a good decision,” he added.

China’s Advantage

While US remains a global leader in AI innovation and has managed to restrict access to technology, Schmidt admitted that China’s manufacturing might could enable them to do real world things with AI that we could only dream of. “China has a lot of energy, and they seem to be willing to–they don’t seem to have any particular rules about data–human data, medical data, and so forth,” he said.

“They’re more focused on winning. They’re more centrally controlled, and this is a case where central control can help. They’re willing to spend an enormous amount of money without a particular goal. They have a tradition of very fast consumer, essentially, corporate adoption that is within their firms. And I think there’s every reason to believe that even if we win the first part of the race, China will eventually win the race, because they adopt this sort of technology more quickly in volume products,” he said.

Challenges for US

Despite its advantages, Schmidt said that the US faces several challenges such as supply chain vulnerabilities. Although the US leads in semiconductor design, it relies on global supply chains that intertwine with Chinese manufacturing. “China makes essentially all of the pieces that are necessary to make semiconductors. I’m not talking about the chips. I’m talking about the glue and the carriers and so forth,” the former Google CEO said adding that if a conflict with China is likely, it would be essential to establish separate supply chains.