1. Chips and Chatbots

The US and China are locked in a race to dominate the world of Artificial Intelligence - who has the edge?

While the US and the USSR fought the Cold War in the second half of the 20th Century, in the first half of the 21st Century, the US now finds itself in a different kind of rivalry with a different adversary - China. But this battle for supremacy is no longer being fought out via a nuclear arms race, but instead, a desire to dominate technology.

It’s a fight being realised in research labs, universities campuses, and the offices of cutting-edge start-ups - watched-over by leaders of some of the world’s richest companies, and the highest level of government.

In this series, Misha Glenny explores some of the key areas of this rivalry - from AI to robotics to satellites and explains how it's going to impact all our lives. It’s a global contest which is consuming vast resources, both physical and intellectual, and costing trillions of dollars as the modern-day super powers race to control the world.

In episode one, Misha looks at the race to control what many see as the definitive technology of our age: Artificial Intelligence.

GUESTS:

Rob Muggah, co-founder of the Igarape Institute

Parmy Olson, journalist and author of Supremacy: AI, ChatGpt and The Race that Will Change the World.

Karen Hao, journalist and author of Empire of AI

Stephen Witt, journalist and author of The Thinking Machine

Selena Xu, researcher who works on China AI policy in the office of former Google boss Eric Schmidt

Presenter: Misha Glenny
Producer: Ben Carter
Editor: Richard Fenton-Smith
Studio mix: James Beard
Production co-ordinator: Brenda Brown

Archive:

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