AI influencing ties between China and US

As a core technology of the "Fourth Industrial Revolution", artificial intelligence (AI) has been playing a significant role in international relations. AI has altered the global political landscape by increasing power imbalances, developmental uncertainties and global inequities.

As the global hegemon, the United States has been using AI to its advantage, instead of global common good, and has adopted a multi-level, multi-actor, cross-sectoral and multidimensional geopolitical strategy. As such, China needs to leverage all its strengths to address the global political challenges and seize the opportunities created by AI.

AI exacerbates power imbalances when one country develops and uses AI to serve its own global political interests, prompting other countries to emulate it or catch up with it. As a country develops aggressive AI capabilities, it could become vulnerable in defense as other countries will imitate it. It will thus become both aggressor and defender, thereby altering the power balance. This is the paradox of investing substantial resources to accelerate the AI arms race while suffering from its adverse effects.