U.S. to tell partners they must pick sides in AI race with China: Reuters

NEW: US to tell allies they must pick sides in the AI race with China, according to a draft State Department letter sent to the 35 signatories of its 'AI Opportunity Statement', Reuters reports.

America is about to tell 35 countries to pick a side in the AI race.

Reuters has seen a draft State Department letter going to every signatory of June's AI Opportunity Statement, and the message is blunt. Stay in Washington's Pax Silica coalition, or sign up with Beijing, but you don't get both. The actual line in the letter is a keeper. To be part of everything is to be part of nothing.

The country that triggered this is Kazakhstan. It sits on critical minerals everyone wants, and it joined the American framework and Xi Jinping's rival AI organization, which he launched in July. Washington noticed, and here we are.

China's embassy says this politicizes technology and serves no one. But look at what the US is really doing. Chinese open-weight models are closing the gap fast, and Washington's answer is to starve Beijing of partners, minerals and chips before the race gets any closer. The Cold War had missiles. This one has model weights, and the bloc lines are being drawn in a letter nobody's even sent yet.

This is Sara White, reporting for HIT.

Source Read the original reporting at cnbc.com