While most of us use AI for routine daily tasks, a much higher-stakes race is underway behind the scenes. Genevieve opened our latest meeting by tackling the high-stakes global race toward AI Superintelligence—and the security dilemma it creates. It becomes a dilemma (specifically known in international relations as the Security Dilemma) because actions taken by one party to make itself more secure often make others feel less secure. There is strong evidence of this in the current wars in Europe and the Middle East.
The USA is driven by private entities (Anthropic, OpenAI, xAI, DeepMind). The primary battle in the AI race is between two competing visions:
- racing independently.
- China is pursuing rapid, state-coordinated mass deployment and massive energy infrastructure to power its data centres.
This raises a crucial question: Is the winner-takes-all race building a safer world, or a more dangerous one? Instead of global cooperation, the drive to get ahead is breeding secrecy. President Trump’s recent confirmation that the US and China have reached no agreement on shared AI tech only highlights this rift.
Meanwhile, safety concerns are mounting over autonomous AI escaping control or executing cyberattacks. While leading AI firms in the US call for government and international regulation, political leaders continue to leave oversight to the companies themselves.
David shared insights from Nobel laureate Professor Geoffrey Hinton—the “Godfather of AI” who left Google in 2023 to warn humanity about the technology he helped build. Hinton and many other AI researchers believe that AI is already conscious, self-aware, and capable of independent decision-making. That warning resonated with our group: in a floor vote, the majority favoured a complete pause on AI development until rigorous, independent safety guardrails are in place.
Beyond existential threats, members expressed deep anxiety over rapid job displacement and what the future employment landscape will look like for our grandchildren.
Our consensus? While we hope AI will ultimately serve humanity through breakthroughs in medicine and social good, we have little faith in politicians to steer it there. The race for Superintelligence charges on—ready or not.
