There is no AI race

The Chinese have this great principle: “Seek truth from facts” (实事求是). It’s commonly associated with the Communist Party - because it’s indeed a key slogan of theirs - but, as is often the case in China, it’s just a modern usage of a much older idiom, first recorded in the Book of Han (111 CE).

What does it mean? Essentially, it’s an anti-ideology principle: rather than starting with a doctrine and looking at facts through its lens, you should go the other way round - “truth” is extracted from the world as it is. It’s basically an ode to empirical pragmatism.

“Seeking truth from facts” is precisely what’s missing in the conversation on AI, which is stunningly doctrinal and ideological: apocalyptic doomers on one end, deluded techno-utopians on the other, all of it made worse by the great-power framing of the so-called “AI race.” Everyone is starting with the conclusion - be it “China bad, so they must lose the AI race,” or “AGI will kill us all,” or “AGI will herald a new era of abundance” - and working backwards to find facts that fit.