Digital Governance
How democracies nurture the growth of artificial intelligence
How Democracies Nurture the Growth of Artificial Intelligence | Global Stage | GZERO Media
January 21, 2023
China wants order to beat the US in the race to dominate artificial intelligence. But open-ended research? No way — and that's a problem for Beijing.
"If you are in a society where there are certain things that you can't ask, you don't know what you can't ask, and the penalty for asking those things you don't know that you can't ask is very high ... it will start to limit the capabilities of researchers to explore," Azeem Azhar, founder of the Exponential View newsletter, says in a Global Stage livestream conversation hosted by GZERO in partnership with Microsoft.
Meanwhile, he adds, the US or Europe are freer societies where culture wars hurting academic freedom are the biggest threat to AI research.
What does this mean? For Azhar, democracies are ahead because "people have the freedom of thought to think and challenge in their process of research."
Watch the full Global Stage conversation: AI at the tipping point: danger to information, promise for creativity
From Your Site Articles
- The geopolitics of the chips that make your tech work ›
- China's innovation means it's winning, says investor ›
- Podcast: We have to control AI before it controls us, warns former Google CEO Eric Schmidt ›
- Be more worried about artificial intelligence ›
- Can the US stay ahead of China on AI? - GZERO Media ›
More For You
- YouTube
In this episode of ask ian, Ian Bremmer explains why Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky enters his latest White House meeting with President Trump in a stronger position than he did just a few months ago.
Most Popular
Competitive pay. 401(k) contributions upon employment and 6% company match once eligible. Up to 16 weeks of combined paid maternity and parental leave. These benefits and more inspire generations – Daidrian’s 18-year Walmart journey motivated her son Jonothan to launch his own career as a Walmart associate. Learn more.
US consumers have spent nearly $74 billion more on gasoline and diesel since the war in Iran began in February
Last week, Microsoft joined more than 100 companies to publish an open letter on the importance of open-weight AI models in expanding access to AI and giving organizations greater control over the technology they use. The paper draws parallels to the open-source software movement, positioning open-weight models as an important foundation for a broad and competitive AI ecosystem while emphasizing the need for responsible safeguards. Read the letter here.
© 2025 GZERO Media. All Rights Reserved | A Eurasia Group media company.