Hong Kong —

Last weekend, as the world worried about the possibility of unconstrained artificial intelligence wiping out humanity, the leaders of the United States and China articulated their visions for the era-defining technology.

They came from almost opposite sides of the spectrum.

Brushing aside the calls from AI scientists and executives from Anthropic, OpenAI and Google to slow the development, US President Donald Trump said what was most important was keeping the US in the lead against China in the intensifying AI superpower race.

“We’re leading China in AI…and frankly, I want to keep it that way, because whoever wins AI wins,” he said on Saturday.