A former policy lead at Google DeepMind, Verity Harding, has warned that treating the development of artificial intelligence as a nationalistic conflict could trigger worldwide catastrophe. In a recent interview with WIRED, Harding explained that the industry shifted from global collaboration between 2016 and 2020 to a more volatile tone following the launch of systems like ChatGPT and escalating international conflicts. She believes comparing software development to a nuclear standoff is deeply limiting, pushing countries into a rigid division between the United States and China. Aggressive political policies, strict trade blockades on software models, and intense corporate rivalries between firms such as OpenAI and Anthropic push businesses to launch complex models before long-term safety can be verified. To break this cycle, Harding proposed a new alliance of medium-sized global powers, including the United Kingdom, Canada, France, India, Japan, and South Korea, to pool intellectual talents and economic resources for an alternative path in technological governance. She concluded that global systems are safer when nations keep communication open, warning that the ability to cooperate internationally will disappear if countries refuse to use it.