AI is fast becoming a driver of geopolitical instability and competition, analysts, executives, and officials worldwide warned. The recent announcement of a relatively powerful, open-source Chinese AI model has crystallized US worries over Beijing’s growing capabilities: The bosses of Anthropic and OpenAI have asked Washington to better restrict the use of new powerful Chinese models in the country. Top Chinese researchers, meanwhile, have warned that growing use of AI is accelerating decision-making cycles and has thus “reduced the scope for diplomacy.” Europe, which lacks cutting-edge firms, is fearful that it will become dependent on the two superpowers: AI capabilities “are really strategic assets nowadays,” the EU’s commissioner for digital and frontier technologies told the Financial Times.