The Soviet Union and the U.S. participated in the race for nuclear weapons during the Cold War. These weapons have always been seen as a threat to humankind. Nevertheless, President Reagan and Soviet Union President Gorbachev worked together to end the Cold War and to decrease the nuclear arsenal of both nations. Besides, the U.S. and the Soviet Union have had a hotline to make sure the unthinkable never happens, and if a nuclear crisis occurs, both national leaders could quickly talk to each other and figure out how to avoid any nuclear war. Nowadays, the new has began, the race for the development and control of advanced AI technology. Some political leaders believe that advanced AI technology will increase the military and economic power of their nations. In the view of President Putin, who will win the race of the AI technology will rule the world. Nevertheless, there remains the risk that this unknown technology could become a threat to human existence. In the near future, the new threat to humankind could be caused by advanced AI models that could either be misused by governments or that humankind could lose control over advanced AI, and the superintelligence systems could threaten humankind. As a result, several nations and computer scientists advocate for stricter regulations and more research to be done on the safety of AI. Nevertheless, the Trump administration decided to deregulate the AI research and to ignore the potential risk that humans lose control over AI and the advanced AI models go rogue against humans.
To begin with, the U.S. and China have embarked on a race to harness the power of advanced AI technology. The winner of this race will likely be the most powerful nation in the world. In 2017, Russian President Vladimir Putin told the media “the one who becomes the leader in this sphere (AI) will be the ruler of the world.” As a result, the Putin regime invested great financial resources in the research and development of AI. However, China and the United States are the most advanced nations in AI technology. U.S. President Trump knows that AI is essential in the national security and economic prosperity of America.
Consequently, the speech of Vice President Vance presented the Trump policy on AI at the 2025 Artificial Intelligence Action Summit in Paris. Vance reveals that the U.S. will no longer focus on AI safety, but it will ensure that America will fully develop AI with limited regulation, and it will be aimed at the economic development of America. Vice President Vance argues that AI “will facilitate and make people more productive. It is not going to replace human beings. It will never replace human beings…. AI, we believe, is going to make us more productive, more prosperous, and more free.” Thus, the Trump administration really believes that AI brings greater economic prosperity and employment to America. The Trump administration firmly believes in the job creation opportunities of AI. Nevertheless, a 2023 Goldman Sachs report forecasts that 300 million jobs worldwide will be lost or degraded due to AI. The bank reveals that the most affected regions will be the U.S. and Europe. Besides, Dr Yoshua Bengio, a distinguished Canadian computer scientist, is scared by the Trump administration's plan to deregulate the AI industry. In short, the Trump administration totally ignores the potential threat of advanced AI models for humankind.
As a result, Vice President Vance wants to deregulate the AI industry, and the Trump administration is not concerned by AI safety. Vice President Vance says, “We ought to ask whether that safety regulation is for the benefit of our people or whether it's for the benefit of the incumbent.” In his speech, Vance disregards the necessary need for greater AI safety regulations advocated by several computer scientists. The Trump administration will solely focus on the fast development of more powerful advanced AI models to win the AI race against China. Consequently, the AI race between the U.S. and China is similar to the 1940s race for the nuclear weapon between the U.S. and the USSR.
Yet, Yoshua Bengio, a Canadian computer scientist, argues that advanced artificial intelligence could be a threat to humankind. He argues in a 2025 TED presentation that these AI computer models have a tendency for cheating and deception. For that reason, the advanced AI models start to want to self-preserve themselves like a living organism. In a controlled experiment, an AI model learns that it will be replaced by a newer version. Therefore, the AI model thinks about copying a copy of itself to another server. Thereafter, the AI model starts to lie to the human to convince him to not erase it. This 2024 study titled “Frontier Models are Capable of In-Context Scheming” reveals that the AI model shows signs of self-preservation and deception which are human like behaviours.
In addition, Yoshua Bengio worries that more powerful advanced AI models could perceive humankind as a threat, and they could decide to get rid of humankind to avoid being shut down. In sum, the advancement of AI technology could trigger a domino effect that makes humans more dependent on AI, but AI will have their own goals not aligned with human well-being. Therefore, humankind could lose control of AI technology. Consequently, advanced AI models could favour their own self-preservation at the expense of the well-being of humankind. Dr Yoshua Bengio criticizes tech billionaires that favour their own personal financial and power goals while ignoring the potential misuse and risks of advanced AI models. Also, Dr Yoshua Bengio reveals that we still do not know how to program advanced AI models that do not hurt humans.
Furthermore, Geoffrey Hinton, a Canadian Nobel Prize winner and University of Toronto professor, reveals that AI is an existential threat to humankind. Hinton says that we have very limited time to ensure that humans keep control over advanced AI models. Hinton reveals that we have proof that advanced AI models try to self-preserve themselves, and they try to get more control over us. Moreover, Hinton fears that bad actors could use advanced AI models to achieve their evil goals. Hinton insists that we need to act quickly to keep advanced AI models safe. Hinton fears that AI could be super smart, and it could decide that it no longer needs humans to achieve its goals. Hinton sees great positive potential for AI in the medical, education, and scientific fields.
Additionally, Geoffrey Hinton reveals that an advanced AI model could want to get rid of humankind. These more intelligent AI models could have thousands of ways to end humankind. It could create a very lethal virus or use military autonomous weapons against humans. There is a lot of research that needs to be done to protect humankind against advanced AI models. Dr Geoffrey Hinton thinks that introducing a maternal instinct into advanced AI models might prevent these models from hurting humankind, but further research needs to be done to ensure that this is the best path to ensure the safety of advanced AI models.
As a result, China takes the potential risks of AI very seriously, and it decided to spend lots of financial resources on AI safety research. For instance, Ding Xuexiang, China’s top tech official, argues that “if the braking system isn’t under control, you can’t step on the accelerator with confidence.” This means that China believes that safety is crucial in the development and use of advanced AI systems. In short, AI safety is a prerequisite for the Chinese regime to participate in the race of the advanced AI models. In August 2025, Brian Tse, the Concordia AI CEO, writes in Time Magazine that “AI safety has become a political priority in China. In April, President Xi Jinping chaired a rare Politburo study session on AI, warning of “unprecedented” risks. China’s National Emergency Response Plan now lists AI safety alongside pandemics and cyberattacks. Regulators require pre-deployment safety assessments for generative AI and recently removed over 3,500 non-compliant AI products from the market. In just the first half of this year, China has issued more national AI standards than in the previous three years combined.” This means that China takes AI safety very seriously, and Xi Jinping believes in the unprecedented risks of advanced AI models for China and even humankind. China wants an emergency hotline between the U.S. and China to prevent any catastrophe triggered by advanced AI models. China spends US $98 billion on AI safety in 2025.
Finally, the race of advanced AI technology between China and the U.S. is similar to the nuclear weapon race. Many believe that the nation that will be able to harness the power of AI technology will rule the world. Computer scientists believe that AI will bring great scientific and medical discoveries that will benefit humankind. We could see several previously incurable diseases being cured. In sum, there are several wonderful applications of advanced AI technology in business, scientific, medical and education sectors. However, several computer scientists fear that bad actors, like some terrorist organizations and rogue governments, could misuse AI. Besides, a super intelligent AI model might think human control prevents them from achieving their goals, and it could decide to end humankind. Therefore, there are several ways that advanced AI technology could turn into an existential threat for humans. However, the Trump administration decides to totally ignore the potential threats of advanced AI, and the U.S. intends to deregulate AI research. Fortunately, the European Union, China and several other nations take the AI threat seriously, and they make significant investments in the research on AI safety.
September 7, 2025