The Scramble for AI

The latest issue of Foreign Policy—“The Scramble for AI”—is our attempt to understand how this new technology is shaping geopolitics. In the lead essay, Paul Scharre likens the current race for supremacy in AI to the nuclear race several decades ago. Now as then, competition will likely mean a sprint to secure the materials that go into computing hardware. It will also create a world of haves and have-nots. Scharre lays out a strategy for winning—and regulating—this race.

Will the United States stay ahead of China on AI? That might be the wrong question, according to two top scholars at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar and Matt Sheehan. Policy wonks should instead be asking how the United States can reduce the likelihood of catastrophic AI-related accidents in interactions with China.?

What about warfare? Retired Gen. Stanley McChrystal, who led U.S. forces in Afghanistan, pairs up with AI expert Anshu Roy to describe how unbelievable amounts of data points are now being fed into machines to predict battlefield outcomes. This isn’t just hypothetical. Their systems are already in use. The question is how to make sure AI is used in war planning the right way and by the right actors.?

Think you can tell the difference between an essay written by a machine and one by a smart human student? There’s only one way to find out. Our analysis will reveal the machine’s tells—until the next version of GPT, of course.—Ravi Agrawal, FP editor in chief

New and Noteworthy

• HERO Season 4: In partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the latest series of The Hidden Economics of Remarkable Women focuses on one theme: the role of male allies. Host Reena Ninan and reporters across Africa visit religious leaders in Kenya, interview a former politician in Lesotho, and talk to male allies changing men’s attitudes toward gender-based violence in South Africa, among others. Listen to the first episode of Season 4 on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.?
• It’s Not a Barbie World: Barbie, the most famous doll in the world, symbol of American girlhood, and now the star of a feature film, carries with her, along with many accessories, a complicated origin story. Azadeh Moaveni delves into Barbie’s history and her evolution as a symbol of beauty and femininity—and why she never quite made it abroad in the same way she did at home.?
• Wardrobe Diplomacy: In Netflix’s The Diplomat, Keri Russell plays a U.S. ambassador in London. The show highlights the potential impact of fashion in shaping perceptions and cultivating soft power, Leigh Giangreco writes.

FP Live

Subscriber Exclusive: Is America Making a Bad Bet on India?

June 21, 2023 | 11 a.m. EDT | On-Demand

For decades, the U.S. foreign-policy establishment has assumed that India could serve as a partner as the United States jostles with China for power in the Indo-Pacific region. But Ashley J. Tellis, a longtime watcher of U.S.-India relations, says Washington’s expectations of New Delhi are misplaced. Send in your questions for an in-depth discussion with Tellis ahead of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the White House on Thursday. Submit your questions here.?

What AI Means for Global Power

June 28, 2023 | 11 a.m. EDT

Who will win the AI race? What does it mean for critical minerals and mining? How will it impact global trade, sanctions, and great-power competition? Join FP’s Ravi Agrawal in conversation with Paul Scharre, the author of Four Battlegrounds: Power in the Age of Artificial Intelligence, to discuss his lead essay in FP’s Summer 2023 print issue, “The Scramble for AI.” Register here.

Exercise Your Mind

The lower house of Japan’s parliament passed a bill last Tuesday concerning the country’s LGBTQ+ population. What does the bill do?

1. Legalizes same-sex marriage
2. Guarantees equal rights under the constitution
3. Promotes understanding of LGBTQ+ issues
4. Makes homosexuality illegal

You can find the answer to this question at the end of this email. Click here to take the rest of our weekly news quiz.

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• Ravi Reports: FP’s Ravi Agrawal discussed U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s delayed visit to China on MSNBC. Plus, he was featured on India Today, where he explained the significance of Modi’s visit to the United States.?
• The IRA (and the Fed) Debate: Is the Inflation Reduction Act a game-changing new industrial policy? Get FP columnist Adam Tooze’s take in the latest edition of Chartbook.
• Tension Beyond the Strait: Join FP and the Wilfried Martens Centre for European Studies as we dive into the debate on U.S. economic pressure tactics against China, Europe’s intertwined interests, and the impact of French President Emmanuel Macron’s “sovereign Europe” stance on trans-Atlantic alliances. Register here. June 21, 2023 | Virtual?

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Answer: 3.) Promotes understanding of LGBTQ+ issues. Asian countries are slowly beginning to make space for their LGBTQ+ citizens. Nepal is the latest to consider legalizing same-sex marriage, Bibek Bhandari writes.