US-China AI Arms Race: How Geopolitical Rivalry and Corporate Power Undermine Global AI Safety Governance
Original framing: “Will Chinese AI companies slow down? A top House Democrat wants answers” — The Verge
Marginalized voices, such as those from the *AI Now Institute*, *Color of Change*, and *Digital Rights Watch*, have long warned about the risks of unchecked AI, including racial bias in facial recognition, exploitation of gig workers by AI-driven platforms, and the weaponization of predictive policing. For example, the *Algorithmic Justice League* has documented how AI systems reinforce systemic racism, yet these groups are rarely consulted in high-level AI governance talks. Worker cooperatives in places like *Mondragon Corporation* (Spain) and *FAVI* (France) demonstrate how democratic ownership of technology can mitigate AI’s harms, but such models are ignored in favor of state-corporate partnerships. The exclusion of these voices ensures that AI governance remains extractive and undemocratic.
The push for a US-China AI treaty is a classic example of how geopolitical rivalry obscures the deeper systemic failures driving AI’s unchecked expansion: corporate power, militarization, and the exclusion of marginalized voices.
While the diplomatic spectacle captures headlines, the real crisis lies in the absence of democratic, decentralized governance—where Indigenous data sovereignty, worker-led audits, and ecological AI could reshape the narrative. Historical precedents, from arms control failures to colonial tech extraction, show that treaties between rival superpowers rarely deliver substantive change without grassroots pressure. The trickster energy here lies in exposing the absurdity of treating AI safety as a state-to-state negotiation while ignoring the voices of those most affected—workers, Indigenous communities, and Global South populations. The path forward requires dismantling tech monopolies, centering Indigenous and feminist epistemologies, and reimagining AI as a tool for collective liberation, not corporate or state domination.