The West is debating AI’s future with half the world absent

On July 13, over 200 economists and AI researchers, including 16 Nobel laureates, signed an open letter from the Stanford Digital Economy Lab. The letter warns that artificial intelligence could cause an economic transformation exceeding the Industrial Revolution in speed and scale, necessitating immediate action to establish guiding institutions. However, the article notes that four out of five signatories are from North America, with the remainder primarily from Europe, and none from China. This exclusion is highlighted as problematic because China is responsible for approximately half of all frontier AI model development and exhibits rapid AI adoption. The article argues that excluding China from discussions on this global transformation is akin to studying the Industrial Revolution without considering the nation with the most factories.