America vs. China: Who Wins AI?

Welcome back apprentices! 👋

Imagine two neighbors building rocket ships in their garages. 

One’s welding in cowboy boots, shouting “No rules!” The other’s inviting the entire neighborhood to help and take notes.

Both think they’re heading to the moon — but they’re launching in very different directions.

Curious who’s winning the space race of AI? Scroll on.

In today's email

• 🇺🇸 U.S. goes full throttle on AI with fewer rules.

• 🇨🇳 China pitches teamwork, not tech dominance.

• 🌍 Two AI visions, one global showdown.

• 🧠 Learn how this shapes the tools you’ll use.

• + New AI Tool

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Quick News 

🧑‍🏫 ChatGPT Now Assigns Homework — Sort Of. OpenAI just launched Study Mode in ChatGPT, a new feature that ditches the shortcut answers and starts asking students follow-up questions instead. It nudges users to explain their thinking and might even refuse to help unless they show some effort. It’s like ChatGPT got a minor in “tough love education.” Students can still turn it off — for now — but schools may soon get more control.

 🚀 GPT-5 Might Be Smarter Than You (Altman’s Words, Not Ours). OpenAI is reportedly dropping GPT-5 this August, and CEO Sam Altman says it instantly solved problems that made him feel “useless.” The new model combines GPT-4o’s language skills with next-gen reasoning, so no more juggling models for different tasks. Oh — and a long-awaited open-weight model may finally land this July, assuming it clears safety testing.

🧪 AI Just Built a Research Lab Without You. Stanford and the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub created a “virtual lab” where AI scientists design, argue, and test biomedical discoveries—faster than any human team could. In one run, the agents designed 92 COVID-fighting nanobodies in days, with real-world tests confirming two hits. Human input? Just 1%—the bots even requested AlphaFold on their own.

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U.S. & China 
The U.S. and China Just Dropped Their AI Gameplans

Call it a Cold War with cloud credits. In the span of a few days, both the U.S. and China unveiled sweeping national AI strategies — each claiming to set the tone for global AI leadership. But while America’s AI Action Plan is all about speed, deregulation, and good ol’ infrastructure, China’s approach leans heavy on cooperation, open data, and inviting the rest of the world to the table. 

One is shouting “Build, Baby, Build!” while the other is saying “Let’s all build together.” It’s a fascinating — and slightly chaotic — glimpse into how these two AI superpowers are defining their roles in what may be the most important tech race of the century.

Key Points

• 🇺🇸 America’s Plan: A 90-point checklist for AI supremacy
  From repealing AI-related regulations to launching military-grade data centers, the U.S. strategy spans innovation, infrastructure, and international posture. It's a “go fast and break nothing (we like)” agenda.

  
  

• 🏗️ “Build, Baby, Build” is official policy language now
  The plan literally uses that phrase. Expect streamlined permitting, grid overhauls, and massive investments in semiconductor fabs and “AI-ready” energy infrastructure.

  
  

• 📉 Goodbye, red tape
  The Trump administration’s action plan dismantles large parts of Biden-era AI regulation — including bias audits, safety checks, and equity standards. The message? Let the market (and maybe the Pentagon) decide.
  
  

• 📚 AI, but make it patriotic
  New rules will block federal contracts with developers whose models exhibit “ideological bias.” Government models must reflect “objective truth,” a term that, notably, remains undefined.
  
  

• 🔓 Open-source — but selectively so
  The U.S. touts open-weight models as pro-innovation and geopolitically strategic, yet wants those models aligned with “American values.” So: open, but with conditions.
  
  

• 👷 Workforce gets a boost (sort of)
  New training programs, AI education in high schools, and tax breaks for AI upskilling are included — but critics say the funding trails the rhetoric by several billion dollars.
  
  

• 🤝 Meanwhile in Shanghai…
  At the World AI Conference, China announced a global AI collaboration initiative, focusing on open data sharing, joint R&D, and digital infrastructure for developing nations.
  
  

• 🌐 China’s tone: Cooperative, inclusive, strategically generous
  Premier Li Qiang proposed a UN-affiliated AI governance framework and warned against AI becoming an “exclusive game” dominated by a few nations or Big Tech firms.
  
  

• 🧮 China's not just talking soft power — it’s investing in it
  China’s offering AI literacy training, free infrastructure help, and open-access tools to countries that might otherwise be left behind by the Western model. It’s global outreach with compute credits.
  
  

• 🤔 Timing isn’t a coincidence
  China’s announcement came just days after the U.S. plan dropped. It’s not just policy — it’s PR, strategy, and soft-power jousting in real time.

U.S. vs. China — Same Goal, Different Game

The Bigger Picture

This isn’t just an AI arms race. It’s a divergence of AI ideologies. 

The U.S. is betting on speed, private-sector dominance, and tech-patriotism. China’s betting on long-term alliances, multilateral governance, and a shared tech commons. Both believe they’re building the future. The difference is who they want building it with them — and under whose rules.

As AI reshapes geopolitics, these two blueprints are more than domestic policy — they’re offers to the rest of the world. 

America is saying “Join the winners.” 

China is saying “Let’s win together.” 

One builds walls, the other builds bridges. And the rest of the world is deciding which one to walk across.

And What’s the Deal for You?

This isn’t just international chess for policy nerds. These blueprints shape the tools you’ll use to work, learn, create, and communicate.
If you're in the U.S., expect faster AI deployment with fewer guardrails and more culture war. If you're in a developing nation, China’s strategy might offer compute, tools, and training — without a Silicon Valley price tag.

And if you're building AI? These policies may quietly determine your funding, your market, your export path — and what kinds of "values" your model needs to reflect.

Next time an AI app says “we value your privacy,” “respect all perspectives,” or “align with your values,” ask: whose values, exactly? 

The model might be answering to more flags than you think.

Help Your Friends Level Up! 🔥

Hey, you didn’t get all this info for nothing — share it! If you know someone who’s diving into AI, help them stay in the loop with this week’s updates.

Sharing is a win-win! Send this to a friend who’s all about tech, and you’ll win a little surprise 👀

Even Quicker News 

🧠 Zuck’s AI Wants to Know Your Goals, Not Steal Your Job. Meta’s going “personal superintelligence” with AI you wear — like smart glasses — and may ditch open models due to safety fears. Yes, it’s getting that smart.

📺 YouTube’s AI Now Skips to the Good Stuff on Your TV. “Jump Ahead” is expanding to smart TVs, letting you skip to the most-watched parts of videos with one tap of the remote. Attention spans, rejoice.

🧍‍♀️ Vogue Just Ran an AI Model — and Barely Told You. A new Guess ad in Vogue stars a hyper-real AI model, with the disclosure barely visible. Critics say it’s a slippery slope for diversity, jobs, and body image.

Today’s Toolbox

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🧪 Test the Prompt

A playground for your imagination (and low-key prompt skills).

Each send, we give you a customizable DALL·E prompt inspired by a real-world use case — something that could help you in your business or job if you wanted to use it that way. But it’s also just a fun creative experiment.

You tweak it, run it, and send us your favorite. We pick one winner to feature in the next issue.

Bonus: you’re secretly getting better at prompt design. 🤫

👑 The winner is…

Last week, we challenged you to test GPT-4o’s visual generation skills with this prompt.

Here’s the WINNER:

Congrats to Lisa for this creation!🥳

Want to be featured next? Keep those generations coming!

🎨 Prompt: The Archive of Unfinished Inventions

Design a colossal, ultra-modern structure built to store every unfinished invention ever imagined. The building spirals upward like a twisted helix, with its walls made from [translucent futuristic material] that glow faintly with pulsing idea-fragments. Suspended in midair around it are holographic blueprints shaped like [symbol of potential or progress], slowly rotating in orbit. A beam of archived knowledge shoots upward into the sky.
Style: cinematic sci-fi megastructure, glowing transparent layers, volumetric lighting, atmospheric sci-tech realism.

We’ll be featuring the best generations in our next edition!

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