Beijing and Washington fight. But AI innovators from Silicon Valley to Hong Kong are trying to work together.
Dear friends,
At a recent AI hackathon in Hong Kong, I found myself in a space that felt disconnected from the persistent headlines surrounding US-China tech decoupling.
The concentrated energy and collaborative spirit of these builders stood out under the looming tensions of national security and technological competition.
Here I met a 16-year-old self-taught coder who told me how passion powered his self-learning. "Passion is very powerful. When you have passion for something, you can literally do anything just to learn that skill."
The student from Hong Kong was busy talking to AI builders and tech geeks from around the world at the event, eagerly anticipating his summer internship at an AI company.
It was a sharp reminder that while the loudest voices on the world stage are busy drawing lines, international collaborations like these are taking place to build a shared global future.
When I asked about the fallout from the conflict between Anthropic and the Pentagon over the military use of the Claude AI model, an AI expert from Silicon Valley said the impact was overblown.
“I am not going to say that (geo)politics does not play any role in this, but the winners are not going to be determined by that. Anthropic’s valuation has more than tripled since this has happened and they are doing totally fine despite those types of challenges,” he said.
In February, US President Donald Trump directed federal agencies to stop using technology developed by Anthropic and Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth designated Anthropic a "supply chain risk to national security".
In fact, a May report by the US Congressional Research Service offered an uncertain view on the potential financial impact on Anthropic.
On one hand, direct government contracts are minor compared to Anthropic's commercial revenue; on the other, “if Anthropic loses a significant share of its revenue or funding from investors, it might have difficulty continuing to develop its AI models, potentially affecting its ability to compete and innovate”.
In the conversations I had with industry leaders, researchers and startup founders throughout the event, their focus was on trying to build AI applications that will benefit the world.
They also said that the "winner-take-all" mentality, or the idea that one country must defeat the other in AI dominance, should not be adopted for AI development.
The rise of AI is not a finite resource where one country’s gain is the other’s loss; it is a technology that expands the global economy.
When engineers on both sides of the Pacific master these tools, the entire size of the "pie" – productivity, global economic growth and scientific advancement – increases for everyone.
As I left the AI summit, a sense of quiet optimism struck me.
The most interesting AI breakthroughs being discussed were those being built by people who saw themselves as part of a global community.
For the engineers and dreamers I met, their mission remains simple: work together, build better and ignore the noise.
Stay tuned for our full article featuring interviews with multiple AI builders and innovators.
Best wishes,
Holly
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