China-US AI Race Heats Up Day After BRICS: What's India's Stand?

Jagran Bureau, New Delhi: A day after the conclusion of the BRICS summit in India, artificial intelligence (AI) appears to be emerging as a new arena for global power dynamics. President Xi Jinping proposed a China-led open-source AI ecosystem for member countries, while President Donald Trump asserted that the United States must stay ahead of China in this race.

President Trump's statement came amid a debate over safety and regulatory concerns around AI. He spoke a day after Anthropic chief executive Dario Amodei pitched for putting the brake on the pace of AI development so that safety measures could catch up. His remarks drew backing from Elon Musk and OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman.

However, the US President has put the safety concerns at the back seat to emphasise AI's geopolitical significance. Speaking to media during his weekend trip to Ireland, Trump said, "We can put guardrails, we can do this and that, but I think you have a lot of negative forces that are bringing it up that ... shouldn't be bringing it up, and they're bringing up things that won't happen."

He added, "But whoever wins with AI wins." Later, he added that the US was ahead of China in AI and "frankly, I want to keep it that way because whoever wins AI wins".

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The latest debate in the US comes after the last meeting of the Pax Silica organisation, led by the US, was held in June 2026. 34 countries signed the joint statement issued by it. However, since then, contradictions have emerged within the US itself regarding the progress of AI.

Trump administration has time and again talked about prioritising American interests in the use of AI tech by US companies

On the other hand, China is making significant strides in the sector. Just two months ago, Beijing formed the World AI Cooperation Organisation with 29 countries and has now proposed it to BRICS members and partners.

Beijing plans to emerge as a leader in the Global South by supporting large language models (LLMs) like those of OpenAI and Anthropic as a cost-effective alternative.

The plan is clearly to disrupt the growth of the US giants, and the US itself, making way for establishing Beijing as the global leader in AI.

Moreover, China is focusing on the development of open-source models while the US giants are pursuing a more closed, frontier model.

The race to lead AI development and innovations has already started between the two countries. The economic and trade rivalry has now widened to AI, with fruits and ramifications both for the rest of the countries.

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India keeping an eye

India is also recognising this rivalry between the US and China. The weaponisation of critical minerals flagged by PM Narendra Modi was not the only aspect of his closing remarks at the BRICS session. He had also raised concern over the weaponisation of technology. He had said, "weaponising technology and critical minerals could hinder shared progress".

The statement was indicative of India's policy as it was an apparent message to both China and the US that AI must not become a tool of establishing dominance, but for the betterment of the world so that poor and developing countries (the Global South) should also have access to the newly emerged technology.

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