Billionaire Vinod Khosla believes that the United States must win an artificial-intelligence arms race with China to preserve liberal values. Khosla, a self-described tech-optimist, described the battle between the two countries during Forbes’Iconoclast Summit.
“We are in a clear techno-economic battle with China. Whoever wins will have a huge economic influence and influence on policy and political,” said Khosla Ventures founder. “I personally don’t want Chinese ideology to prevail. President Xi is clearly of the opinion that their ideology is superior. “I happen to value liberals values more.”
He said that the United States has a creative and entrepreneurial DNA but that it cannot become complacent. Khosla said, “We should do all we can to increase our pace and slow down the Chinese.”
Khosla’s wealth, estimated by Forbes at $7.5 billion, was not held back in his presentation. He made no apologies to the 1,000 attendees of the third annual Iconoclast Summit. About 500 people attended the event in person on Wall Street. Khosla, who addressed the 2024 U.S. elections, criticized former president Donald Trump, earning some light applause in the audience.
Would you want your children’s values to be the same as Trump’s? Khosla asked. “We should have a values-driven culture, and he’s basically ruined it.”
Kholsa is a cofounder of Sun Microsystems, and a former tech specialist with venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins. He has achieved success through long-term strategies. Early investments included stakes at tech giants Microsoft and Google. He has a stake, in the artificial intelligence (AI), of ChatGPT creator, OpenAI.
Khosla believes that AI will provide cheap and accessible specialty services for everyone in the next 15 years. He envisions a world in which healthcare and tutoring are available with just a few mobile phone taps. He says that there could be three doctors on the planet for everyone, because the doctor is an AI doctor.
Kholsa believes that these developments will lead to an explosion of productivity and economic growth for the United States. He believes that this will increase corporate profit margins, and allow revenues to grow faster than employee numbers. This will also mean the way we measure our success today will not hold.
Khosla said, “It is already beginning to be true. My iPhone has more computing power than a computer that has been trained. But GDP in computing actually hasn’t gone up with the amount computing.” “We’ll need new metrics to measure productivity across the board.”
Khosla says that while artificial intelligence offers great opportunities, it also poses risks, and it is important to mitigate these risks through sensible regulation.
Khosla said that “any powerful technology, be it nuclear, AI, biotechnology, or biotechnology, has benefits, costs, and risks.” “We must balance the risks and benefits as a society.” There are those who want no development, and others who want the Wild West. I don’t believe either of these is a good solution. “A balanced approach to risk is important.”