Shows
Azeem Azhar's Exponential ViewChina’s catching up to US AI… Here’s why it won’t matterLennart Heim, a researcher and information scientist at RAND Corporation, joins Azeem Azhar to unpack a provocative claim: China is catching up with US AI capabilities, but it doesn't matter. Timestamps: (00:00) Episode trailer (01:19) Lennart’s core thesis (03:26) Why compute matters so much (07:31) The investment split between model R&D and model execution (11:18) How test-time compute impacts costs (16:14) The geopolitics of compute (21:32) Why does the U.S have more compute capacity than China? (25:01) The trade-off between economic needs and national-security needs (31:54) How technolog...2025-05-1449 min
Exponential View by Azeem Azhar🔮 China, the US & the geopolitics of AI computeWhat happens when the power to shape AI’s future lies not in the smartest model—but in who controls the compute?This week, I spoke with Lennart Heim, researcher at RAND and advisor to Epoch AI, to unpack the geopolitics of compute: why sheer model capability is no longer the only game in town, and how control over compute may define who leads in AI.We discussed:* Why China matching US models doesn’t mean it’s winning the AI race.* The staggering scale of infrastructure: 100,000+ GPUs, billions in hardware, and spir...2025-05-0955 min