Tech race flashpoint: Huang, Musk push back on AI guard rails amid heated US-China rivalry
US tech titans including Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and Tesla’s Elon Musk are pressing global powers to curb artificial intelligence regulations, warning that strict guard rails risk suffocating innovation as the US and China compete in an intensifying technological arms race.
Speaking at a G20 meeting alongside US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, on Wednesday, Huang urged policymakers to pursue AI regulations targeting “actual and pragmatic harm” rather than “hypothetical theoretical harm”.
He argued that excessive regulation and fear could prevent countries from capturing the economic benefits of rapidly advancing AI.
“The worst outcome is that you don’t take advantage of it, that you are left behind,” the billionaire chip executive said.
Countries should create an environment relatively free of regulation in which new technologies were default legal as opposed to default illegal
The high-profile call comes as Washington moves to ease regulatory hurdles for home-grown developers, drawing sharp rebukes from Beijing, and as US executives ramp up lobbying against potential bans on open-weight AI models, framing open technology as vital to maintaining global technological leadership.