Simon Goldstein (The U Hong Kong U Hong Kong) and Peter Salib (U Houston Law Center) have posted “Collaboration at the Brink: International Law for the AI Arms Race” on SSRN. Here is the abstract:
The US and China are locked in a high stakes race to control the future of AI. This Essay begins by arguing that an AI race is irrational, posing serious risks to both countries. The Essay then critiques existing proposals for avoiding such a race. The existing proposals are too indexed on the international nonproliferation and disarmament agreements that worked for the last arms race-for nuclear supremacy. AI technology is quite different from nuclear technology in ways that make nonproliferation unstable.
The Essay then defends an alternative approach, backed by international law, in which the US and China would collaborate to develop powerful, safe AIs. The centerpiece of our proposal is the formation of a joint AI lab that would combine the best US and Chinese AI talent, supercharged by US and Chinese national investment. We argue that, compared to either an AI race or a nonproliferation equilibrium, the joint lab would be both a safer and a faster route to AI development. For these reasons, both AI safety advocates and AI accelerationists should endorse the joint lab approach.