US v China... The AI race

Americast

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Friday, 18 September 2026 - 38 minutes

We speak to a US/China tech expert who served under presidents Biden and Trump about America’s race with China to develop Artificial Intelligence. Does he agree with president Trump’s statement “whoever wins AI wins”, and what does “winning” look like? Justin, Marianna and Anthony discuss Donald Trump’s rejection of any regulation for Artificial Intelligence, and whether this is in line with public opinion in the United States.
The team also talk about Congress, and how Republicans are reacting to Donald Trump’s most outspoken comments yet on AI. Plus, could Democrats be making the issue more central to their campaigning ahead of this November’s midterm elections? It’s an issue which has also united progressive Democrat senator Bernie Sanders and former Trump adviser Steve Bannon - what was their message to voters? Our guest this week is Chris McGuire, a US-China technology expert with the Council on Foreign Relations. He’s a former senior advisor at the State Department for Trump in both his first and second terms, and previously served as Deputy Senior Director for Technology and National Security at the National Security Council from 2022 to 2024 under president Biden. HOSTS:
• Marianna Spring, BBC Social Media Investigations Correspondent
• Anthony Zurcher, North America Correspondent
• Justin Webb, Radio 4 presenterGUEST:
Chris McGuire, US-China technology expert with the Council on Foreign Relations, former senior advisor at the State Department for President Trump. Former Deputy Senior Director for Technology and National Security at the National Security Council from 2022 to 2024. GET IN TOUCH:
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• Or use #AmericastThis episode was made by Emma Close with George Dabby, Josh McMinn and Nik Sindle. The technical producer was Mike Regaard. The series producer is Purvee Pattni. The senior news editor is Sam Bonham.If you want to be notified every time we publish a new episode, please subscribe to us on BBC Sounds by hitting the subscribe button on the app.You can now listen to Americast on a smart speaker. If you want to listen, just say "Ask BBC Sounds to play Americast”. It works on most smart speakers.US Election Unspun: Sign up for Anthony’s BBC newsletter: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-68093155Americast is part of the BBC News Podcasts family of podcasts. The team that makes Americast also makes lots of other podcasts, including Newscast. If you enjoy Americast (and if you're reading this then you hopefully do), then we think that you will enjoy some of our other pods too. See links below.Newscast: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/series/p05299nl
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