Introduction to the U.S.-China Tech Competition

The U.S.-China tech competition is about more than tariffs. The future of the Internet is at stake. China is not just exporting hardware—it is exporting laws, standards, and authoritarian control. China is promoting its vision of what cyberspace should look like, which clashes sharply with the U.S.’s vision for a free and open Internet. To do so, China is training other governments in its authoritarian ways. It is fiercely seeking to dominate the little-known international organizations that literally set the standards for global tech, ensuring that Chinese firms have a global edge. China is also exporting its Legal Great Wall, repressive laws related to China’s national security and cybersecurity. China is attempting to enforce those laws abroad—even in the U.S. The U.S. and the private sector must act to counter China’s legal warfare—and keep China from taking over the Internet.

China’s Competing Vision for Tech and Cyberspace

The U.S.’s conception of what the Internet should look like is vastly different than China’s. The latest U.S. National Security Strategy, released in 2022, endorses the UN Norms of Responsible State Behavior in Cyberspace as the “rules of the road” for cyberspace and says the U.S. will promote them together with partner and ally nations. These “UN Cyber Norms,” were created by a UN Group of Governmental Experts and affirmed by the UN General Assembly in 2021. The 11 basic norms specify that states should not attack critical infrastructure, respond to requests for assistance by those attacked, and cooperate with other states to stop crime and terrorism, and other rules designed to keep civilians safe from cyber conflict. As the Strategy says, the Norms affirm that “human rights apply online just as they do offline.” Project 2025 goes even further than non-binding norms. Project 2025 advocates for the State Department to work with allies on a binding framework of enforceable norms that would “draw clear lines of unacceptable conduct” in cyberspace.

China’s Promotion of Cyber Sovereignty

China promotes a different future for the Internet. China advocates “cyber sovereignty,” a concept first announced by Xi Jinping in 2015. Cyber sovereignty allows states full control over Internet governance within their borders—to include censorship and surveillance. According to Adam Segal, a former senior cyber official in the Biden administration, the key goals of cyber sovereignty are tight control over domestic information, technological dominance, and influence over global cyber governance.

China’s Partnerships and Trainings

China has partnered with Russia and others to advance its vision of cyber sovereignty. China supports a Russia-led competing initiative in the UN designed to undermine the U.S.-backed Group of Governmental Experts. China also sells surveillance and censorship technology to other states and teaches them to use it. China’s National Computer Emergency Response Center (CERT) has partnerships with at least 274 other CERTs in 81 countries and territories and has signed 33 cybersecurity cooperation memoranda. These partnerships may include favorable trade and financing terms and intelligence-sharing agreements, may give China visibility into software vulnerabilities worldwide, and can provide access for China-based hackers. China has also held trainings and academies for foreign government and business officials. Data is scant, but China trained officials from at least 36 countries in 2017-2018 alone. 437 Southeast Asian government officials attended one such training at the Baise Executive Leadership Academy—on how to “guide public opinion online.”

How China Is Rewriting Global Tech Rules

China has also sought to dominate international standards-making bodies. The International Standards Organization, International Telecommunications Union, and other standards-making bodies are unknown to most—but they quietly make it possible for the world to work together. For example, the ISO ensures things like credit cards fit in ATMs, A4 paper fits in printers, and your personal data stays secure online. The ITU makes sure your phone connects internationally, your TV does not lose signal, and satellites do not crash into each other. These organizations shape everything from the screws in your furniture to the 5G signal on your phone. And they will set AI standards that will affect virtually all the tech you touch.

China’s Influence in International Standards-Making Bodies

China is trying to use international standards-making bodies to influence every technological choice you make. China’s representation in multilateral technical bodies has grown by 250% in the past 10-15 years. China now chairs or co-chairs more technical committees of the ISO than any other country. It has disproportionate representation in working groups at the ISO and ITU. ITU leadership increasingly features China-backed representatives advancing cyber sovereignty. Can you imagine a world in which the only cell phones that could make calls were made in China? China can—and it is trying to set the standards so that its own tech will dominate the future.

How the U.S. Can Stop China From Taking Over the Internet and Dominating Global Tech

The U.S. and its allies and partners must treat China’s legal warfare ("lawfare") and “normfare” as a strategic threat. They must invest in a binding legal framework to protect a free and open Internet. The U.S. must also work closely with the private sector and advocate for the interests of U.S. businesses. Private sector lawsuits against China and Chinese tech firms can challenge and weaken China’s influence over tech standards. The U.S. must also work with allies to educate countries about the risks of Chinese tech, and to provide low-cost alternatives to the repressive technologies that China is selling to the developing world.

Conclusion

Tech tariffs are just the tip of the iceberg. China is trying to rewrite the rules that shape our lives on and offline. The U.S. and the private sector must act decisively to stop China’s world-wide web of authoritarianism from ensnaring us all.

FAQs

Q: What is the main goal of China’s cyber sovereignty concept?
A: The main goal of China’s cyber sovereignty concept is to allow states full control over Internet governance within their borders, including censorship and surveillance.
Q: How is China promoting its vision of cyber sovereignty?
A: China is promoting its vision of cyber sovereignty by partnering with other countries, selling surveillance and censorship technology, and providing trainings and academies for foreign government and business officials.
Q: What is the role of international standards-making bodies in the U.S.-China tech competition?
A: International standards-making bodies, such as the ISO and ITU, play a crucial role in shaping global tech standards, and China is seeking to dominate these bodies to influence every technological choice made worldwide.
Q: How can the U.S. stop China from taking over the Internet and dominating global tech?
A: The U.S. can stop China by treating China’s legal warfare and "normfare" as a strategic threat, investing in a binding legal framework to protect a free and open Internet, and working closely with the private sector and allies to educate countries about the risks of Chinese tech and provide low-cost alternatives.

Video games have played an important role in the development of AI. Many early demonstrations of machine learning involved teaching computers to play games. Eventually, Google Deepmind’s mastery of the game Starcraft 2 was taken as proof that machines could now compete with us across many fields in which we were previously undisputed champions.

Now, games are being used as a testbed for exploring some of the most exciting new areas in AI, including autonomous agents, real-world robots and perhaps even the quest for AGI. At this year’s Game Developer’s Conference, Google’s DeepMind AI division demonstrated its research into what it calls Scalable Instructable Multiworld Agents (SIMA). The idea is to show that machines can navigate and learn inside the 3D worlds of video game environments. They can then use what they’ve learned to navigate entirely different worlds and tasks, all with their own rules, using whatever tools are available to them to solve problems.

It might sound like child’s play, but this research could dramatically impact the development of the agentic AI we’ll use in our work and personal lives. So let’s take a look at what it could mean, and whether it could even solve the ultimate AI challenge of creating machines capable of adapting to any situation, much like humans can.

Virtual Worlds

Video games provide a great environment for training AI because the variety of tasks and challenges is almost infinite. Importantly, the player usually solves these challenges using a standard set of tools, all accessed via the game controller. This corresponds well with the way AI agents tackle problems by choosing which tools to use from a pre-defined selection. Game worlds also provide safe, observable and scalable environments where the effects of subtle changes to variables or behavior can be explored at little real-world cost.

DeepMind’s SIMAs were trained across nine different video game environments, taken from popular games including No Man’s Sky, Valheim and Goat Simulator. The agents were given the ability to interact and control the games using natural language commands like “pick up the key” or “move to the blue building.” Among the standout findings, the research showed that the agents are highly effective at transferable learning—taking what they learn in one game and using it to get better at another.

This was backed up by observations that agents trained to play eight of the nine games performed better at the one game they were untrained on than specialized agents solely trained on the one game. This dynamic learning ability will be critical in a world where agents are working alongside us, helping us explore, interpret and understand messy real-world problems and situations.

Physical Robots

The development of real-world robots that carry out physical tasks has accelerated in the last decade, hand-in-hand with the evolution of AI. However, they are still generally only used by large businesses due to the high cost of training them for specialist roles. Using virtual and video game environments could dramatically lower this cost. The theory is that transferable learning will enable physical robots to use their hands, arms or whatever tools they have to tackle many physical challenges, even if they haven’t come across them before.

For example, a robot that effectively learns how to use its hands to work in a warehouse might also learn how to use them to build a house. Before it released ChatGPT, OpenAI demonstrated research in this field. Dactyl is a robotic hand, trained in virtual simulated environments, that learned how to solve a Rubik’s Cube. This was one of the first demonstrations of the potential of transferring skills learned in virtual environments to complex physical-world tasks.

More recently, Nvidia has developed its Isaac platform expressly for the purpose of training robots to “learn to learn” how to carry out real-world tasks inside virtual environments. Today, physical AI-assisted robots are put to work in warehouse roles, agriculture, healthcare, deliveries, and many other jobs. In most cases, however, these robots are still doing tasks they were specifically trained for—at enormous expense by companies with very deep pockets.

But new models of “affordable” robots are on the horizon. Tesla plans to manufacture thousands of its Optimus robots this year and assign many of them to work in its factories. And Chinese robotics developer Unitree recently unveiled a $16,000 humanoid robot that can turn its hand to many tasks. With the price of robots falling and their AI brains becoming more powerful by the day, walking, talking humanoid robots could be stepping out of science fiction into everyday reality sooner than we think.

Toward AGI?

Almost 30 years ago, machines scored their first big win over humans by defeating Gary Kasparov at Chess. Few would have predicted then that a computer would exist that could beat world champions not just at one game, but at any game. This ability to “generalize” information by taking knowledge from one task and using it to solve an entirely different one is traditionally exclusive to humans, but that could be changing.

All of this will be hugely interesting to those chasing the holy grail of AI development, artificial general intelligence (AGI). Evidence that agents like DeepMind’s SIMAs are able to transfer learning from one virtual game environment to another suggests they may be developing some of the qualities needed for AGI. It demonstrates that they are progressively building competencies that can be applied to solving future problems.

Google, along with OpenAI, Anthropic and Microsoft, have all stated that developing AGI is their eventual goal, and it’s clearly the logical endpoint of the current focus on agentic intelligence. With video games, could another part of the puzzle be in place?

Conclusion

The use of video game environments to train AI agents is a promising area of research that could have significant implications for the development of real-world robots and AGI. The ability of agents to transfer learning from one game to another and apply it to new challenges is a key step towards creating machines that can adapt to any situation. As the cost of robots continues to fall and their AI brains become more powerful, we can expect to see more humanoid robots in our daily lives, performing a variety of tasks and helping us in many ways.

FAQs

Q: What is Scalable Instructable Multiworld Agents (SIMA)?
A: SIMA is a research project by Google’s DeepMind AI division that aims to train AI agents to navigate and learn inside 3D video game environments and apply what they’ve learned to new challenges.

Q: What is the significance of transferable learning in AI agents?
A: Transferable learning allows AI agents to take what they’ve learned in one environment and apply it to new challenges, which is a key step towards creating machines that can adapt to any situation.

Q: How can virtual and video game environments be used to train physical robots?
A: Virtual and video game environments can be used to train physical robots by providing a safe, observable, and scalable environment to explore and learn from, which can lower the cost of training robots for specialist roles.

Q: What is the ultimate goal of AI development?
A: The ultimate goal of AI development is to create artificial general intelligence (AGI), which refers to a machine that can perform any intellectual task that a human can.

Q: Which companies are working towards developing AGI?
A: Google, OpenAI, Anthropic, and Microsoft are some of the companies that have stated their goal of developing AGI.

Using technology for social change, digital rights activism has become a powerful force in protecting individual privacy and promoting online freedom. With the rise of the digital age, it’s essential to recognize the importance of safeguarding personal data and ensuring that technology serves humanity, not the other way around. As we navigate the complexities of the online world, digital rights activism is crucial in empowering people to take control of their digital lives.

The State of Digital Rights Today

The current state of digital rights is complex and multifaceted, with various challenges and opportunities emerging every day. Governments, corporations, and individuals are all vying for power and control in the digital sphere, often at the expense of individual privacy and freedom. The widespread collection and misuse of personal data have become significant concerns, with many people feeling helpless against the tide of surveillance capitalism.

The Impact of Surveillance Capitalism

Surveillance capitalism, a term coined by Shoshana Zuboff, refers to the practice of collecting and exploiting personal data for profit. This has led to a loss of autonomy and agency for individuals, as their data is used to manipulate and influence their behavior. The consequences of surveillance capitalism are far-reaching, from targeted advertising to predictive policing, and it’s essential to recognize the need for a more equitable and just digital economy.

The Role of Governments and Corporations

Governments and corporations play a significant role in shaping the digital landscape, often with conflicting interests and agendas. While some governments prioritize national security and law enforcement, others focus on protecting individual rights and freedoms. Corporations, on the other hand, are driven by profit and often prioritize data collection and exploitation over user privacy and security.

Digital Rights Activism: A Growing Movement

Digital rights activism has emerged as a powerful response to the challenges of the digital age. This movement brings together individuals, organizations, and communities to advocate for online freedom, privacy, and security. Digital rights activists use various tactics, from online campaigns to offline protests, to raise awareness and push for change.

Key Issues and Campaigns

Digital rights activists focus on a range of issues, including net neutrality, data protection, and online censorship. The fight for net neutrality, for example, aims to ensure that internet service providers treat all online content equally, without discriminating or charging extra for certain types of data. The campaign for data protection seeks to establish robust safeguards for personal data, including transparency, consent, and accountability.

Success Stories and Challenges

Digital rights activism has achieved significant successes, from the passage of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in the European Union to the repeal of the Cybercrime Law in the Philippines. However, challenges persist, including the rise of authoritarianism, the proliferation of disinformation, and the exploitation of personal data by governments and corporations.

Empowering People through Digital Literacy

Digital literacy is critical in empowering people to take control of their digital lives. This includes understanding online rights and responsibilities, as well as the skills and knowledge needed to navigate the digital world safely and effectively. Digital literacy programs and initiatives aim to bridge the gap between technology and society, promoting online freedom and security for all.

Digital Skills and Knowledge

Digital skills and knowledge are essential for navigating the online world, from basic computer skills to advanced topics like encryption and online security. Digital literacy programs focus on building these skills, enabling individuals to make informed decisions about their online lives and protect themselves from cyber threats.

Community Engagement and Outreach

Community engagement and outreach are vital in promoting digital literacy and empowering people to take control of their digital lives. This includes working with marginalized communities, providing access to digital tools and resources, and fostering a culture of online responsibility and respect.

The Future of Digital Rights Activism

The future of digital rights activism is uncertain, with both opportunities and challenges on the horizon. As technology continues to evolve, new issues and concerns will emerge, requiring innovative solutions and strategies. Digital rights activists must remain vigilant, adaptable, and collaborative, working together to protect individual privacy and promote online freedom.

Emerging Trends and Technologies

Emerging trends and technologies, such as artificial intelligence, blockchain, and the Internet of Things (IoT), will shape the future of digital rights activism. These technologies offer both promises and perils, from enhanced security and efficiency to increased surveillance and control. Digital rights activists must engage with these technologies critically, ensuring that they serve humanity and promote online freedom.

Building a Global Movement

Building a global movement for digital rights activism is crucial in promoting online freedom and security for all. This requires collaboration, cooperation, and solidarity among individuals, organizations, and communities worldwide. By working together, digital rights activists can amplify their voices, share knowledge and resources, and create a more just and equitable digital world.

Conclusion

In conclusion, protecting privacy and empowering people is essential in the digital age. Digital rights activism has emerged as a powerful force in promoting online freedom, security, and literacy. By understanding the challenges and opportunities of the digital world, we can work together to create a more just and equitable online environment. As we move forward, it’s crucial to prioritize digital literacy, community engagement, and global cooperation, ensuring that technology serves humanity and promotes human rights for all.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

What is digital rights activism?

Digital rights activism refers to the movement and efforts to promote and protect individual rights and freedoms in the digital world, including online privacy, security, and freedom of expression.

Why is digital literacy important?

Digital literacy is essential in empowering people to take control of their digital lives, including understanding online rights and responsibilities, and the skills and knowledge needed to navigate the digital world safely and effectively.

How can I get involved in digital rights activism?

You can get involved in digital rights activism by joining online communities and organizations, participating in campaigns and initiatives, and promoting digital literacy and online freedom among your networks and communities.

What are some key issues in digital rights activism?

Key issues in digital rights activism include net neutrality, data protection, online censorship, and surveillance capitalism, among others.

How can I protect my online privacy and security?

You can protect your online privacy and security by using strong passwords, enabling two-factor authentication, using encryption, and being cautious when sharing personal data online.