China’s AI Rollout Is Messier Than It Looks

A top-down tech revolution is harder to manage than a bottom-up one.

Illustration by Adam Maida September 19, 2026, 10:40 AM ET Share Save Anxiety about AI in the United States appears to be getting worse. Prosaic concerns about machines disrupting industries, stealing jobs, and compromising schoolwork are giving way to more harrowing fears about the end of humanity.

Even after top AI executives in the U.S. called for slowing down the breakneck pace of development, President Trump dismissed these safety concerns as a “hoax” that would hand China an advantage in the race for AI supremacy.