The global battle for AI, revisited
Inside the geopolitical fight to control artificial intelligence that has placed national security and economic growth above anything else.
IT'S MONDAY, AND THIS IS DIGITAL POLITICS. I'm Mark Scott, and many of you (I hope) are on vacation. A lot has happened so far in 2026. With the summer lull upon us, this week's edition is updating a piece that I wrote for POLITICO in 2024 about the global race to control artificial intelligence.
It's not a like-for-like comparison. Back then, I was a tech reporter. Now, I'm a think tanker (and newsletter writer.) But the underlying question — about who will control the emerging technology for years to come — has not changed.
If anything, it's become even more complex.
Let's get started: