Core Ideas
Thomas Friedman's concept of "co-opetition" — simultaneous cooperation and competition — describes the US-China relationship more accurately than simple rivalry. The US leads in frontier AI research, open-source innovation, and venture capital. China leads in AI deployment at scale, manufacturing efficiency, and state-coordinated infrastructure.
The AI Middle Way doesn't pick one over the other. It curates the best of both: US innovation in constitutional AI and safety research combined with China's speed of deployment and willingness to invest in infrastructure. The coalition provides the governance framework that channels both toward human flourishing rather than extraction.
"The question isn't which superpower to align with. It's how to extract better terms from both."