Listen "China’s catching up to US AI… Here’s why it won’t matter"
Episode Synopsis
Lennart Heim, a researcher and information scientist at RAND Corporation, joins Azeem Azhar to unpack a provocative claim: China is catching up with US AI capabilities, but it doesn't matter. Timestamps: (00:00) Episode trailer (01:19) Lennart’s core thesis (03:26) Why compute matters so much (07:31) The investment split between model R&D and model execution (11:18) How test-time compute impacts costs (16:14) The geopolitics of compute (21:32) Why does the U.S have more compute capacity than China? (25:01) The trade-off between economic needs and national-security needs (31:54) How technology change might shift the battlegrounds (35:33) Dealing with compute and power concentration (48:19) Concluding quick-fire question Lennart's links: Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/ohlennartPersonal blog: https://heim.xyz/Azeem's links:Substack: https://www.exponentialview.co/Website: https://www.azeemazhar.com/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/azharTwitter/X: https://x.com/azeemThis was originally recorded for "Friday with Azeem Azhar", a new show that takes place every Friday at 9am PT and 12pm ET. You can tune in through Exponential View on Substack. Produced by supermix.io and EPIIPLUS1 Ltd Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
More episodes of the podcast Azeem Azhar's Exponential View
The demand for infinite compute
07/11/2025
Why GPT-5 was never going to impress you
24/09/2025
AI is eating into entry-level jobs
05/09/2025
ZARZA We are Zarza, the prestigious firm behind major projects in information technology.