STEVE FORBES: Don’t let Beijing write the world’s artificial intelligence rulebook

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History teaches a simple lesson: the nation that sets the standards sets the future. In the 20th century, America wrote the rulebook for aviation, computing and finance. In the 21st, the decisive battleground is artificial intelligence. And make no mistake — Beijing intends to write the rules.

As everyone is now grasping, artificial intelligence will not be a niche technology. It will fundamentally reshape medicine, manufacturing, logistics, national defense and financial markets. It will create whole new industries. Analysts project trillions of dollars in economic value by decade’s end. For now, the United States remains the innovation leader. But leadership is not guaranteed — especially when the Chinese Communist Party is deploying cheap, coal-fired energy, massive state subsidies and underhanded tactics to close the gap.

Beijing’s strategy centers on so-called “open-weight” AI models—systems whose parameters are downloadable and customizable. These models are exportable by design. They allow foreign governments to run the software on their own infrastructure, keeping servers, chips and data within their borders. In other words, China is offering countries a turnkey path to sovereign AI clouds — powered by Chinese architecture.

By contrast, America’s most advanced labs — companies such as OpenAI and Anthropic—largely operate closed systems. These proprietary models are technological marvels, and U.S. enterprises and federal agencies are adopting them at scale. But they are controlled environments. The rules, safety frameworks and innovation pathways are set inside corporate boardrooms. They are not built to be downloaded, modified and deployed globally as infrastructure.

China has recognized an uncomfortable truth: most nations will not build their own AI from scratch. They will adopt existing systems. For developing or resource-constrained countries, the choice may become stark — expensive,…

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