The writer is a fellow at Stanford University’s Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence and the Cyber Policy Center. She is the author of ‘The Tech Coup’
President Donald Trump’s trade wars are teaching the world a harsh lesson: dependencies get weaponised. In the White House’s view, international trade is zero-sum. With his AI Action Plan promising “unchallenged” technological dominance a further ambition is clear. Will the rest of the world recognise that embracing US artificial intelligence offers Trump an even more potent tool for coercion?
Since his “liberation day” tariffs, the Trump administration has undertaken an aggressive campaign to exact concessions from America’s trading partners. Decades of trade integration mean there is no easy path back to square one. Dependencies run deep and alternative markets, supply chains and flows of goods and services take time to develop.