The Rachman Review13 Nov 2025

The battle for AI supremacy

Gideon Rachman sits down with the FT's innovation editor John Thornhill and Caiwei Chen, China reporter for the MIT Technology Review, to discuss the race between China and the US to become the 21st-century AI superpower. The west is used to hearing about the might of the Silicon Valley giants, US cutting-edge research and chip dominance. But China has a different approach. Will its use of a cheaper and more efficient open AI model allow China to overtake the US with this era-defining technology?

Want more? Join John and the FT’s Chinese technology correspondent Eleanor Olcott in a live Q&A on November 13 at 1pm GMT where they will be answering your questions on the tech battle between Silicon Valley and Beijing.

Submit your question: Will China win the AI race?

And subscribe to a new six part newsletter series - 'The State of AI'. It's a collaboration between the FT and MIT Technology Review where writers from both publications debate the defining questions of the AI era. Sign up here

More on this topic:

The State of AI: is China about to win the race?

China offers tech giants cheap power to boost domestic AI chips

AI pioneers claim human-level general intelligence is already here

The AI race

Who’s right about AI: economists or technologists?

Follow Gideon on Bluesky or X @gideonrachman.bsky.social, @gideonrachman

Subscribe to the Rachman Review wherever you get your podcasts - please listen, rate and subscribe.

The Rachman Review is presented by Gideon Rachman. Produced by Clare Williamson. The executive producer is Flo Phillips and the sound design is by Simon Panayi.

Clip: Axios

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Det här avsnittet är hämtat från ett öppet RSS-flöde och publiceras inte av Podme. Det kan innehålla reklam.

Avsnitt(357)

Britain’s post-Brexit policy options

Where should Britain stand in the great power struggle between the US and China? Does the special relationship with Washington mean anything anymore or do all roads lead back to Europe? Gideon discuss...

11 Juni 33min

Mideast war: The view from Tehran

What is life like in the Iranian capital and is the regime ready to compromise to achieve a lasting peace? Gideon discusses the mood in Tehran and the changing political landscape in the country with ...

4 Juni 25min

The backlash against AI

Gideon talks to Sebastian Mallaby, author of The Infinity Machine, a book about the career of Demis Hassabis and his AI company, Google DeepMind. They discuss the growing backlash against AI, why peop...

28 Maj 31min

Mitsotakis on Hormuz, Iran and how to escape a debt trap

Gideon talks to Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis about the closure of the Strait of Hormuz and its impact on Greece as a leading shipping nation. They discuss Greece’s recovery from the financ...

21 Maj 27min

Trump returns to Beijing: what’s at stake

Gideon Rachman speaks to James Crabtree, former head of the Asia programme at the International Institute for Strategic Studies and author of The Perimeter, about Donald Trump’s visit to Beijing, his ...

14 Maj 31min

Lloyd Austin on Ukraine, Iran and the lessons of war

Gideon talks to Lloyd Austin, who served as US defence secretary under the Biden administration, about the need to adapt to new forms of warfare, accusations that he presided over a ‘woke military’ an...

7 Maj 28min

Ukraine’s ‘existential’ battle with Russia

Gideon talks to Dmytro Kuleba, former Ukrainian foreign minister, about the current state of Russia’s war against Ukraine. What would it take to break the stalemate and how has the conflict been impac...

30 Apr 27min

Introducing: The Story of Money

Those who do not study history may be destined to repeat it . . . and lose money. The Story of Money is a new podcast from The Financial Times exploring the past to see where the next opportunities — ...

29 Apr 1min