The most immediate danger of AI is its potential for governmental abuse. Concerns focus on embedding political ideology into models and porting social media's censorship apparatus to AI, enabling unprecedented surveillance and social control.

The justification for accelerating AI development to beat China is logically flawed. It assumes the victor wields a controllable tool. In reality, both nations are racing to build the same uncontrollable AI, making the race itself, not the competitor, the primary existential threat.

The political anxiety around AI stems from leaders' recent experience with social media, which acted as an "authority destroyer." Social media eroded the credibility of established institutions and public narrative control. Leaders now view AI through this lens, fearing a repeat of this power shift.

AI is experiencing a political backlash from day one, unlike social media's long "honeymoon" period. This is largely self-inflicted, as industry leaders like Sam Altman have used apocalyptic, "it might kill everyone" rhetoric as a marketing tool, creating widespread fear before the benefits are fully realized.

Before generative AI, the simple algorithms optimizing newsfeeds for engagement acted as a powerful, yet misaligned, "baby AI." This narrow system, pointed at the human brain, was potent enough to create widespread anxiety, depression, and polarization by prioritizing attention over well-being.

Social media feeds should be viewed as the first mainstream AI agents. They operate with a degree of autonomy to make decisions on our behalf, shaping our attention and daily lives in ways that often misalign with our own intentions. This serves as a cautionary tale for the future of more powerful AI agents.

The social media newsfeed, a simple AI optimizing for engagement, was a preview of AI's power to create addiction and polarization. This "baby AI" caused massive societal harm by misaligning its goals with human well-being, demonstrating the danger of even narrow AI systems.

Unlike the early internet era led by new faces, the AI revolution is being pushed by the same leaders who oversaw social media's societal failures. This history of broken promises and eroded trust means the public is inherently skeptical of their new, grand claims about AI.

While the US focuses on creating the most advanced AI models, China's real strength may be its proven ability to orchestrate society-wide technology adoption. Deep integration and widespread public enthusiasm for AI could ultimately provide a more durable competitive advantage.