Quote · The Rest Is Politics
544. How Trump Is Weaponising AI and Martial Arts at the White House
Where this was said
The AI Capability Explosion and America's Lockdown
At 9:30 · chapter starts 4:35
Rory Stewart provides a accessible but sobering account of how dramatically AI has improved in just 2.5 years: from barely managing A-level maths to approaching advanced graduate-level mathematics, and from replicating half an hour of software work per minute to 48 hours per minute [1] — Rory Stewart "AI software productivity gain: AI can now do what a human software programmer does in 48 hours in about one minute, compared to 2.5 years a…" 08:00 . He then confronts the week's central news: the US has done exactly what he predicted and been ridiculed for predicting — restricting its most capable AI to American citizens on national security grounds. Stewart distinguishes sharply between the logic of 'this is dangerous and nobody should have it' (which would mean not releasing it at all) and the actual decision, which is 'this is so powerful that only Americans get it.' That, he argues, is not a security measure but a competitive power play — treating AI like the latest fighter jet, except one that's also steam and electricity combined [2] — Rory Stewart "The logic of only releasing it to American citizens is completely different. That's saying this is such a powerful competitive advantage fo…" 06:24 .
Two and a half years ago AI could barely do A-level maths. Now it approaches advanced graduate-level work. A human software programmer's 48-hour task takes AI about one minute. The speed of this change makes every 15-year procurement plan obsolete before it starts.
AI can now do what a human software programmer does in 48 hours in about one minute, compared to 2.5 years ago when it could only replicate about half an hour of work per minute.
