Quote · The Rest Is Politics
544. How Trump Is Weaponising AI and Martial Arts at the White House
Where this was said
Cold Open: Is Britain Already a Vassal State?
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The episode opens with Rory Stewart's urgent framing of a week-old news story that carries enormous strategic implications. The United States has for the first time stopped its most capable AI model at the border, designating it a national security asset available only to Americans. Stewart notes he spent months warning this could happen and was repeatedly dismissed as catastrophising. His central question is sharp and uncomfortable: if the defining technology of the next century is something Europe can only rent, and which America can withdraw at will, are we still powers that govern ourselves — or have we quietly become vassals? He promises a radical answer.
The US has restricted its most capable AI model to American citizens only — not because it's an existential threat, but because it's a competitive weapon. If this is the future, Europe is already in the position of a country that doesn't own its own electricity grid.
