February 13, 2025

Averting AI Armageddon with Colin Kahl and Jacob Stokes

In recent years, the previous bipolar nuclear order led by the United States and Russia has given way to a more volatile, tripolar one, as China has quantitatively and qualitatively built up its nuclear arsenal. At the same time, there have been significant breakthroughs in artificial intelligence, including for military applications. As a result of these two trends, it is now important to understand and think through the challenges at the AI nuclear nexus, including understanding what our adversaries, China and Russia, are doing in this space. To discuss this and more, Jacob Stokes and Colin Kahl join Andrea Kendall-Taylor and Jim Townsend for a special episode of Brussels Sprouts celebrating the launch of a new CNAS report, Averting AI Armageddon: U.S.-China-Russia Rivalry at the Nexus of Nuclear Weapons and Artificial Intelligence.

Colin Kahl is the Stephen C. Házy senior fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford University. During the Biden administration, he served as undersecretary of defense for policy.

Jacob Stokes is a senior fellow and deputy director of the Indo-Pacific Security Program at CNAS.

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