By Deborah Mary Sophia, Juby Babu, and Krystal Hu
Canadian tech startup Cohere’s CEO Aidan Gomez stated on Thursday that the U.S. and Canada are well-positioned to lead in the global AI race, particularly in collaboration with economies worldwide adopting artificial intelligence. Speaking at the Reuters NEXT conference in New York, Gomez emphasized that while China has made significant strides in developing high-performing AI models, the crucial factor is not the speed of technological advancement but rather the ability to commercialize that technology on a large scale.
“The thing that actually matters is who is the primary service provider of this technology — it’s not who gets the technology first, but who commercializes it at scale. The U.S. and Canada sit in an incredible position to be the world’s partner in adopting this technology,” Gomez remarked. He expressed confidence that North America will ultimately prevail against China in the AI sector.
The competitive landscape has intensified this year, particularly following the rise of Chinese AI startup DeepSeek in January. Notable Chinese tech giants such as Alibaba and Baidu are racing to launch new models and enhancements to their AI offerings. In response to these developments, U.S. tech companies and AI firms have invested billions of dollars to enhance their computing capacities and AI infrastructures, signaling their ambitions to be frontrunners in the AI domain.
Gomez’s assertions contrast sharply with recent comments from Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, who conveyed a sense of urgency about China’s AI capabilities, suggesting that the nation is “nanoseconds behind America in AI” and poised to win the AI race. The ongoing tech rivalry between the U.S. and China is further complicated by issues surrounding access to advanced AI chips, particularly those manufactured by Nvidia, which is currently the world’s most valuable company by market capitalization.
Amid these geopolitical complexities, Gomez pointed out that liberal democracies globally tend to be hesitant in relying on Chinese technology as essential infrastructure within their economies. “If you’re going to pick a partner to rely on to transform your entire economy, I think you will pick a liberal democracy,” he said, underscoring the preference for partnerships that align with democratic values.
Based in Toronto, Cohere specializes in building enterprise-specific AI models. Gomez also highlighted a growing concern regarding the return on investment in AI technologies, stating, “Spending an incremental $10 billion a year to improve your model does not deliver the return on investment on the technology itself to justify that… over the past few years, since there’s been all of this scaling, we’re seeing a slowdown in the improvement of the models.” This sentiment reflects the increasing scrutiny from tech investors demanding greater accountability from companies like Microsoft and Alphabet’s Google regarding the substantial sums they have allocated to AI development.
Despite the escalating efforts toward achieving artificial superintelligence, concerns surrounding the risks of advanced AI technologies continue to loom large. Gomez expressed skepticism about dystopian narratives surrounding AI, stating, “I personally don’t believe a lot of these stories of ‘Terminators’ and doomsdays and these sort of sci-fi narratives that emerged. They’ve since become unpopular, because people have been faced with the reality of the AI technology.”
As the global AI landscape evolves, the interplay of competition, investment, and ethical considerations will likely shape the future trajectory of this transformative technology.
See also
Swiss Re Unveils Palantir-Driven AI Strategy to Transform Data into Actionable Insights
$100 in Ozak AI Could Grow to $70,000 by 2028 as AI-Blockchain Revolution Accelerates
AI Safety Index Reveals OpenAI, Anthropic Score C+, Meta and xAI Earn D Grades
Logitech CEO Warns AI Gadget Rush Lacks Purpose, Focuses on Enhancing Traditional Devices
Anthropic’s Dario Amodei Positions Claude as Safer AI Alternative to OpenAI’s ChatGPT
