Work & Economy Who’ll win AI race? U.S.? China? Maybe no one. Economist Jason Furman says being first will likely matter only in some areas, but risks of systems going rogue will be shared problem Jacob Sweet Harvard Staff Writer September 24, 2026 7 min read Harvard file photo The U.S. and China are pouring hundreds of billions of dollars into artificial intelligence as political and business leaders frame the technology’s development as a race between world powers. But Jason Furman, Aetna Professor of the Practice of Economic Policy jointly at Harvard Kennedy School and in the Department of Economics, doesn’t think the race has a finish line. In this edited conversation with the Gazette, F...