My reaction to the first quoted statement was a big "Huh?". The only reason it would matter where superintelligent AI is first developed is that the researchers in different countries might do friendliness more or less well. A UFAI is equally catastrophic no matter who builds it; an AI that is otherwise friendly but has a preference for one country would . . . what would that even mean?Create eutopia and label it "The United Galaxy of America"? Only take the CEV of Americans instead of everybody? Either way, getting friendliness right means national politics is probably no longer an issue.
Also: I did not vote for this guy in the Transhumanist Party primaries!
From this article by Zoltan Istvan, in regards to the looming Global AI Arms race, he says:
Now, to some extent I expect many Americans, on reflection, would at least partly agree with the above statement - and that should be concerning.
Consider the issue from the perspective of Russian, Chinese (or really any foreign) readers with similar levels of national pride.
One equivalent postionally reflected statement from a foreign perspective might read like this:
On a related note, there was an interesting panel recently with Robin Li (CEO of Baidu), Bill Gates, and Elon Musk. They spent a little time discussing AI superintelligence. Robin Li mentioned that his new head of research - Andrew Ng - doesn't believe superintelligence is an immediate threat. In particular Ng said: "Worrying about AI risk now is like worrying about overpopulation on Mars." Li also mentioned that he has been advocating for a large chinese government investment in AI.