Geopolitical competition for superiority

Classification

Domain

6. Socioeconomic & Environmental

Subdomain

6.4 Competitive dynamics

Causal entity

Human

Intent

Unintentional

Timing

Other

Subdomain definition: AI developers or state-like actors competing in an AI ‘race’ by rapidly developing, deploying, and applying AI systems to maximize strategic or economic advantage, increasing the risk they release unsafe and error-prone systems.

Real-world incidents in this subdomain

• 6 Oct 2020Korean Internet Portal Giant Naver Manipulated Shopping and Video Search Algorithms to Favor In-House Services
• 18 Apr 2011Apple Tweaked App Store Ranking Algorithms, Allegedly Resulted in Demotion of Local Apps in China
• 3 Apr 1996Inefficiencies in the United States Resident Matching Program

How other frameworks describe this risk

• Increased competition

  A Collaborative, Human-Centred Taxonomy of AI, Algorithmic, and Automation Harms (Abercrombie2024)

• Geopolitical risk

  Dimensional Characterization and Pathway Modeling for Catastrophic AI Risks (Chin2025)

• Resource conflicts driven by AI development

  A Survey of the Potential Long-term Impacts of AI: How AI Could Lead to Long-term Changes in Science, Cooperation, Power, Epistemics and Values (Clarke2023)

• Worsened conflict

  A Survey of the Potential Long-term Impacts of AI: How AI Could Lead to Long-term Changes in Science, Cooperation, Power, Epistemics and Values (Clarke2023)

• Type 4: Willful indifference

  TASRA: a Taxonomy and Analysis of Societal-Scale Risks from AI (Critch2023)

• Competitive pressures in GPAI product release

  Risk Sources and Risk Management Measures in Support of Standards for General-Purpose AI Systems (Gipiškis2024)

• Opacity (industry opacity)

  Regulating under Uncertainty: Governance Options for Generative AI (G'sell2024)

• Corporate AI Race

  An Overview of Catastrophic AI Risks (Hendrycks2023)

Other entries from Uuk2025

• Types of systemic risks from general-purpose AI Risk Category
• Control Risk Sub-Category · 7.1
• Democracy Risk Sub-Category · 6.0
• Discrimination Risk Sub-Category · 1.1
• Economy Risk Sub-Category · 6.2
• Environment Risk Sub-Category · 6.6
• Fundamental Rights Risk Sub-Category
• Governance Risk Sub-Category · 6.5
• Harms to non-humans Risk Sub-Category · 7.5
• Information Risk Sub-Category · 4.1
• Irreversible change Risk Sub-Category · 5.2
• Power Risk Sub-Category · 6.1