Who's in Control of the AI Race? with Bill Evanina and Matt Hayden

Can the United States compete with China in AI while managing the risks the technology creates? Host Frank Cilluffo welcomes McCrary Institute senior fellows Bill Evanina and Matt Hayden for a discussion of the difficult choices behind that question. Evanina, who previously led U.S. counterintelligence, and Hayden, a former senior CISA official now at GDIT, assess expectations for the Trump–Xi summit, the limits of cyber cooperation, and the trade-offs behind chip export controls.

The conversation also examines Chinese influence efforts surrounding data centers, the importance of energy to AI competition, the stakes of quantum computing, and whether familiar approaches to accountability can work when an AI agent becomes an insider threat.

Main topics

Trump–Xi summit expectations Volt Typhoon and cyber deterrence Chip exports and technology theft S.–China crisis communications Chinese influence on data center debates AI, energy, and the quantum race AI safeguards and accountability Taiwan and semiconductor dependence Key quotes

"We cannot be AI dominant unless we're energy dominant. We can't be. And when you look at AI, it's not AI in its own, it's that it accelerates everything else." ­­— Frank Cilluffo

"And so when we look at AI, it's not a matter of having the most advanced models. That helps. But it is a matter of getting that implementation into every corner of industry so that those efficiencies are known and used." — Matt Hayden

"The big question is AI— should it be considered an insider threat? And the answer was a resounding yes. But what do we do with insider threats? We try to catch them and prosecute them. Are we going to prosecute an AI agent?" —Bill Evanina

"From a pure liability standpoint of who we can blame, there's no AI agent that operates without compute. And so somebody's got to empower this thing at an original sin level." — Matt Hayden

"As a metaphor, AI is a supermarket gas station on the highway to quantum. ... Whoever wins quantum, they say wins the world. I think you have to win AI before you win quantum." — Bill Evanina

Links and resources

CISA: Volt Typhoon and persistent access to U.S. critical infrastructure

About the guests: