The AI Arms Race Is Not Inevitable. It's Just Profitable

In an excerpt from Garrison Lovely's book "Obsolete," the author argues the race toward AGI—what he calls the "Obsoleting Machine"—is driven by profit rather than inevitability, and could be halted through "compute governance" since a handful of firms (ASML, TSMC, Nvidia) control essential chip supply-chain layers. He details how Nvidia lobbying, Trump administration officials including AI czar David Sacks, and Gulf investment deals have weakened US export controls, and describes trustless verification methods and China's comparatively greater willingness to restrict AI as paths toward a bilateral ban.