The AI industry’s civil war

The logos of Google Gemini, ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, Claude by Anthropic, Perplexity, and Bing apps are displayed on the screen of a smartphone. | Jaque Silva/NurPhoto via Getty Images

America’s AI industry isn’t just divided by competing interests, but also by conflicting worldviews.

In Silicon Valley, opinion about how artificial intelligence should be developed and used — and regulated — runs the gamut between two poles. At one end lie “accelerationists,” who believe that humanity...