Former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd on Thursday (October 8, 2026) warned that the United States and China could find themselves responding to a major artificial intelligence (AI)-related security crisis before establishing adequate safeguards, calling for urgent cooperation between the two powers to prevent emerging technologies from triggering international conflict.
What are the AI threats flagged by Anthropic? | Explained Speaking at an Asia Society India Centre event in Mumbai, organised in collaboration with the Australian Consulate-General, Mr.
Rudd expressed concern that political divisions and strategic competition could delay agreements on managing the risks posed by increasingly autonomous AI systems.
"My fear... is are we [are] so paralysed in our politics, domestically and bilaterally, that we are sentencing ourselves to a future where we've got to have a Cuban Missile-type crisis in order to galvanise the political centre in both capitals to move to act," he said.
In conversation with foreign policy expert C.
Raja Mohan, Mr.
Rudd said Washington and Beijing needed to establish a common understanding of AI-related threats, protocols for testing advanced models before deployment, mechanisms for reporting cyberattacks and procedures for identifying their origins and verifying compliance with agreed safeguards.
He said the growing ability of autonomous AI systems to infiltrate or attack digital infrastructure presented significant risks to national security, financial systems and essential services.
Mr.
Rudd identified India as a country with considerable opportunities in the emerging AI economy, citing its technically skilled workforce and domestic consumer market of 1.4 billion people as major strategic advantages.
"With AI, he who scales prevails," he said, adding that India's expanding technology ecosystem and consumer base could provide opportunities for American AI companies seeking commercially viable applications for their technologies.
However, he described the global AI race as predominantly a competition between the United States and China, with Washington leading in advanced computing and frontier AI models, while Beijing held advantages in energy capacity and the adoption of AI across its economy.
Turning to broader geopolitical tensions, Mr.
Rudd rejected the argument that military conflict between the United States and China was inevitable.
He said the central challenge was whether the two countries could manage their strategic competition through diplomatic engagement and mutually understood rules.
"The question is, can it be managed strategic competition or unmanaged strategic competition?" he said, stressing the importance of reducing the risk of accidental conflict.
He argued that both countries had reasons to stabilise relations.
China sought to avoid further American tariffs on its exports, while Washington wanted greater access to critical minerals and rare earths, including for partners such as India and Japan.
He identified these supplies and American export controls on advanced technologies as important issues in negotiations between the two powers.
On India-China relations, Mr.
Rudd declined to directly assess whether New Delhi had overreacted by restricting Chinese investments and visas following border tensions.
However, he said Prime Minister Narendra Modi had been compelled to respond to developments along the border, including incidents in Ladakh and Doklam.
"It is inevitable that Prime Minister Modi reacted in the manner in which he did," he said, adding that diplomatic approaches could evolve as circumstances changed without necessarily representing a retreat from earlier positions.
Rudd also maintained that the United States would remain engaged in the Indo-Pacific despite domestic political turbulence, arguing that its national interests required it to retain a significant international role.
He welcomed growing defence cooperation among India, Australia and Japan, the three non-American members of the Quad, saying their military engagement had expanded considerably in recent years.
"The reality is the fabric of the engagement between these militaries is now growing," he said.
Addressing business leaders, Mr.
Rudd identified geopolitics, emerging technologies and climate change as three major risks confronting corporations, warning that mechanisms for governing AI-related risks remained underdeveloped globally.
