Jeffrey Ding is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at George Washington University. Previously, he served as a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford’s Center for International Security and Cooperation. His research agenda covers emerging technologies and international security, the political economy of innovation, and China’s scientific and technological capabilities. His book, to be published with Princeton University Press in August 2024, investigates how past technological revolutions influenced the rise and fall of great powers, with implications for U.S.-China competition in emerging technologies like AI. Dr. Ding’s research has been published or is forthcoming in European Journal of International Security, Foreign Affairs, International Studies Quarterly, Review of International Political Economy, and Security Studies, and his work has been cited in The Washington Post, The Financial Times, and other outlets. He has also worked as a researcher at Georgetown’s Center for Security and Emerging Technology and Oxford’s Centre for the Governance of AI. He received his PhD in 2021 from the University of Oxford, where he studied as a Rhodes Scholar, and earned his B.A. in 2016 at the University of Iowa.

AI2050 Project

Many policymakers and researchers have identified that the danger of AI accidents is especially severe in China. Since autocratic regimes tend to suppress information and possess limited public accountability mechanisms, they might court higher risks of technological accidents. To understand how states like China could develop a more effective approach to AI safety, Jeffrey Ding’s AI2050 project studies historical cases of other hazardous technologies (e.g., regulation of civil nuclear facilities) where international cooperation played a key part in enhancing China’s safety regulations.