In a move that upended the international conversation about AI, earlier this month, a researcher at the AI company Anthropic named Jacob Coxon resigned and took to X to sound the alarm about what he saw as a dangerous trajectory.
asserted
he → upend → trajectory
“The people building AI earnestly believe that it could kill us all by the end of the decade,” he wrote.
uncertain
he → build → decade
A few days later, Dario Amodei, Anthropic’s CEO, published an essay on his personal website about what he sees as the urgent need to slow down the pace of AI development.
asserted
he → publish → development
“I have become convinced that fully addressing the risks requires even more prudence,” he wrote.
asserted
he → become → prudence
“Not just investing in risk prevention but pacing the rate of capabilities advancement so that risk prevention has time to keep up.”
asserted
prevention → invest → time
That same week, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) told ABC’s The View that he had asked Tesla CEO Elon Musk on his podcast, “‘OK, what are the odds that AI destroys humanity?’
asserted
AI → tell → humanity
And he looked at me and said, ‘10-20 percent.’
asserted
he → look → percent
And I’m like, ‘holy crap.’”
asserted
I → ’m → ?
As the chorus of warnings about AI from insiders has grown more urgent, the White House appears to have complete confidence in the technology—and not just with President Donald Trump’s insistence when speaking at the United Nations that there was no reason to rein it in.
asserted
House → grow → it
In fact, over the last few months, the Trump administration has poured resources into several tech ventures as part of an effort to win the AI arms race against China.
asserted
administration → pour → China
The flagship project is an international initiative led by the United States called Pax Silica, whose goal is to control the pipeline for the raw materials, including crucial rare earth minerals required to power the artificial intelligence boom.
asserted
goal → lead → boom
Last December, the United States, Australia, Israel, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, and the United Kingdom signed an initial nonbinding declaration.
asserted
States → sign → declaration
Others, including the European Union, joined in the following months, bringing the current number of signatories to 24.
asserted
Others → include → 24
The declaration affirms the participants’ commitment to “mobilizing the immense creative and financial power of private industry and entrepreneurship to make our citizens more prosperous, our nations stronger, and our supply chains more secure.”
asserted
chains → affirm → industry
What the declaration doesn’t explicitly state is its true goal: To wrest control of the AI infrastructure away from US adversaries—primarily China, which currently operates about 80 percent of rare-earth refining and controls 70 percent of lithium-ion battery production—but also Russia and Iran.
asserted
which → state → production
As Helberg put it in a December media briefing, “Our strategy is to create a competitive edge so steep, so insurmountable that no adversary or competitor can scale it.
asserted
adversary → put → it
That’s why our goal is to make America the arsenal of AI in this century.”
asserted
America → ’ → century
In March, the State Department announced it would create a $250 million fund to support the project.
asserted
it → announce → project
The centerpiece is Pax Silica’s ambitious new project in the Philippines: a planned 4,000-acre economic security zone in New Clark City, about 70 miles north of Manila.
asserted
centerpiece → plan → Manila
The zone is strategically situated within the Luzon Economic Corridor, a development initiative launched in 2024 by the United States, Japan, and the Philippines to transform the island nation into an AI hub.
asserted
zone → situate → hub
The project will incorporate many industries, from semiconductor manufacturing to data-center tech to supply-chain logistics.
asserted
project → incorporate → logistics
In July, US Ambassador to the Philippines Lee Lipton predicted the project would bring “endless jobs” to the country.
asserted
project → predict → country
Crucially, companies that operate there will have massive tax advantages—the Philippines promises up to seven years tax free, followed by up to 20 years of steeply reduced taxes.
asserted
Philippines → operate → taxes
In addition to the tax perks, companies can lock in 99-year land leases and fast-track regulatory approvals.
asserted
companies → lock → approvals
As much as 90 percent of a company’s workforce is allowed to be remote—an attractive proposition for American companies whose employees may not want to relocate to the Philippines.
uncertain
employees → allow → Philippines
On a recent episode of a podcast hosted by venture capitalist Joe Lonsdale, who co-founded the data giant Palantir with Silicon Valley mogul Peter Thiel, Helberg laid out his vision for the State Department to act essentially as a business development agency for American venture capital and defense and AI hardware firms.
asserted
Department → host → firms
“Our job at State is to remove the diplomatic, regulatory, and geopolitical friction so that American VC can flow into these strategic nodes,” he said.
asserted
he → remove → nodes
“Pax Silica is essentially building the global highway for American tech and VC to scale fast.”
asserted
tech → build → highway
The names of the companies that will fill those roles haven’t yet been released, but Helberg has strong connections to a powerful network of firms that could fit the bill.
uncertain
that → fill → bill
According to his federal financial disclosure form, he served as a senior adviser to the data giant Palantir’s CEO Alex Karp from 2023 to 2025, bringing in at least $840,000 in consulting fees over the 16-month window covered by the disclosure.
uncertain
he → accord → disclosure
But he’s also a savvy investor.
asserted
he → ’ → ?
His financial disclosure form also reveals that his estimated net worth is $112 million–$426 million.
asserted
worth → reveal → ?
Clients of his public policy consulting firm include Thiel’s Founders Fund, the defense company Hadrian, and another venture capital enterprise, General Catalyst.
asserted
Clients → include → Fund
In addition to his own relationships with powerful Silicon Valley companies, Helberg’s husband, Keith Rabois, is also well connected.
asserted
husband → connect → companies
The managing director of a $15 billion VC giant, Silicon Valley-based Khosla Ventures, Rabois also has carried-interest stakes in six separate Founders Fund entities.
asserted
director → manage → entities
In November 2020, Helberg and Rabois joined the tech-exec exodus from California to income-tax-free, politically conservative Florida, decamping to a $29 million home in Miami.
asserted
Helberg → join → Miami
Gil Duran, a tech journalist who has written extensively about autonomous zones, sees the Trump administration’s endorsement of Pax Silica as a strong indication of its enthusiastic commitment to AI development—despite increasingly urgent calls from industry insiders who warn of potentially cataclysmic consequences of the breakneck pace at which the technology is moving.
asserted
technology → write → which
Trump’s damn-the-torpedoes approach to AI is particularly troubling considering the Trump family’s own massive stake in the AI industry.
asserted
approach → damn → industry
Few people would be as perfectly positioned to be Pax Silica’s leader as Helberg—not only because of his extensive tech industry experience and his current position in Trump’s State Department, but also because of the political connections he made during his own conversion from staunch Democrat to Trump administration darling.
asserted
he → position → darling
Helberg, who is 36, has worked in the intersection between Silicon Valley and geopolitics for his entire career, founding a geopolitical-risk forecasting startup, leading Google’s internal global product policy team, and serving on the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission under President Biden.
asserted
who → work → Biden
…and 70 more, not listed.
The Aporia
