Well, China would rather have AI in China than in the US. I don't think that that part is what's dumb about this.

I think that if I were the current American far-right, I'd stop dragging the pope into this stuff. Like, there is an anti-Catholic strain in the far-right that's been around for a long time, but as I've commented before, if you start getting those anti-Catholic Protestants riled up, you're also probably going to antagonize the Catholics, and a Catholic-Protestant schism in the US would be really bad for the Republican Party, since they're trying to keep social conservatives as a bloc in their coalition.

I guess it's more-understandable with Thiel than when Trump was having a spat with the pope, since Thiel isn't as directly a political operator, but still.

If the pope says something that you don't like, and you're a prominent right-wing figure in the US, even if you really have it in for Catholics, you're probably better-off biting your tongue and just addressing the thing they said, not turning it into a conflict with the person. Like, if I were Thiel, I'd have said "AI is really important to make the US competitive on the international stage" or something. Whatever, but avoid referencing the pope in particular.

unlike the US, chinese citizens arent anti ai either. peter theil is unginged.

It's nationalism, guys like this think AGI is just around the corner and whoever gets it first will become a god, so anyone in the west calling to slow things down on AI is helping the Chinese communists win.

trying to string the boogeyman communist, and racism together in one sentence to get his point across.