Computer algorithms encoded with human values will increasingly determine the jobs we land, the romantic matches we make, the bank loans we receive and the people we kill, intentionally with military drones or accidentally with self-driving cars.

How we embed those human values into code will be one of the most important forces shaping our century. Yet no one has agreed what those values should be. Still more unnerving is that this debate now risks becoming entangled in geo-technological rivalry between the US and China.

During the past two centuries, the west has enjoyed a near-monopoly in the global values-uploading business. It has embedded its norms in international treaties and institutions. But in the digital realm it now faces a formidable rival in China, which is fast emerging as an artificial intelligence superpower determined to set its own rules.